Rākei-hikuroa
After his expulsion, Rākei-hikuroa led his people south, beginning the Ngāti Kahungunu expansion into the Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa regions.
[5][4] According to John Te Herekiekie Grace and Patrick Parsons, Rākei-hikuroa orchestrated the murder, sending his agent, a man named Tangihahi, to Whiorau to kill the twins.
At first he disavowed any knowledge, but later a tohunga divined their location by making two kites, representing the twins, which flew up and hovered over Pukepoto.
[10][4] In commemoration of this event, the two twins, Tarakiuta and Tarakitai, are depicted on a kite in Te Mana o Turanga wharenui of Whakato Marae at Manutuke.
[4] According to Grace, Rongomai-tara confronted her brother again and he cryptically admitted to the murder,[10] saying waiho ra kia tu takitahi ana nga whetū o te rangi ("Let there be only one star shining in the sky).
They attacked Tūpurupuru's advance party, killing its commander Pouarau and eating his heart, as normal for the mātāika (first casualty of a battle).
When Tūpurupuru received the news he was tying up his hair in preparation for the attack and the cord kept snapping, leading him to prophesy his own demise, “Pouarau in the morning and me in the afternoon.”[11][4] Te Mahaki-a-tauhei’s son, Whakarau-potiki, had been away hunting when the call to arms came and had therefore been left behind, but he found the stake that had been used for cooking Pouarau’s heart (the kōhiku-manawa), tracked the war party to Pukepoto, made his way to the front line and killed Tūpurupuru with a spear strike to the throat.
[12][15] When Kahuparoro was fishing at Matakana Rock with Rākei-hikuroa’s son Tamanuhiri, he got a hāpuku on his line and as it fought against him, he joked that it had no chance of getting away and let slip that his hook had been made from Tūpurupuru’s bones.
Rākei-hikuroa ambushed Kahuparoro and his men the next morning as they were dragging their canoe into the water for more fishing or as they were setting out together to dig for fern root, and killed nearly all of them.
[17] After the Battle of Nukutaurua, Rākei-hikuroa, his son Taraia, and Te Aomatarahi led his people onward to Hawke’s Bay,[17] pursuing Rakai-weriweri, one of the men of Kahuparore, who had escaped.
He conquered the villages of Toropapa, Te Kupenga, Tahau, Urutomo, Matairangi, and Tūpurupuru and made the descendants of Kahuparoro flee towards Taupō.
[20] Rākei-hikuroa married Turoimata, Pāpāuma, Ruarauhanga, and Mahumokai,[21] as well as Hine-te-raraku and Te Orāpa, daughters of his cousin Kahunoke,[4] and had at least nineteen children.
