The Opepe Maori settlement was at the intersection of two major pre-European walking tracks (Taupo-Napier and Urewera-Tokaanu).

At Opepe, just short of Taupō, they ran into party of fourteen Militia, who were camped in the abandoned village.

One of the men, who was drying his uniform, escaped completely naked across rough country in mid-winter, and was awarded the New Zealand Medal.

Today there is a very small cemetery on the Napier-Taupo road with five graves maintained by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Two of the graves hold the bodies of the nine members of the Bay of Plenty Cavalry who were killed on 7 June 1869 by Te Kooti's advance guard.