[3] Te Wairoa was a Māori and European settlement founded about 1850 by the Reverend Seymour Mills Spencer where visitors would stay on their way to visit the Pink and White Terraces.

[8] A Māori meeting house named Hinemihi (more fully Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito), which provided shelter to the people of Te Wairoa village during the eruption, was relocated in 1892 to Clandon Park as an ornamental garden building and a souvenir of William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow.

[10]: 29  Most Te Wairoa witnesses seem to have been awaken by about 1:45 a.m.[11]: 19–20  At Te Wairoa the first stones fell about 3 am with mud or ashes continuing to fall until 9 a.m.[10]: 30  Roofs had collapsed by 3:40 a.m.[11]: 20  There was no difficulty in walking about on the surface of the ash next morning,[11]: 20  but after had been trampled on for a day or two the surface along the road was converted into mud.

At Te Wairoa after the eruption, the ash depth was 0.8636 m (2 ft 10.00 in), and one of the deeper layers was in a very wet state.

[10]: 64  Over 40% of the ash deposit was described as fine, white and earthy, but not plastic,[10]: 60  with black scoria layers varying from 7 to 22%, by weight.

Rescue parties meet them on the way and some of the able-bodied chose to return to Te Wairoa to aid in digging out the buried.

[12]: 4  This correct molten dyke hypothesis was postulated soon after the eruption, but was not geological mainstream understanding of some volcanic activity at the time.