Ngāi Tahu's northern kinsmen in the Kaikoura district. Attacks from the north By 1827 Te Rauparaha, who in 1822 had led his Ngāti Toa in their remarkable emigration from Kawhia to Waikanae and Kapiti, was beginning to attack the tribes of the northern part of the South Island, his warriors being armed with muskets as well as with Māori weapons. It was late in this year, or in 1828, that he took a strong war party by sea to Kaikoura, seeking to avenge himself for the insult put upon him by the Ngāi Tahu chief, Rerewhaka, who had boasted that if Te Rauparaha came to Kaikoura he would rip up his belly with a barracouta tooth. Fortune favoured the Ngāti Toa, for the people of Kaikoura were expecting the arrival of a party of Ngāi Tahu from the south, and mistaking the invaders canoes for those of their friends, went out unarmed to welcome them. The confusion that followed gave the Ngāti Toa an easy victory. The three pā of Kaikoura Peninsula were destroyed, and it is estimated that of a total population of nearly 2000, more than half were killed and many others taken as prisoners to Kapiti. The remnants of the Kaikoura Ngāi Tahu retreated to the back country, or to the pā along the coast further south. The most important of these places of refuge was the Omihi Pa, north of the Oaro River. In 1829, however, Te Rauparaha returned to the attack. He landed at Kaikoura, but the inhabitants had fled at his approach. He then went further down the coast and attacked and destroyed the pā at Omihi, the reason given for this attack being that the people of Omihi were sheltering the chief Kekerengu, who had taken refuge in the Kaikoura district after being discovered in an affair with one of the wives of Te Rangihaeata, Te Rauparaha's nephew and chief lieutenant. The pā was destroyed and most of its people were killed. Kekerengu escaped. Sending back most of his force with prisoners to Kapiti, Te Rauparaha continued by sea with about 100 men to the Waipara River. He marched along the beaches to Kaiapoi and camped near the pā. The ostensible purpose of his visit was to trade for greenstone, but Tama-i-hara-nui, after a ceremonial visit to Te Rauparaha's camp, became suspicious and retired to his pā. A Nga Puhi visitor to Kaiapoi,