Tainui (canoe)
Tainui was one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand approximately 800 years ago.
The Tainui waka (canoe) was made from a great tree, at a place in Hawaiki known then as Maungaroa, on the spot where a stillborn child had been buried.
[3] It was built with three adzes (toki): Hahau-te-pō ('Chop the night-world') to chop down the tree, Paopao-te-rangi ('Shatter the heavens') to split the wood, and Manu-tawhio-rangi ('Bird encircling the sky) to shape it.
On the third occasion, Rakatāura stayed at the site overnight and discovered that the tree was being magically reassembled at night by birds led by the porihawa (a relative of the Hokioi).
[9] The waka was thirty cubits long (13.5 metres) - the distance is preserved by two stone pillars, Puna and Hani, at the Maketū marae in Kawhia.
[8][15] Riu-ki-uta summoned the sea taniwha, Mawake-nui-o-rangi, Pane-iraira, Ihe, and Mangō-hikuroa, and seventy-six others, to guide the waka.
[18] As they were coming in to land, they were so inexperienced with the region that Tainui was caught in a current and smashed against a rock, but they were able to right the waka and make landfall.
At Taumata-o-Apanui, one of the women in the waka, Tōrere, jumped out of the boat in the night and swam ashore, because she was angry with Rakatāura.
[21] As they rounded the Coromandel Peninsula, the crew wept for Arawa and the other waka that they had left behind, and as a result they named the bay that they were sailing into Tīkapa Moana, 'the Mournful sea' (the Hauraki Gulf).
Hoturoa's wife, Marama-kiko-hura, decided to make the crossing by land, planning to meet up with the rest of the crew at Ōtāhuhu.
Te Kete-ana-taua settled at Taurere, with her son Taihaua, and they became the ancestors of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.
[17] According to one tradition, reported by Aoterangi, they carried the waka overland to Manukau Harbour on the west coast at Ōtāhuhu, after rendezvousing with Marama-kiko-hura there.
Repeating the special incantation the Hoturoa had used to haul Tainui into the sea in Hawaiki, they were able to get the canoe moving.
At Mount Roskill or Puketutu Island, Rakatāura and Hiaroa lit a fire and sung incantations to prevent Tainui from entering the Manukau Harbour.
They climbed up Karioi Mountain, built an altar called Tuāhu-papa, and sung incantations to prevent Tainui from entering Raglan harbour.
[27] As the Tainui travelled south, its bailer was swept overboard at Te Karaka (near Waikaretu), where it is said to have been transformed into a rock that can be seen today.
The area had already been settled by one of Hoturoa's relatives, Awangaiariki from the Tokomaru waka, so they turned around and began to head north once more.
[17] The people of the Tainui waka settled at Kāwhia Harbour, and expanded their territory inland in the Waikato region over the following generations, under the leadership of Tūrongo,[28] Rereahu,[29] and Whāita.
At Mōkau River he left an anchor and a stand of Pomaderris apetala trees (called tainui in Māori).
