The lower rifle trenches and breastworks at Te Pōrere

The rather unusual plan shows some attempt to create bastions or flanking angles; the extension to the right commands much of the slope leading up to the rectangular extension on the near left, and vice versa. Otherwise this site is a characteristic if small example of the knots of rifle trenches that comprised many Maori fortifications. These trenches were relatively weakly defended at the time of the attack, with most of Te Kooti Arikirangi's force retreating to the upper redoubt.