HMS Taiaroa was a colonial service Defender-class torpedo boat designed by Thornycroft & Company for the defence of New Zealand.

She was named after Te Matenga Taiaroa, a 19th-century Māori chief of the Ngāi Tahu iwi.

She was built at Chiswick in 1883 and shipped to New Zealand, where she was assigned to the defence of Port Chalmers.

[2] She received a pair of 18-inch Whitehead torpedoes that had been fitted at build to her two sisters, Waitemata and Poneke.

The mole built for the use of Taiaroa is now used as a pull-off carpark on the harbour road.