Coming Up Close

  Right next to a motorway in the central city is the Tauranga Mission Cemetery aka Otamataha Pa which is known as the Military Cemetery. There are monuments to the Naval Brigade, the 43rd Monmouth Regiment and a mass Maori grave. This particular monument is for a man named Hori Ngatai who was a chief of the Ngaiterangi Tribe and was part of the battles of Gate Pa during the New Zealand wars. Linking up with  Shadow Shot Sunday  and  Mosaic Monday .

After nearly 3 days of rain we decided to venture out into the drizzle, cabin fever was starting to creep in. This morning we had read about a local historical place not far from home, the Tauranga Mission Cemetery . Located in Marsh Street it's apparently the oldest European burial ground in the Bay of Plenty area, and has approximately 100 troops and 14 Maori warriors who perished in while on active duty during the NZ wars. This place has a lovely outlook through the surrounding trees of Tauranga harbour and is near The Strand. The site was once used by the Ngai Te Rangi Pa of Otamataha. In the 1820s the Church Missionary Society missionaries visited from the Bay of Islands searching for supplies but left after most of them were killed in 1828 by Ngati Maru raiders from the nearby Coromandel Thames area.   In 1838/1839 Reverand Afred Brown bought the land and started up the Te Papa Mission Station and the pa site (above) became a cemetery. In 1908 after the...