It all started when one of the local chiefs Tutanakei ( a very large man) made a pass at one of the last of the Maorioi chiefs daughters only to be rebuffed by a curt "No Bro" which further down the pipeline of communication was misconstrued by chief 2Ton of kai to mean "Yo Bro". It was all on!
Soon, old 2Ton was gearing up for the date, only he found out the princess's old man had gotten wind (easily done when your that old) of the ensuing match or mismatch, and had promptly challenged old 2Ton to a match of their own--namely "Ringa Putea's" at 10 paces, a fight to the last man standing!
Now the Ringa Putea was an awesome weapon that took some years of training in its mastery, its very appearance in a warriors hand moved others to tears. Very few warriors actually cut the Mustard so to speak (mainly because at that time Mustard hadn't been introduced) in handling the weapon, although apparently most of the Wahine's knew a thing or two about about the Putea!
The time and the place of the duel was announced and most of the locals turned out to see what the outcome would be between the two chiefs wielding their Ringa Putea's. Even the local press had been wired.
The place was on this very rise of land right next to what was a new Dept. of defence , which had been in the pipeline for some time before, you can even see the original survey mark here.
This was in response to settlers becoming increasingly unsettled--ahem, when from time to time, they viewed savage's carrying loaded Ringa Putea's around the area, in full view of all, very unsettling. Coincidently, on the same day, a large contingent of Pakeha soldiers were running through some exercises on the parade ground as a show of strength to the locals when they spotted the mob of natives surrounding the upcoming duelfest.
Upon viewing the Chiefs and their Ringa Putea's wildly swinging at each other, the soldiers collapsed into such laughter that the Chiefs ran off in embarrassment and in such a state, they forgot their differences and combined their resources against the Pakeha, which lasted for many years here on the North Shore until the intervention of another influential Chief--Patuone, who had a calming effect on the land to such a degree that it is uncommon to see warriors hefting around a Ringa Putea , in public at least!
There is a memorial to Patuone about 200 m away to the NW and there's a cache there as well, surprise, surprise.
Chief Patuone
"Ringa according to--"Maori dictionary" means Hand.
"Putea ----Means Bag
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