In Taranaki tribal tradition, Kurahaupō is known as Te Waka Pakaru ki te moana or 'The Canoe broken at sea', and was reputed to have arrived to New Zealand in the same generation as the other great migration vessels of the Māori (although unlikely to have arrived at the same time[citation needed]) like Aotea, Mātaatua, Tākitimu, Tainui, Arawa etc.
This proverb, or whakataukī describes how the waka suffered multiple accidents and why the tribal traditions of other descendant groups all differ.
While all are correct,[citation needed] this divergent discourse has contributed to various theories printed on this waka by Percy Smith[3] and company, and subsequently republished and referenced through generations of scholars.
[citation needed] Some oral traditions have the Kurahaupō making repairs on the island of Atiu where the ancestor Taratoa is said to have been a captain of the waka.
[citation needed] It was then repaired and sailed down the east coast of the North Island till it reached Nukutaurua on Te Māhia Peninsula.