Waitaha Pa - Wanganui, New Zealand - Maori Historic Sites on Waymarking.com

Waitaha Pa was a heavily defended ridge-top pa occupied by Maori people possibly around 200 or more years ago. The iwi (tribe) that lived here is not known.

Advantages of this location for a pa included steep-sided nature of the ridge for defence, its proximity to the Wanganui River for food resources and as a transportation route, and the adjacent river flats which were ideal for growing kumara.

To supplement the natural defences of the ridge, artificial defences (double ditch-and-bank) were constructed at both ends of the pa. These defences would have been topped with wooden palisades, confined entry-ways and high fighting platforms from which defenders commanded the approaches to the pa. A third double ditch-and-bank was positioned near the centre of the pa for additional defence.

Within the defences were houses, food stores and cooking shelters. Fences within the pa gave each whanau (family group) its own space. In places flat areas for these structures and living spaces had to be created by leaving areas to form terraces. Several kumara storage pits are evident. These would originally have been rectangular in plan with a low gabled root and a door at one end.

It must be remembered that erosion and stock damage have contributed to the slumping of the artificial defences of this pa. Ditches may once have been deeped by a metre or more and scarps (artificially steepened slopes) would have been much steeper when this site was originally occupied.