The Flagstaff War and Ruapekapeka

The Ngāpuhi chief Hōne Heke cut down the British flagstaff above Kororāreka four times in protest at colonial rule, and in March 1845 the town was sacked. The war that followed ended at Ruapekapeka, a pā (fortified village) with trenches and bunkers that British artillery bombarded in January 1846. It was the first of the New Zealand Wars.