[8] On 21 May 1840 Governor Hobson formally annexed New Zealand to the British Crown, and the following year he moved the capital from Russell to Auckland, some 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Waitangi.

[6] Heke also lost income due to their less-frequent collection of the £5 fee they levied on each ship that entered the Bay, a payment which the cousins divided between themselves.

[9]: 38–43 Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti worked out the plan to draw the colonial forces into battle, with the opening provocations focusing on the flagstaff on Maiki Hill at the north end of Kororāreka (Russell).

A karere [messenger] was sent ahead, to announce the intention; the message was delivered to the woman in the butcher's shop, where several fat hogs were hanging up.

Satisfaction was refused: for several days Heke and his warriors remained in the town persisting in the demand, but, in reality, feeling their way, trying the temper of the Pākehā.

[11]: 81–82  The Auckland Chronicle reported this event, saying: [They] then proceeded to the flagstaff, which they deliberately cut down, purposely with the intention of insulting the government, and of expressing their contempt of British authority.

Tāmati Wāka Nene requested the Governor to remove the troops and redress the native grievances in respect of the customs duties that were put in place in 1841, that Heke and Pōmare II viewed as damaging the maritime trade from which they benefited.

A truce was declared for the next day, a Sunday, during which the Reverend Brown entered the camp of Heke and performed a service for him and his people who had been baptised by the Church Missionary Society.

[11]: Appx viii At dawn on Tuesday 11 March, a force of about 600 Māori armed with muskets, double-barrelled guns and tomahawks attacked Kororāreka.

[11]: Appx viii  Hōne Heke's men attacked the guard post, killing all the defenders and cutting down the flagstaff for the fourth time.

Conveying the despatches and her share of the women and children, she departed at about 7.00 p.m.[19] In the early hours of Thursday, 13 March, the third day, HMS Hazard prepared for sea.

Lieutenant Phillpotts, RN, had deemed it advisable to sail with all despatch, considering that the flagstaff was down, the town sacked and burnt, and there was no further reason to remain.

The refugees of Kororāreka sailed for Auckland, with HMS Hazard (whose sailors had taken part in the fighting ashore), the British whaler Matilda, schooner Dolphin and 21-gun United States corvette USS St. Louis departing the Bay of Islands throughout the day.

Along with the pā, the British also burnt two pubs, or grog shops, which Pōmare had established there to encourage Pākehā settlers, sailors, whalers and others, to visit and trade with him.

[23]: 21 [24]: 42  In April 1845, as the colonial forces gathered in the Bay of Islands, the warriors of Heke and Nene fought many skirmishes, on the small hill named Taumata-Karamu between the two pā, and on open country between Okaihau and Te Ahuahu.

[27] This decision may have been influenced by the wish of the missionaries to keep Te Waimate mission tapu by excluding armed men so as to preserve an attitude of strict neutrality.

A week later, on 15 May, Major Cyprian Bridge and three companies of troops and the warriors of Tāmati Wāka Nene attempted a surprise attack on Kapotai's pā at Waikare Inlet, which they could reach easily by sea.

[30] Hugh Carleton (1874) provides a brief description of the battle: "Heke committed the error (against the advice of Pene Taui) of attacking Walker, who had advanced to Pukenui.

When the bodies were brought home, as one of them was a principal chief of great note and bravery, he was laid in state, about a hundred yards from our fence, before he was buried.

The troops were in the Bay at the time, and were sent for by Walker, the conquering chief; but they were so tardy in their movements that they did not arrive at the seat of war to commence operations until the 24th inst.!

[9]: 38–43 Although it was now the middle of the southern winter, Lieutenant Colonel Despard insisted on resuming the campaign immediately with troops from the 58th and 99th Regiments, Royal Marines and a detachment of artillery they sailed across the bay to the mouth of the Kerikeri River and began to march inland to Ōhaeawai, where Kawiti had built formidable defences around Pene Taui's pā;[11]: 115  the inner palisade, 3 metres (9.8 ft) high, was built using pūriri logs.

Partly this was due to the elasticity of the flax covering the palisade, but the main fault was a failure to concentrate the cannon fire on one area of the defences.

Te Ruki Kawiti and his warriors escaped, Hōne Heke recovered from his wounds, and a new and even stronger pā was built at Ruapekapeka.

[6][31] Te Ruki Kawiti and his allies, including Mataroria and Motiti,[9]: 38–43  constructed a pā at the place now known as Ruapekapeka, which was in a good defensive position, in an area of no strategic value, well away from non-combatants.

Tāmati Wāka Nene Patuone, Tawhai, Repa, and Nōpera Pana-kareao led 450 warriors in support of the colonial forces.

Richard Davis noted in his diary of 14 January 1846, "Yesterday the news came that the Pa was taken on Sunday by the sailors, and that twelve Europeans were killed and thirty wounded.

This did not necessarily suggest they wished to acquiesce to British demands, but it did reflect the economic strain imposed on the Ngāpuhi and the disruption of food supplies and epidemics that resulted in significant numbers of deaths.

The missionary Richard Davis, writing in August 1848, stated that Heke had "raised himself to the very pinnacle of honour," and that "the whole of the tribes around pay him profound homage.

[54]: 70 It is clear that both the British and their allies, as well as Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti, found the prospect of peace attractive, as the war took a considerable toll on both sides.

The Waitangi Tribunal in The Te Roroa Report 1992 (Wai 38) state that "[a]fter the war in the north, government policy was to place a buffer zone of European settlement between Ngapuhi and Auckland.