Bringing Christ to Whaingaroa: Te Nihinihi Wesleyan Mission Station at Raglan, New Zealand

Te Nihinihi Mission Station was the second Wesleyan mission station at Whaingaroa (Raglan) replacing an earlier station at Te Horea with a dedicated and distinct mission station in 1839, which operated until 1881. Whaingaroa was third in a chain of missions established by the Wesleyan Mission Society along the west coast of New Zealand's North Island and the interior of the Waikato. Reverend Wallis and his wife Mary, who established the Whaingaroa Mission, first at Te Horea and later at Te Nihinihi, were active and popular with Maori, but during their time the environment changed from one dominated by Maori to one colonised with land purchases by Europeans. Shortly after the Wallises left in 1863, land confiscation followed militarisation of the area during the British invasion of the Waikato. Whaingaroa Mission's history is, like most other west coast Wesleyan missions, only sketchily understood with no archaeological investigations undertaken prior to the work described here. Layout of the mission describes the integrated yet separated nature of Whaingaroa mission and hints at its changing status and relationship within the colonising process of Whaingaroa/Raglan Harbour.