Tūhoe–Ngāti Tūwharetoa War

The Tūhoe–Ngāti Tūwharetoa War was a conflict that took place on the eastern shore of Lake Taupō in the central North Island of New Zealand in the mid- to late eighteenth century, between the Tūhoe iwi of Te Urewera and the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi of Lake Taupō.

The war was sparked by "the seen face of Taihakoa in Ruatahuna", an incident in which a Tūwharetoa rangatira intervened in a conflict between Tūhoe and Ngāti Whare. Tūhoe responded with a large-scale invasion of the eastern shore of Lake Taupō, in which they captured a number of Tūwharetoa settlements at Pākā Bay. A Ngāti Tūwharetoa counter-attack was defeated at the Battle of Orona with large casualties. After this, the elderly paramount chief of Tūwharetoa, Te Rangi-tua-mātotoru, who had remained aloof from the conflict, negotiated a peace which was confirmed at Ōpepe shortly thereafter.

In the aftermath of the war, Ngāti Tūwharetoa joined up with Ngāti Maniapoto and wiped out a group of Ngāti Warahoe, who had been allowed to settle on Tūwharetoa land at the south end of Taupō, in the Battle of Kohikete, after it was discovered that the Warahoe had joined Tūhoe in eating the Tūwharetoa casualties from Orona. The war played an important role in the rise of Herea Te Heuheu Tukino I to the paramount chieftainship of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, a position still held by his descendants today.