At the end of Plummers Point Road you will find the recently established Huharua Reserve. The reserve is the site of the Ongarahu Pa, one of the most well preserved defensive fortifications known in New Zealand.
Huharua translated means a gully or swale. The meaning of the name relates to an oral tradition of a tunnel or covered ditch that linked the two pa of Huharua and Ongarahu. It is said that warriors used the tunnel to escape when the pa was under siege.
In the early 1960s Ken and Elizabeth Thorne (nee Plummer) built a brick home over the Ongarahu Pa site. The house was removed after the land was purchased in 2003 by Western Bay of Plenty District and Tauranga City councils in partnership with Pirirakau.
Restoration of the site involved the ancient trench which was protected with a palisade fence. Shelter and seating were built at the entrance to allow for powhiri to be conducted, and an urupa was also fenced off. Interestingly, the project was filmed for Maori Television's Marae DIY. The pa restoration project went on to win the supreme award at the Trustpower Western Bay of Plenty Community Awards in 2012.
The cache is a 450ml sistema. First to find honours went to... EARTHIE