Among the dead were the Ngai Te Rangi chiefs Te Reweti, Eruera Puhirake, Tikitu, Te Kani Puhirake, Te Rangihau and Te Wharepouri; officers of the 43rd Regiment brothers Robert and Frederick Glover, Hamilton, Booth, Utterton, Muir; naval officers Captain Muir from the Esk, Captain Hay from the Miranda and officers and men from the 68th Regiment.
On 2 May a number of those killed were buried in the churchyard adjacent to the mission station - what is now the Mission Cemetery, Tauranga.
May 2nd 1864 – Tauranga
'Today they had the funeral of those killed at Puke hina hina. Seven officers and 16 men of the 43rd and three officers and some men of the navy were buried in the church yard there. They buried the officers in coffins but they were not able to procure wood eno’ [enough] to make them for the men. I should have liked to have been there very much but they would not let me go. What a dreadful loss the regiment has sustained, more officers were killed than in any regiment at the Alma. Seven killed out of twelve.' (p.217)
Looking over the Pa the morning after their defeat Nicholls' fellow soldiers searched for the secret behind their opponents' superiority. What they saw was a bitter revelation.
30 April
'Those who went in this morning for the first time say that they never saw such a place in their life, and that you might as well drive a lot of men into a sheep pen and shoot them down as let them assault a place like that.' (p.216).
Out of the terrible triumph and sorrow of the battle came stories of heroism. The most well known is the story of the compassion shown to the dying Lt-Col Henry Booth. As he lay seriously wounded in the trenches a Māori opponent gave him water.
The act is now generally attributed to Heni Kiri Karamu, the only woman understood to have been in the Pa during the fighting. In an act of courage she took water to relieve the wounded Booth's last hours. Heni fought alongside her brother at Gate Pa and had previously fought in the Waikato battles. In later life she came to be known as Heni Pore (Jane Foley). Heni was famously photographed alongside the flag she made for the King Movement. The symbols of moon and stars carries over to the Gate Pa flag which is raised today in honour of all who fought at the event.
A series of 9 pou were unveiled at the Gate Pa -Pukehinahina site marking the events.
An interview with kaumatua Peri Kohu can be watched here.
Justice Joe Williams gave the inaugural Gate Pa Address.
Governor General Sir Joe Mataparae also spoke at the event.
On 26 April an Artillery Barrage was staged at the Tauranga Domain.
Spencer Perceval Talbot Nicholl, 1841-1908. Journal, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, MS-1712
Tui MacDonald, 'Heni Pore, Jane Foley, 1841-1933', The Book of New Zealand Women, Ko Kui Ma Te Kaupapa, Eds. Charlotte Macdonald, Merimeri Penfold and Bridget Williams, Wellington, 1991, pp.531-533