Between the two channels sat the island of Motu-Kairangi (present day Miramar Peninsula).
Elsdon stated: I obtained from Maori sources a story to the effect that, in the time of Te Ao-haere-tahi, who flourished eighteen generations ago, a violent earthquake-shock so lifted these lands that the Awa-a-Taia channel became dry, and Motu-kairangi a part of the mainland.
We have no means of verifying such oral traditions, but it may be correct, and the shock may have been the cause of the raised beaches that form so marked and interesting a feature of the adjacent coast-line.
[1]A study published in 2015 showed evidence of two large earthquakes on the southern Hikurangi Margin, the area where the Pacific tectonic plate is pushed under the Australian plate.
[3] Shells and a boulder beach found above current sea level around the Miramar Peninsula and around Turakirae Head offer supporting evidence of a large earthquake in the 15th century.