Te Kooti, the founder of the Ringatū religion, gathered a following of disenfranchised Māori who like himself had been exiled in 1866 to the Chatham Islands by the government.

Over the next several months, Te Kooti and his adherents skirmished with the local militia, the Armed Constabulary and Māori aligned with the government—known as kūpapa.

Te Kooti never again fought from a prepared defensive position and instead reverted to a guerilla campaign until 1872, when he found refuge in the King Country.

[5] Te Kooti was a Māori warrior of the Rongowhakaata iwi (tribe) who in 1865 had fought on the side of the New Zealand colonial government against the Pai Mārire religious movement during the siege of Waerenga-a-Hika in Poverty Bay.

Afterwards, already regarded as a troublemaker by the settlers in the region and some local Māori, he was arrested on the grounds of being a spy after communications between Te Kooti and a Pai Mārire leader was intercepted.

In 1868, he and his followers escaped from captivity and commandeered a vessel to take them to the East Coast region, landing back at Poverty Bay in July.

A series of defeats followed for the militia and Te Kooti was able to establish a base at Puketapu in the mountains bordering Poverty Bay.

[8][10][11] As a result of the massacre at Poverty Bay, the government were now determined to deal with Te Kooti, placing a bounty for his capture and sending a force of Armed Constabulary to the region.

[10] The Armed Constabulary was a paramilitary law enforcement agency commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmore and formed New Zealand's main defence force at the time.

In December Te Kooti withdrew to a pā (hillfort) at Ngatapa, and by the end of the month was surrounded and besieged there by the Armed Constabulary and kūpapa.

Te Kooti and his followers escaped during the night of 4 January 1869 although, once it was realised that he had slipped away, many of his men were captured and executed in the subsequent pursuit through the bush the next morning.

[8] Te Kooti found shelter with the Tūhoe iwi in the Urewera ranges and regathered over the next several weeks, mounting raids on communities to the east in March and April.

In reply, a punitive invasion by 1,300 Armed Constabulary and kūpapa was launched into the Ureweras in May and although this did not result in Te Kooti's capture, he lost the support of the majority of the Tūhoe iwi.

In early June, he and his Ringatū followers, which now included some Tūhoe people, moved westwards towards the Central Plateau region around Lake Taupō.

There was a temporary halt in the pursuit of the Ringatū, due to a change of government; the incoming Minister of Defence, Donald McLean, needed to reassess the strategy for dealing with Te Kooti following his move to the Central Plateau.

[8] In the interim, Te Kooti sought the support of the Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement) for a campaign to take back land confiscated by the government but was rebuffed.

Te Kooti attacked a separate force of Kahungunu on 26 September and again incurred greater losses than the kūpapa; five killed and at least twice this number wounded.

Ormond Wilson, writing in 1961, considers this doubtful, noting the source for the involvement of Tūwharetoa were the unreliable memoirs of Thomas Porter, a former officer in the Armed Constabulary.

A major flaw in the upper redoubt was the construction of the loop holes provided to the walls; these lacked any declination such that the defenders needed to fire their weapons over the top of the parapet when shooting at attackers sheltering in the ditches.

[22][23][24] The second fortification was referred to as the lower redoubt; this was positioned on the west or left bank of the upper reaches of the Whanganui River, which flowed from the western side of Tongariro mountain.

The last fortification was a rifle pit located on the east or right bank of the Whanganui River; some distance to the southeast from the main redoubt, it may have served as an observation post.

This party, tasked with dealing with the skirmishers, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jasper Herrick, of the Armed Constabulary, although Keepa actually led the men in the attack.

However, the northern side was exposed to gunfire from Te Kooti's men disposed in the neighbouring bush which prevented the attackers from gaining a foothold there.

[34] Te Kooti continued elude his kūpapa pursuers by moving westwards and in January 1870 he reached the village of Tapapa, in the south Waikato.

Te Kooti was granted a pardon and allowed to leave the King Country to spread his gospel, although he never returned to Poverty Bay due to opposition from the locals, both settlers and Maori.