The attacking army, numbered over a thousand men, possibly the largest single force assembled by the Māori up to that time.

[2] In the early 19th century, northern Māori began to acquire European muskets from traders, leading to more intense and wide-ranging warfare than previously.

[9] At the Wairoa river, Te Heuheu wanted to fire off all the muskets in order to announce their presence to the other attacking contingents, but his brother Iwikau refused to allow him to do this as it would have cost them the element of surprise.

[11][7] When the defenders would not come down to fight, Te Heuheu accused them of behaving like a ruru owl perched in the tawhiwhi, but they shouted back that he was a “grey-headed old man” and ought to go home.

[11][7] The siege dragged on for two months[12] and the defenders inside Ōkūrārenga became so short on food that they ate all of their slaves and then they were reduced to eating the leftover foodwaste, mixed with clay to conceal the taste.

[13] Waikato proposed to Te Heuheu that the besiegers should pretend to make peace and then massacre the defenders as they came out of the fortress.

[16] The remaining Waikato and Ngāti Maru attackers eventually determined that the defenders' suffering had been sufficient and departed as well, ending the siege.

He places it at Pukekaroro (also on the Māhia peninsula) in August 1824, as part of Te Mautaranui's war against Ranga-ika of Ngāti Kahungunu.