Te Wairoa was a
Māori and European settlement founded about 1850 by the Reverend
Seymour Mills Spencer where visitors would stay on their way to visit the
Pink and White Terraces. About 1865 the
New Zealand Wars resulted in temporary abandonment of the town until the 1870s. and the Terrace Hotel (Terrace Temperance Hotel, 12 rooms), but these had only 3 guests. The site of one of these villages (Kokotaia) was utilised in the postulated rediscovery of the Pink and White Terrace locations. A Māori meeting house named Hinemihi (more fully ), which provided shelter to the people of Te Wairoa village during the eruption, was relocated in 1892 to
Clandon Park as an ornamental garden building and a souvenir of
William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow.
1886 eruption Being from
Mount Tarawera, those in the village were among the nearest surviving witnesses of its 1886 eruption. During the day of 9 June, there had been a little rain, but the evening was fine and clear. About half-past midnight on 10 June slight earthquakes were noticed by some in Te Wairoa who were not asleep. This correct molten dyke hypothesis was postulated soon after the eruption, but was not geological mainstream understanding of some volcanic activity at the time. The first post-eruption house (Tikitapu Cottage) was built at Te Wairoa in 1904, by Guide Cromwell Shepherd. An accommodation house and tea kiosk were established in 1906. The current 'Buried Village' site encompasses about a third of the old village site. == Wairere Falls ==