The ambush at Ōpepe
- When
- 7 June 1869
- Where
- Ōpepe
- Reach
- Local
A detachment of Bay of Plenty Cavalry was surprised while resting at Ōpepe. Nine troopers were killed and their arms and horses taken.
Colonel St John had ridden east from Taupō with a small escort to choose sites for redoubts, and left fourteen men of the Bay of Plenty Cavalry at Ōpepe. They had unsaddled and were drying their clothes when Te Kooti’s advance guard reached them. Nine were killed; the survivors got away into the bush, one of them with no clothes at all. The guns, ammunition and horses taken there armed Te Kooti for the months that followed, and the carelessness that allowed it did his standing no harm.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
The battle of Te Pōrere
The last major battle of the New Zealand Wars was fought at a hastily built redoubt below Tongariro. Te Kooti lost thirty-seven men and escaped wounded.
Te PōrereBattle of Ōrākau
About 300 defenders held an unfinished pā against 1,400 troops for three days, then broke out through the British lines in daylight.
ŌrākauInvasion of the Waikato
Te riri ki Waikato
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MangatāwhiriBattle of Rangiriri
The bloodiest single engagement of the Waikato campaign, ending when a white flag raised to parley was treated as surrender.
Rangiriri