That is until Waenganui, the wife of Tauru-Kapakapa, was treacherously murdered by a section of Ngati Hako who lived at their Oruarangi pa near Kopu. As an act of mockery against the Marutuahu, her body was dismembered and distributed among other tribal sections of Hauraki. The unfortunate woman belonged to both Huarere and Hako and the blame was ascribed to both. The Marutuahu retaliated with great wrath and swiftness by attacking and destroying the pa as well as several others in the district. The hapless husband, Tauru, was also murdered by Ngati Hako. It was this particular killing which invited the rage of his brothers and their descendants. It embroiled them in a bitter struggle of attrition which was to carry on for four further generations.
There was total warfare in the whole of Hauraki. A systematic campaign saw these cohorts of Tainui radiating out to all points of the peninsula. Both the enemy tribes and their related hapu were very numerous and, allied with the eastern tribes of Ngati Hei, the odds seemed balanced in their favour. This, however, did not contain the ferocity of their adversaries. It was fortunate that the Ngati Hei (who later withdrew as active combatants) tended to adopt a neutral stance which generally leaned towards the invaders.
Ngati Hako called on the support of related Toi tribes from the Bay of Plenty in an attempt to halt the unleashed fury visited upon them. There was, however, no stemming the tide of impending destruction which engulfed them. The remaining sons of Maru were merciless.
There were brief periods of cessation of hostilities which could have led to a settling of peace but the smouldering ashes of discontent invited the commission of further atrocities, for example, the murder by Ngati Huarere of the Marutuahu chiefs, Kairangatira and Tipa, and the senseless slaying of Manaia. This fuelled anew the fires in which Ngati Huarere were to be exterminated. Some managed to flee to related tribes in the Bay of Plenty while active groups resisted and retreated into the fastness of the mountain ranges where the sweeping drives of Marutuahu mopped them up as they moved in to occupy the vacant land.
By this time the grandsons of Maru had entered the third generation phase of the campaign and they proved to be just as ruthless as their fathers. By now the protagonists shared common ancestral bloodlines due to earlier protracted marriage alliances, but this failed to stay the impending fate of Ngati Hako and Ngati Huarere.
The battles swung to and fro in defeats and victories until the beleaguered Ngati Hako were gradually flushed out of stronghold after stronghold. Every line of defence in their vast domain crumbled under the directed onslaughts with great loss of life. By the end of the 17th century the remnants of the tribe and their allies fell back to the last bastion of defence, their pa Matai at the junction of the Hikutaia and Waihou Rivers.
The great-grandsons had now also entered the fray beside their elders and their pursuance of the battered enemy released the terrible might of Marutuahu upon the inhabitants of the pa. There were enormous casualties and when the stronghold finally succumbed the survivors fled with the victors in swift pursuit, chopping them down without quarter.
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