Ruapani

[1] His whakapapa is shown in two images: Mackay[5] gives a slightly different version of the history, resuming an address by Captain W. T. Pitt to the Rotary Club of Gisborne in 1934.

The descendants of this illustrious couple married with the issue of Paikea (who was reputed to have journeyed to New Zealand on the back of a whale); with those of Maia (who was said to have crossed the seas on a gourd), and with the Toi people.

When Ruapani died, Tūhourangi took Rongomaipāpā as his wife and founded the Tuhourangi iwi in Rotorua, which is also part of the Te Arawa confederation of tribes.

Not long after, the child, a girl, was born, and was named Rua-herehere-tieke, thus commemorating the finding of the young birds.” Ruapani’s legacy is evident in the whakapapa (genealogy) lines of all the tribes in the Tūranganui-a-Kiwa district.

With the emergence of these tribes — including, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri — Ruapani’s influence began to wane and he retreated inland to the home of his relations in the Lake Waikaremoana area, where he lived out his days.

A number of hapū today still identify themselves as Ngāti Ruapani, including those in the Whakapūnaki area through to Lake Waikaremoana and the people of Ōhako Marae in Manutuke.