19-578: Te Paepae o Aotea , also known the Volkner Rocks (named after Carl Sylvius Völkner ), are a group of andesitic rock stacks and pinnacles located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) northwest of Whakaari/White Island in New Zealand 's Bay of Plenty . They reach 113 metres above sea level from 400 metres below the sea floor, while the saddle separating them from Whakaari/White Island is over 200 metres deep. Te Paepae o Aotea Marine Reserve
38-538: A CMS missionary on 29 June 1854. For several years he worked as a lay teacher in the lower Waikato and in 1857 became a naturalised citizen. Völkner was ordained a deacon in 1860 and the following year, in August, he became a priest and took charge of the CMS mission station at Ōpōtiki . The local iwi (tribe) was Te Whakatōhea and soon a church and school were built in the area. On 19 May 1864 Völkner recorded that four of
57-403: A chief, and Kereopa Te Rau , a Pai Mārire prophet. Völkner was hanged the following day from a willow tree near the church by his own Whakatōhea congregation. He was taken down and decapitated, and his eyes were gouged out and swallowed by Kereopa Te Rau . Kereopa apparently proclaimed that the left eye represented Parliament, and the right represented British authority as he did so, to ingest
76-482: The Mātaatua waka, as the departure place for the spirits of all their people. Spirits linger here, leaving the physical world and reuniting with the souls of the departed. The marine reserve was established on 9 October 2006. Carl Sylvius V%C3%B6lkner Carl Sylvius Völkner ( German pronunciation: [fœlknɐ] ; c. 1819 – 2 March 1865) was a German-born Protestant missionary active in
95-758: The North Island of New Zealand during the mid-nineteenth century. He is famous for being tried and executed for espionage by members of the Pai Mārire faith at his church in Ōpōtiki , in the Bay of Plenty . This later became known as the Völkner incident , an important event in the New Zealand Wars . Völkner was born in the town of Kassel , in the Electorate of Hesse , Germany, around 1819. He trained at
114-668: The Volkner Incident . Immediately afterwards Kereopa preached a sermon from Volkner's pulpit during which he gouged the missionary's eyes out of his head and ate them. Kereopa and his Pai Mārire followers went on to Gisborne , and then to the Urewera mountains to preach to the Tūhoe people. In 1865 he tried to return to the Waikato but was repulsed by a war party of Ngāti Manawa and Ngāti Rangitihi , kūpapa Maori who supported
133-631: The mana of both. The Revd Thomas Grace , who was also in Ōpōtiki, was also taken by the Pai Mārire, although he was rescued. George Grey was enraged upon hearing of the execution. He proclaimed its perpetrators “fanatics” and in September 1965 declared martial law in the Bay of Plenty, ordering Ōpōtiki locals to assist government forces or face land confiscation. Once Grey's men had made successful landfall at Ōpōtiki, they opened fire indiscriminately at
152-476: The 16 Christian teachers of the Ōpōtiki district had accompanied a Pai Mārire (Hauhau) campaign to Maketu , although not as active participants in the fighting. He went to Auckland during 1864 and again in January 1865. He was then warned by members of Te Whakatōhea not to return to Ōpōtiki. Ignoring the warning, Völkner returned to Ōpōtiki on 1 March 1865 and was apprehended by the Pai Mārire led by Patara,
171-565: The Bay of Plenty. He lived in secret in the hamlet of Ruatahuna for five years. After the fall of the Tūhoe state in 1871, he was captured by kūpapa Ropata Wahawaha while he was searching for Te Koori in the Ureweras . Kereopa was tried for Volkner's murder in Napier on 21 December, and the jury decided his fate the same day. He was executed on 5 January 1872, despite appeals for clemency. Kereopa
190-746: The Māori pronunciation of the Biblical name Cleopas . He may have served as a police officer in Auckland during the 1850s. He is known to have fought for the King Movement during the Invasion of the Waikato in 1863. His wife and two daughters are believed to have been killed in an attack mounted on 21 February 1864 by government forces on the village of Rangiaowhia near Te Awamutu in 1864. His sister
209-507: The government. Following the resulting battle Kereopa is said to have eaten the eyes of three of the slain enemy. For this and the eating of Volkner's eyes, he was nicknamed Kai Whatu (Eye Eater). He then retreated to the Ureweras where he found refuge and remained in hiding for the next five years. In the early 1870s government forces searching for Te Kooti entered the Ureweras. The Tūhoe were conquered and British colonial law and order
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#1732790348706228-549: The local inhabitants, forcing them to retreat into nearby forest. Rather than pursue them, the Crown troops looted the pā, before burning it to the ground. Mokomoko, unaware he was the prime suspect behind the orchestration of Völkner’s death, surrendered in Ōpōtiki on condition that no punishment be inflicted upon Te Whakatōhea. Instead, he and four other men were arrested for murder and tried in Auckland. The rope used to hang Völkner
247-567: The missionary college at Hamburg . He was then sent to New Zealand by the North German Missionary Society , along with several other missionaries. He arrived in the country in August 1849 and was sent to Taranaki, to work alongside another German missionary, Johann Riemenschneider. In 1852 Völkner offered his services to the Church Missionary Society (CMS). He married Emma Lanfear, sister of
266-643: Was a leader of Pai Mārire (Hauhau), a Māori religion. He played a key role in the Volkner Incident and was subsequently hanged for his part in it. Little is known of Kereopa's early life but he was of the Ngāti Rangiwewehi iwi (tribe) of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes. He was baptised by the Catholic missionary Father Euloge Reignier in the 1840s and was given the Christian name of Kereopa,
285-478: Was deemed sufficient evidence for the five men to be sentenced to death. Mokomoko and the other men were executed in Mount Eden Prison on 17 May 1866. His remains were repatriated to Whakatōhea in 1988, after 7 years’ worth of Waitangi Tribunal hearings; he was posthumously given an unconditional pardon in 1992. Kereopa Te Rau , who ate Völkner’s eyes, fled into Tūhoe country after Grey sent troops to
304-551: Was established around them in 2006. The area is popular with divers due to good visibility (35–40 m), spectacular scenery and colourful marine life. The rocks and marine reserve are accessible by boat. There are several boat ramps, boating facilities and charter boat services in Eastern Bay of Plenty. According to oral history, Te Paepae o Aotea was used as a landmark to show land was close. The rocks became culturally significant to Ngāti Awa and other iwi descending from
323-419: Was established. Kereopa, who had a bounty of £1,000 for his capture, was hiding near Ruatahuna. Major Ropata Wahawaha led a Ngāti Porou party there and Tūhoe handed over Kereopa to him on 18 November. Kereopa was tried for Volkner's murder in Napier on 21 December 1871. He was convicted and, despite appeals for clemency from the missionary William Colenso , who noted punishment had already been meted out for
342-575: Was killed in defence of nearby Hairini the next day. Shortly afterwards Kereopa met up with the prophet Te Ua Haumēne and converted to the Pai Mārire faith. In December 1864 he was sent on a mission to the tribes of the East Coast . His instructions were to go in peace and avoid confrontations with the Pākehā . While he was at Ōpōtiki the missionary Carl Volkner was seized, tried, hanged and decapitated by his own congregation in what became known as
361-727: Was pardoned unconditionally in November 2014. The Anglican church in Ōpōtiki was reconsecrated as St Stephen the Martyr in memory of his death on 21 November 1875. His bible, chalice and paten are still held at the church. After pardon was later granted to those involved in Völkner’s death, the church was renamed again as Hiona St Stephen’s on 5 June 1994 Te Paepae o Aotea , also known the Volkner Rocks, are named after him. Kereopa Te Rau Kereopa Te Rau (? – 5 January 1872)
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