Tama-te-kapua
[1] A trickster, his theft of fruit from the orchard of the chieftain Uenuku escalated into a feud which forced him to leave the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki.
He staked claims to Mount Moehau in the Coromandel Peninsula and to Maketu in the central Bay of Plenty, where he settled.
[4] The chief Uenuku suffered from an ulcer and gave off a discharge, which was buried secretly because it was highly tapu, but a dog called Potakatawhiti, which belonging to Haumai-tāwhiti dug this material up and ate it.
Tama-te-kapua and his brother Whakaturia went searching for the dog and discovered what had happened when they heard it howling from within Toi-te-huatahi's stomach.
[1] Most accounts say that the fruit was poporo (Solanum aviculare), but one waiata calls it kuru (a common Polynesian name for breadfruit, a plant that does not grow in New Zealand).
Eventually, Uenuku ambushed the pair and captured Whakaturia, but Tama-te-kapua made it to the sea shore, where he managed to escape.
[9] Tama-te-kapua climbed up on top of the roof undetected and told Whakaturia to shout down to the people in the house that their singing and dancing were very bad and that he could do far better than them.
[10] In revenge Uenuku and Toi-te-huatahi attacked the village of Ngati Ohomairangi, which was repelled only thanks to invocations by Haumai-tāwhiti, Tama-te-kapua, and Whakaturia.
[11] Tama-te-kapua ordered the construction of a canoe (waka), which was completed and berthed in Whenuakura Bay, along with the Tainui.
[13][14][15][16][17] Some legends say that Tama-te-kapua also kidnapped Ngātoro-i-rangi, who was a tohunga and navigator of the Tainui waka, by inviting him to come aboard the Arawa with his wife Kearoa to bless the vessel, and casting anchor as soon as they were on board.
[21] During these events, all the kūmara on board the canoe were lost overboard, except a few in a small kete being held by Whakaotirangi.
The Arawa made landfall in New Zealand at Whangaparaoa near Cape Runaway in Te Moana-a-Toi (the Bay of Plenty).
[23] The canoe then travelled north up the coast, past Whakaari (White Island), to the Coromandel Peninsula, where Tama-te-kapua first sighted Mount Moehau (on Cape Colville, the northernmost tip of Coromandel Peninsula) and laid claim to it as his home and final resting place.
[22] Heading south again, the Arawa continued until Tama-te-kapua caught sight of the Maketu peninsula, which he staked a claim to, declaring it to be "the bridge of my nose."
[25] Then he departed, taking a group of men off towards Lake Rotorua along the Te Kaharoa-a-Taunga trail (roughly equivalent to modern State Highway 33).
[27] When Kahumatamomoe returned to Maketu he disputed the ownership of a kumara patch with Tama-te-kapua, claiming that since he had cultivated the land it should be his.
