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Plume of the Arawas

IV. Noble Waikato, so Deep, so Full

page 151

IV. Noble Waikato, so Deep, so Full

But still she will not move.
Now red, red, is the sun!
How hot, hot, are its rays!
Take ye, and hold the ropes,
And drag, with flashing eyes,
And drag, in concert all.
Moves now the prow. She moves!
She starts! Urge, urge her still!

In the first days of early summer, Tuwharétoa returned to that gully near the Waiotapu River, and he was more than pleased to find the great canoe ready for launching.

The energetic Rata had rounded up some hundreds of men and women of the Marangaranga tribe from their hamlets near the Kaingaroa Plains, and these subject people had willingly given their services in return for the continued protection of Te Arawa.

Early and late and day after day they had worked, neither men nor women being spared by Rata in his effort to have everything ready in time. The cutting down of small trees and the carrying of the trunks for the building of the dam, the erection of the dam itself, the cutting and laying down of skids or rollers of the slippery parapara wood, the making of drag-ropes and mooring-ropes for the canoe, the cutting and shaping of tough manuka wood for the paddles and of lighter wood for the thwarts and top-sides — these and many other duties of a laborious nature had been performed without a murmur. Thankful again were the page 152 Marangarangas to be spared their lives and the remnant of their ancestral lands.

Nor had the Arawas themselves worked less hard. The reinforcements from Hikurangi had enabled the work to proceed apace. In charge of the operations was the old tohunga selected by Te Moana—a canoe-hewing expert from Mokoia Island, Rotorua, and famed throughout the Lake district for his knowledge of the art. He was a tyrant, but he knew his work, and the warriors had toiled like slaves for him, stone-axe-hewing the exterior and burning out and axe-hewing the interior, while he watched.

With the completion of the dam, the impounded waters had filled the creek bed, and they now extended some distance up the gully, making it certain that the force of water on the bursting of the dam would more than suffice to carry the canoe down to the river below.

Tuwharétoa was pleased with the work done. He praised the skill of his elder, the tohunga from Rotorua. He praised the efforts of Rata and his Arawas. And he spoke courteously to the Marangaranga people, acknowledging their assistance and promising to allow most of them to return shortly to their homes.

Then, without further delay, the launching ceremonies proceeded. They were carried through without a hitch, and soon the long hull slid down the slippery skid-way and floated buoyantly upon the water above the dam. The shouting warriors rushed down the slope and pulled the canoe back towards the bank, while Rata stepped forward quietly, pointed to the empty hull, and said:

“For me, O Tu?”

“For thee, my friend!” was the reply. “Take ten men, and a pole for each!”

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Every Arawa there clamoured to be chosen, but Rata quickly picked the youngest he could find and bustled them aboard with their poles; not too soon nor too often could they have their taste of danger.

That nothing might be left undone, the old tohunga now stood forth and uttered his invocation to Tané, the Forest God:

“O Tané, guard this thy child of beauty, that she may reach the river below! Now for whom is this child of thine? She is for the Ariki Tuwharétoa. He has come for her, to this forest of thine, as an embracing husband, a husband of delight. Therefore, make smooth the way!”

He held up his hand, and a sharp command came from Tuwharétoa. At once the men waiting at the dam broke through its supports. The great structure sagged, then collapsed with a rending crash, and through the gap roared the pent-up water of the creek, bearing on its foamy crest the tossing canoe in one prolonged and furious drive down to the river.

As for the youths in the canoe, three of them were thrown out by the first frantic plunge she made. Another two disappeared into the foam when the canoe struck the bank half-way down the gully, but the rest with surprising agility managed to keep to their feet and even to use their poles to good effect.

Arawas and Marangarangas raced along the sloping banks, beside themselves with excitement, laughing and yelling, and shouting the most absurd advice to the distracted youths in the canoe. But the river was reached, and soon a shout from Rata announced that the canoe had sustained no damage. The overjoyed Arawas promptly executed a war-dance along the river bank.

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The five youths who had come to grief in that wild rush pulled themselves ruefully out of the water, fortunate in having escaped with nothing worse than bruised ribs and a painful wound or two. They had fallen out, but soon they were reinstated in the eyes of all, for Tuwharétoa made them sit with Rata and the others at the ceremonial feast which followed.

………..

Two days later, the bulk of the Marangaranga men and all their women-folk were on the way back to their homes. The rest of their men, however, to the number of fifty or more, were moving southward up the valley of the Waikato on their way to the island in the river near the outlet of Taupo.

In charge of them was Rata, and with him were some thirty Arawas. Together they would prepare the island as a base while awaiting the arrival of the canoe by the river route.

As for the tohunga, he had been given a small escort and had gone back to Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua, there to see to the completion of the carved figure-head and stern-post with which he would later on adorn the canoe.

Tuwharétoa and the rest of his party had meantime brought the giant hull down the Waiotapu River to its confluence with the Waikato, and had promptly driven the canoe out into the swift current of that mighty river.

Then the paddling had ceased as the deep voice of the leader boomed forth:

“O noble Waikato, so deep, so full!”

And reverently, as if acknowledging the mana of so great a river, the warriors had replied: page 155 ” Greetings from Te Arawa! Greetings to Waikato, deep and full!”

………..

For several days the Arawas proceeded steadily on up-stream, marvelling often at the grandeur of the river, and finding now a new charm in the many canoe-chants that had been familiar to them from childhood days.

At Tuwharétoa's bidding, they collected lumps of floating pumice-stone, and at various points along the river he threw the pumice on to first one bank and then the other, claiming the river for Te Arawa.

At their leader's bidding also, the older and more experienced warriors taught the younger ones the finer points of paddle-work, the art of balancing the canoe so that no speed might be lost, and, in particular, the imperative necessity for all to dip and raise their paddles in perfect time with the chants.

Occasionally small villages and cultivations were seen, no doubt belonging to the Kahupungapunga tribe, who for generations past had maintained a precarious hold upon the land along the river. The inhabitants fled whenever the Arawas drew near.

It was when the canoe came to the great rapids told of in the traditions of Tia that the first serious obstacle was encountered. Ah! The rushing waters of Waikato, snow-white, jade-green!

Tuwharétoa brought the canoe up to the very edge of the whirlpool below the lowest fall, and spent some time examining the fall and the banks on either side. He soon realised that no canoe could hope to surmount even the lowest fall, and he knew that tradition spoke of other falls farther up.

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The right bank of the river, with its high cliff rising above the swirling eddies of the whirlpool below, was clearly unsuited for his purpose, so he brought the canoe in under the shelter of the western bank and leaped ashore, ordering his men to await his return.

He forced his way through a mass of creepers and ferns and up a somewhat steep slope, and on into a chasm between high walls of rock. He could see at once that this was an old course the river had taken in past ages, before it had carved out for itself a lower bed. The floor of the chasm was now covered with moss and soil and trailing vines, with here and there a giant manuka tree struggling to out-top the rocky sides.

The farther he proceeded, the more he realised the quaintness yet accuracy of the tradition which spoke of Tia and his small canoe climbing a ladder of rapids. The old river bed was really a series of ledges with a gradual rise right through, and each section of it spoke of the slow but sure progress of Tia past the main obstacle in his way. Ha! Tia here, Tia there, Tia everywhere along the track—Te Ara-a-Tia-Tia, The Continuous-Pathway-of-Tia.

………..

Throughout three long, hot, and very exhausting days the Arawas moved slowly up that rocky ladder, but only the first stage proved really difficult. The slope up from the river taxed the ingenuity of Tuwharétoa and the strength of his men to the utmost, yet not even in their most toilsome efforts would the warriors allow their leader to give them a helping hand.

Once, when he sought with his great strength to lever the vessel off some crushed-in skids, a chorus of protests from the straining warriors made him page 157 reluctantly desist. A chief might work with his hands alongside his men, but not the ariki, lest his tapu and mana be thereby lessened in the eyes of his tribe.

So he directed them to replace the damaged skids and to use some manuka trees near by as an aid in the hauling, and then he chanted a karakia to inspire them:

“O power! O power!
Bound round and confined!
O power! O power!
Bound round and confined!
Lift, O earth!
Lift, O heaven!
Move, O prow of canoe!
Move now, by short stages!
Panéké! Haul away!
Panéké! Haul away!”

The warriors redoubled their efforts, pulling lustily upon the drag-ropes, levering the canoe along, and chanting their sonorous response:

Turuki! Move along!
Turuki! Slide along!
Ha! She comes, she comes!”

and gradually the canoe moved up the slope and on into the track through the chasm.

Then Tuwharétoa rested his men and allowed them to explore the rapids. He listened to their cries of appreciation as they stood upon the rocks and gazed down upon the rushing splendour below. He realised anew the inborn feeling of kinship and affection which all Maoris have for the wonders of Nature, believing as they do that everything they see has its mauri or life principle to guide and direct it along its appointed course.

………..

On the evening of the third day, the Arawas reached the bend at the far end of the rapids, and joyfully page 158 launched the canoe over a ledge of rock into the slack waters of a deep pool. They rested there that night.

Then on they went again, driving the canoe upstream and past a large island in the river, and on until they reached the giant falls called the Huka, or the Snow Falls.

The Ara-a-Tia-Tia had impressed the Arawas, but the Huka was more awe-inspiring and perhaps more beautiful still, for there the whole force of the Waikato swept over a high fall in one stupendous leap.

With the experience gained at the Ara-a-Tia-Tia, the task of surmounting the Huka proved comparatively easy. A few small cuttings in the western bank not far below the falls enabled a track to be formed up which the canoe was hauled with the aid of rollers and ropes, and by noon of the second day she was safely past the falls and afloat on the river again.

From there on the way was easy. A few small islands were passed, and then a terrace whereon were steaming hot springs and pools of coloured mud. Quite close to the water's edge was one particularly fine geyser which shot a stream of boiling water up to a great height.

The canoe sped on without stopping, and soon, as she swung round a bend in the river, the welcoming cries from another and much larger island in front announced to the shouting paddlers that their long journey up the Waikato was over at last.

Up swept the canoe with a final spurt towards the lower end of the island, and soon she sheered in through the sucking eddies towards the landing - skids that extended down into the river.

” Kuméa mai te waka-taua!
Haul up the war-canoe!”

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came the opening words of the chant as the Arawas on the island seized the drag-ropes and commenced to haul the canoe up on to the skids. The paddlers leaped into the shallows to their aid, and joined with them in the chorus:

“Toia mai te waka-taua
Ki te urunga,
Ki te moenga—
Te waka-taua, é!
Pull the war-canoe up
To its pillow,
To its sleeping-place—
The war-canoe, é!”

Then, with a rush, the lightened hull slid up over the skids and settled down on an even keel upon the bed prepared for it under the trees.