Mapoutahi

Known also, confusingly, as "Goat Island", the peninsula's narrow isthmus and rugged coastline made it the perfect defensive location for a pā, a fortified settlement.

The headland was, indeed, occupied by a Kāti Māmoe pā during the century before the arrival of Europeans in the early 1800s, and was the site of a major massacre in around 1750 when the warrior Taoka attacked the fortifications and killed those within.

He had visited his nephew (some sources say cousin), Kāti Māmoe chief Te Wera, at the latter's pā, Huriawa, near the mouth of the Waikouaiti River.

Taoka returned to his kaika and summoned a war party which laid siege to Huriawa for a year without success.

Pakihaukea's guard was relaxed and Taoka struck, climbing the palisades in the dead of night and massacring the 250 people found within.