The Military Cemetery

The headstones in the Village churchyard were moved from the Mission cemetery for safe keeping because of vandalism. They commemorate soldiers who lost their lives during the Maori Wars or by drowning, a common death for the early settler.   

The two major conflicts in the Tauranga region were at  Gate Pa (Pukehinahina) on 29 April 1864 and at Te Ranga on 21 June 1864.

The fences surrounding the graves were donated by the Auckland City Council and previously surrounded the Grafton cemetery. Two large headstones hidden beneath the trees mark the death of Captain Robert Collins and Captain Hannibal Marks. Hannibal Marks was the second Harbour Master in Tauranga, a controversial character who, along with his son, was tragically drowned in Tauranga Harbour in 1879. 

The Norfolk Pine growing close by was planted as a seed from the first Norfolk Pine grown in New Zealand.