Oct 25, 2025 Papamoa Hills
We visited the Pāpāmoa Hills Regional Park today, via a walk along a mountain bike trail, entering the ‘back way’ to avoid the long uphill hike from the official entrance!
The view from the top of the Hills!
The Pāpāmoa Hills were a strategic site for the Māori to control the fertile coastal plain and the rich fisheries of the Bay of Plenty. Thought by archaeologists to have been first occupied by the Māori around 1400 AD, at least 17 Pā (fortified villages) sites have been found, with 8 prominent on these hills.
Robert is standing on the site of the most fortified of the Pa sites, the farthest to the left, Karangaumu.
According to a ranger; “Karangaumu Pa, at the summit of the hills, was a defensive pa. It was in times of attack and battles when it used to be heavily occupied and there’d be over 2000 warriors here. One of the other pas, Patangata (towards the ocean from the summit), was where the women and children would head in times of battle. So if it’s all going completely wrong, they’ve got some really good escape routes to get them off the hills and away to safety. Not all the pa sites were occupied at one time. Apart from the ones where their nine-to-five job was to grow kumara (a type of sweet potato the Māori brought with them when colonizing New Zealand). They’re the ones who would be on-site and in one particular spot the whole time.”
There was extensive competition for resources which led to inter-tribal warfare creating the need to fortify villages! When Europeans arrived in the mid 1800’s a whole new wave of competition was created resulting in the “New Zealand Wars” between 1845 and 1872. Ultimately the Māori land in the Bay of Plenty was confiscated by the British Crown and redistributed to Pākehā (‘white’ settlers, pronounced Paa-key-haa).
Pine trees were planted on the hills by the white settlers over 150 years ago. Most have been toppled by age and winds. We can see these trees, at a different angle, from the top of the hill at our B&B!