Page 11 - Puhipi

knowledge of ancient ritual and learning. He believed the cause of the wrecking of the

canoe was witchcraft invoked by others jealous of his possessing the Kura. The
damaged canoe was brought to Aotearoa by Ruatea, landing first at North Cape and
ending her career in the Marlborough Sounds.

People from all over Aotearoa claim descent from the Kurahaupo migrants. They are

more scattered then the descendants of any other migration. Hence the reference in song
to Kurahaupo as “Te-waka-Pakaru” (the broken canoe, vessel and people).

Long accounts of the building of the Takitimu canoe in Tahiti have been recorded but
it is sufficient to say that on her completion she was taken over by Tamatea-ariki-nui
a chief of very high rank. The canoe was made sacred to the gods and ceremonies were
conducted to ensure wind and wave were favourable for her voyage south. Because of
the rank of Tamatea and the fact that the canoe was sacred, no cooked food was carried

during the voyage for this would have infringed the tapu imposed upon her.

The story of the voyage of the Takitimu has a fairy tale atmosphere about it. The canoe

was escorted by a school of fish with a taniwha or monster named Ruamano ahead and
another named Arai-te-Uru behind. The god Kahukura in the form of a rainbow led
the way by day and by night a lunar halo was the guide. When Takitimu struck rough
weather the sacred axes with which she had been made Te-Awhi-o-Rangi and Whironui
were used to chop a way through the waves. After calling at Rarotonga, Takitimu

sailed for Aotearoa dropping anchor in the bay at Whangaparaoa. The canoe then sailed
north, rounded Nth Cape and came to Hokianga where the people lived for several
years. Later they went to Mahia on the East Coast where many of the descendants live

today as members of the Ngati Kahungunu tribe. It is said that the canoe was
eventually left at Waiau in the Sth Island where by magic it became part of a mountain
range. Tamatea himself made many journeys through the new land and eventually died
at Hokianga in the north.

The Horouta canoe was built at the same time as the Takitimu by the same craftsmen,
one of whom, Pawa sailed Horouta to Aotearoa. The two left Rarotonga together but
became separated, Horouta making landfall in the Bay of Plenty. The Ngati Porou
tribe of the east coast trace its ancestry to the Horouta migration. Ngati Porou which

takes its name from an ancestor named Porourangi also has a famed forbear named
Paikea. Scorning conventional means of transport, Paikea came to Aotearoa on the
back of a whale.

Tokomaru is one of the seven canoes, eight if we include Horouta usually named as
comprising the Fleet of 1350. Stories of her voyage and the incidents which led to it are
more confused than those of any other canoe and have been referred to previously. Most
accounts give Manaia as the captain but Te Rangihiroa considers that Manaias vessel

was of an earlier period and was named Tahatuna, I therefore follow his account which