Kawhia Harbour

Some 100km southwest of Hamilton, on the west coast, is the natural harbor of Kawhia. The area was formerly of great importance to the Maoris as the resting place of the Tainui ancestral canoe.

The Maori tribes that lived here, under their chief Te Rauparaha, were driven out of Kawhia in 1821 by other Waikato tribes and moved south to Kapiti Island, where they in turn killed or drove out the local tribes.