fronted, if they wished to continue south, with the task of defeating the men of Waiohua, Ngaririki and Kawerau. As the lakes and hills of their ancestral home had long defied the onslaught of the sand dunes, so the people of these tribes resisted the invasion of the lower Kaipara. It took Ngatiwhatua all the years between 1680–1730 to gain this territory. During this time there were many skirmishes on sand and beach as first one side and then the other won a victory. The great Ngatiwhatua chief Haumoewharangi, who led the earliest war parties, was killed there, and so was the giant warrior Kawharu of Kawhia, whose aid had been sought by Ngatiwhatua. Special machines are used for planting marram grass. Leather jackets and goggles protect the men against the sand. Ngatiwhatua attach most importance to the battle of Otakinini, a pa on the west side of the mouth of the Kaipara river, as marking the final conquest of lower Kaipara; but to the hapu of Te Taou, the important battle is the one fought at Waionui lagoon. Kaipara South Head, within sight of the sandhills that had already cost them dearly. This took place at the end of the sixteenth century. The warriors of Haumoewharangi, the Uri o Hau, in making one of their attacks on the Ngaririki, had killed Nganaia, a man of note among the defending tribe. In return for this, Ngaririki killed the chifetainess Tou Tara of the Uri o Hau. This ancestress of the Reweti people died through a spear (tao) wound in the breast (u) and so the hapi of Ngatiwhatua to which she belonged took the name of Te Taou.

Settlement in New Lands Te Taou trace their origin as a hapu from this battle, and also from another ancestress of that time, Makawe, a daughter of Haumoewharangi. After the invasion of the newly-won lands following the battle of Otakinini, Makawe lived at Te Makiri, a pa on the Kaipara river, just south of Helensville. Here, around this pa, in an area between Kaukapakapa and Taupaki, Te Taou grew up. Many of their pa sites were on the west of the Kaipara river and many had been the homes of the earlier owners of the land. Te Taou territory extended in the west to the coast at a point behind the triple pa sites of Waituoro, Taipu a te Marama and te Heke which stand on the western range near Helensville. To the north along the sandy peninsula, Ngatiwhatua proper and Uri o Hau held sway. As the name Taipu a te Marama indicates, this pa stood on sandy country. The famous Oneonenui pa near Muriwai is another pa with a self-