As noted in the landscape assessment, the Akatarawa Forest Block
consists of hilly and isolated land lying between the Kapiti Coast and the
Hutt Valley. As such there is comparatively little evidence regarding the
use of the land by Maori or Europeans. Considering the position of the
Block, it is likely that following the conquest of the Wellington region in the
late 1820s by Taranaki and Kawhia iwi, the land presumably lay within the
rohe of the Ngati Toa groups.