The Tainui waka landed in the 1300s at a sheltered lagoon beside Maungauika, the 'mountain of fish'.
The strategic site overlooked the finest fishing areas in the Hauraki Gulf, where tides provided easy access to flounder, shellfish, kōura and kina.
Local Māori cultivated kūmara, taro and yam gardens and dried their catches on large racks for storage in pātaka. Centuries later in the 1880s, the landscape shifted as volunteer forces arrived to construct defensive forts.
Learn how a kitchen was established on the mountain to feed the prisoners who helped ensure the fortifications were completed on time.