Ngāti Tamaihutoroa

Travellers going between the Rotorua region and Lake Taupō had been disappearing as they passed Tauhunui, Tuporo and Tikitapu.

Assuming that the disappearances were due to raiders, the people of Taupō sent out a war party to pacify the area.

When they came to Kapenga Caldera in Kaingaroa Forest, they were attacked by the taniwha Hotupuku, described as a "beast armed with scales and spikes like a monster of the sea" that "seemed as large as a black whale and in shape like a tuatete" (tuatara).

They gathered the leaves of the whanake (Cordyline australis) and invented a range of new types of rope, called tari, tāmaka , whiri-pāraharaha, and rinorino.

The men were nearly caught by Hotupuku, but they successfully led him to the snare, where he was captured and killed after a fierce battle.

They wove these vines into a giant tāiki (basket), which they covered in pigeon feathers and attached a rope to.

The tāiki was thrown into the spring and sunk to the bottom, while the rest of the men on the shore sang karakia to weaken the monster.

[5] The people of Tikitapu were Ngāti Tangaroamihi, the descendants of Tuarotorua, who had two pā (fortified villages) there: Te Tokorangi and Taumahi.

They made a meal of fernroot, pōhue (bindweed), īnanga (whitebait), and kākahi (freshwater mussel).

They sang karakia which calmed Kataore, so that the men were able to tie one rope around his neck and another around his front legs.

There were such heavy losses on both sides that the battle was named Waiwhitinanga, because the dead scattered on the field looked like īnanga (whitebait) strewn on the beach.

Ruamano, the son of Reretoi, and his relatives remained in the Rotorua region because he was married to Waiarohi, a granddaughter of Uenukukōpako.