[4] Pikiao was the son of Kawatapu-a-rangi and, through him, a descendant of Tama-te-kapua, the captain of the Arawa canoe.
[5] At Rotorua, he married Rakeiti and had a number of daughters, leading his father to despair of having male-line descendants.
[6] Though Rakeiti swore that a male child would come, Pikiao chose instead to leave her and travel down the Waikato River to the Waipā River, from which he went on foot to Mount Pirongia, where he met and married Rerei-ao, a descendant of the brothers Whatihua and Tūrongo and through them of Hoturoa, captain of the Tainui canoe.
Pikiaio and Rerei-ao had one son, Hekemaru,[7] who married Heke-i-te-rangi and had three children:[9] Subsequently, Pikiao returned to Rakeiti in Rotorua and had another son, as Rakeiti had predicted:[7][10] In his old age, he returned to Pirongia to live with Hekemaru and died there.
[6] Pei Te Hurinui Jones reports a similar account of the begatting of Hekemaru, which he heard from many Tainui elders.