In 1836, Te Puoho led a 100-person war party, armed with muskets, down the West Coast and over the Haast Pass: they fell on the Ngāi Tahu encampment between Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, capturing 10 people and killing and eating two children. Some of the Ngāi Tahu fled down the Waitaki river to the coast; Te Puoho took his captives over the Crown Range to Lake Wakatipu and thence to Southland where he was killed and his war party destroyed by the southern Ngāi Tahu leader Tuhawaiki.