Whiti-patatō

On the birth of his first grandson from this marriage, Te Ata-inutai travelled to Marae-kōwhai in order to perform the tohi baptismal ritual, but he was murdered by a group of Tūwharetoa led by Kewha on his journey home, as vengeance for his killing of Waikari.

[3][4][2] Te Rangi-ita learnt that the war party was coming from Tū-te-tawhā and called on Whiti-patatō to lead his force to Marae-kōwhai quickly, but he stopped in the area of Kaingaroa, saying "Not yet!

[8] Eventually, he planted his taiaha spear in the ground, put his pūreke ('rain cape') over the top of it, so that it would look like a tī, then slowly sunk down on his knees and scarpered down the hill to his camp.

[9] Tūwharetoa had just placed his child on his wife's back and directed her to swim across the lake to safety, which she did, coming to shore at Wharewaka point on the other side of Tapuae-haruru Bay (a distance of about 3 km).

[10][9] The earliest published account of Whiti-patatō's raid occurs in a 1904 article by Walter Edward Gudgeon, with no indication of the sources on which it is based.