The defences were designed by Pene Taka Tuaia, who is said to have learnt his military engineering during the Northern War of 1845–46. As well as constructing a palisade fence or pā for stopping enemy with hand weapons, and a wattle fence or pekerangi to conceal further defences, he made extensive use of anti-artillery bunkers (rua) and of concealed trenches to lull the British into a false sense of security when they stormed it. Numerous bunkers were prepared instead of several large ones, so that casualties would be minimal should artillery fire breach one of them.

The garrison of around 230 was split between two redoubts, with about 200 holding the main one, which was approximately 80m long and 18m wide. Its triple line of trenches had been timbered over and piled with earth for protection. A ditch and bank led to a smaller redoubt consisting of a double line of covered trenches surrounded by a pekerangi.

Here is a photo of the artillerymen taken at dawn on the day of the attack. Their shells were hollow cannon balls filled with gunpowder and fitted with a fuse. A 24-pounder wheeled howitzer and a close-range mortar can be seen in the photo. Armstrong guns were also used. In all, nine artillery pieces were used in the attack. (details)

After eight hours of British artillery fire, no more than 15 defenders had been killed. The British were so impressed by the genius of this design, they made careful copies of its features, and built the same structures in the 1914-1918 World War.

A three-piece thrash metal band from Waipu, New Zealand, formed in 2010 by brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong. The band consists of Lewis de Jong (b. 2002, guitar and vocals), Henry de Jong (b. 2000, drums), and Ethan Trembath (b. 2003, bass guitar). The great great great grandfather of Henry and Lewis, Te Ahoaho, lost his life in the battle of Pukehinahina. Maori is songwriter Lewis's first language and both he and Henry attended Kura Kaupapa Maori. The band has been performing in Te Reo since 2015.

Lewis "I'll come up with a riff and Henry'll start playing the drums and Ethan will follow along with bass. If we hear something that clicks, we'll usually press 'record' on a little recorder we have. We have a massive list of stuff we've come up with jamming. Organising the structure's one of the hardest parts; it can be quite tedious working out four bars of this, eight bars of that. After we work out the structure, I usually dig through some lyrics I already have, or I write them. We listened to all sorts of music when we were younger, but we were drawn to thrash metal because it’s quite complex music, and it is a great vehicle for expressing real stories and emotions.”

Henry “Thrash metal also works with Te Reo Māori. Both the musical style and the messages have a lot of similarities with haka, which is often brutal, angry and about stories of great courage or loss. Our song Rautapu is about how the colonial government stole millions of acres of land by inventing a law in 1963 that allowed them to do so. Whoever they deemed to be 'rebels,' they could take land from. It's quite an angry, outspoken song."