Musket Wars in the context of "Rotorua"

The South Island (Māori: Te Waipounamu [tɛ wɐ.i.pɔ.ʉ.nɐ.mʉ], lit. 'the waters of Greenstone') is the larger of the two main islands of New Zealand by surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south by the Foveaux Strait and Southern Ocean, and to the east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres (58,084 sq mi), making it the world's 12th-largest island, constituting 56% of New Zealand's land area. At low altitudes, it has an oceanic climate. The most populous cities are Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson and Invercargill.

Prior to European settlement, Te Waipounamu was sparsely populated by three major iwi – Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and the historical Waitaha – with major settlements including in Kaiapoi Pā near modern-day Christchurch. During the Musket Wars expanding iwi colonised Te Tau Ihu, a region comprising parts of modern-day Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough, including Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Ngāti Tama, and later Ngāti Toarangatira after Te Rauparaha's wars of conquest. British settlement began with expansive and cheap land purchases early on, and settlers quickly outnumbered Māori. As a result the Wairau Affray was the only conflict of the New Zealand Wars to occur in the South Island. The island became rich and prosperous and Dunedin boomed during the 1860s Otago gold rush, which was shaped by extensive Chinese immigration. After the gold rush the "drift to the north" meant the North Island displaced the South as the most populous.

Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island), and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.

Māori oral tradition tells that Kupe discovered and explored the region in about the 10th century. The area was initially settled by Māori iwi such as Rangitāne and Muaūpoko. The disruptions of the Musket Wars led to them being overwhelmed by northern iwi such as Te Āti Awa in the early 19th century.

Te Rauparaha (c. 1760s – 27 November 1849) was a Māori rangatira, warlord, and chief of the Ngāti Toa iwi. One of the most powerful military leaders of the Musket Wars, Te Rauparaha fought a war of conquest that greatly expanded Ngāti Toa southwards, receiving the epithet "the Napoleon of the South". He remains one of the most prominent and celebrated New Zealand historical figures.

Born probably in the 1760s, Te Rauparaha's conquests eventually extended Ngāti Toa authority from Miria-te-kakara at Rangitikei to Wellington, and across Cook Strait to Wairau and Nelson. He participated in land sale and negotiations with the New Zealand Company at the beginning of the colonisation of New Zealand. An early signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi, Te Rauparaha was later central to the Wairau Affray in the Marlborough district, considered by many to be the first of the conflicts in the New Zealand Wars. Shortly before he died he led the building of Rangiātea Church in Ōtaki.

The Moriori are the first settlers of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in Moriori; Wharekauri in Māori). Moriori are Polynesians who came from the New Zealand mainland around 1500 AD, which was close to the time of the shift from the archaic to the classic period of Polynesian Māori culture on the mainland. Oral tradition records migration to the Chathams in the 16th century. The settlers' culture diverged from mainland Māori, and they developed a distinct Moriori language, mythology, artistic expression and way of life. Currently there are around 700 people who identify as Moriori, most of whom no longer live on the Chatham Islands. During the late 19th century some prominent anthropologists proposed that Moriori were pre-Māori settlers of mainland New Zealand, and possibly Melanesian in origin; this hypothesis has been discredited by archaeologists since the early 20th century, but continued to be referred to by critics of the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process into the 21st century.

Early Moriori formed tribal groups based on eastern Polynesian social customs and organisation. Later, a prominent pacifist culture emerged; this was known as the law of nunuku, based on the teachings of the 16th century Moriori leader Nunuku-whenua. This culture made it easier for Taranaki Māori invaders to massacre them in the 1830s during the Musket Wars. This was the Moriori genocide, in which the Moriori were either murdered or enslaved by members of the Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama iwi, killing or displacing nearly 95% of the Moriori population.

The South Island (official alternative name Te Waipounamu, from Māori) is the larger of the two main islands of New Zealand by surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south by the Foveaux Strait and Southern Ocean, and to the east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometres (58,084 sq mi), making it the world's 12th-largest island, constituting 56% of New Zealand's land area. At low altitudes, it has an oceanic climate. The most populous cities are Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson and Invercargill.

Prior to European settlement, Te Waipounamu was sparsely populated by three major iwi – Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and the historical Waitaha – with major settlements including in Kaiapoi Pā near modern-day Christchurch. During the Musket Wars expanding iwi colonised Te Tau Ihu, a region comprising parts of modern-day Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough, including Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne, Ngāti Tama, and later Ngāti Toarangatira after Te Rauparaha's wars of conquest. British settlement began with expansive and cheap land purchases early on, and settlers quickly outnumbered Māori. As a result the Wairau Affray was the only conflict of the New Zealand Wars to occur in the South Island. The island became rich and prosperous and Dunedin boomed during the 1860s Otago gold rush, which was shaped by extensive Chinese immigration. After the gold rush the "drift to the north" meant the North Island displaced the South as the most populous.

Hongi Hika (c. 1772 – 6 March 1828) was a New Zealand Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the iwi of Ngāpuhi. He was a pivotal figure in the early years of regular European contact and settlement in New Zealand. As one of the first Māori leaders to understand the advantages of European muskets in warfare, he used them to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the early nineteenth century Musket Wars.

In order to obtain the muskets Hongi Hika encouraged Pākehā (European) settlement, built mutually beneficial relationships with New Zealand's first missionaries, introduced Māori to Western agriculture and helped put the Māori language into writing. He traveled to England and met King George IV. His military campaigns resulted in the Musket Wars, and preventing them was an important motivators for the British annexation of New Zealand and subsequent Treaty of Waitangi with Ngāpuhi and many other iwi.

Ngāti Koata or Ngāti Kōata is a Māori iwi of New Zealand, originating on the west coast of Waikato, but now mainly at the northern tip of South Island.

Ngāti Koata whakapapa back to Koata who lived near Kāwhia in the 17th century. She had two sons, Kāwharu and Te Wehi (founder of Ngāti Te Wehi). Te Totara pa on the south shore of Kāwhia was shared with Ngāti Toa in the early 19th century. Following the musket wars, many of the iwi moved south to Kapiti Island and then Te Tau Ihu in the mid 1820s.