The fall of Kaiapoi had come too quickly after the departure of Taiaroa for any relief to be organized from Otago. Sometime after the final events at Onawe, however, a party of 270 Ngāi Tahu warriors, under the leadership of Tūhawaiki and Karetai, travelled by canoe from Otago up the Awatere River, their purpose being to ambush Te Rauparaha, who was known to visit the Grassmere lagoon at that time of the year to catch waterfowl. Te Rauparaha escaped by hiding in a bed of kelp, and the raiders returned home after an indecisive skirmish. Tūhawaiki later led other and even larger war parties to the north, and in one of them inflicted severe losses on the Ngāti Toa at Port Underwood. Akaroa and Peraki were ports of call for these expeditions, the vessels used for the last two of them, in 1838 and 1839, included as many as fifteen whaleboats.