The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 6 (October 1, 1929)

A Mighty Digger

A Mighty Digger.

That was the fancy that the general contour of Wakatipu suggested, a water-reptile, perhaps, half uncoiled, in its bed amid the bare and aged mountains. Recollections came too, of the Norse nature-myth about the vast serpent that encircled the world. But there is no need to go to Old World mythology for imaginative folk-talk about such places as this. There is an ancient story of the Maoris, given me by old legend tellers of the Ngai-Tahu tribe at Moeraki and Puketiraki. They said that these great lakes of the South Island were magically formed by their remote ancestor Rakaihaitu, who was the chief of the canoe Uruao, which came to these shores from the South Sea Islands very long ago, probably a thousand years, as nearly as could be reckoned from the whakapapa or genealogical list. The sailor rangatira travelled through the raw new country, which he thought would be improved by the creation of some lakes. So with his ko or digging implement, fortified with enchantments, he excavated the beds of many of our lakes, which immediately filled with water and gratified his sense of the fitness of things. He began in the North by scooping out Rotoroa and Rotoiti, the South Nelson lakes which form the chief sources of the Buller River. Then he worked southward, and his final achievement was digging out the bed of Wakatipu.

It is a fine poetic fancy, this fairy tale of Rakaihaitu.
The Picturesque Rail Approach To Lake Wakatipu. The rail terminus at Kingston (1,023 feet above sea level) at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu, South Island.

The Picturesque Rail Approach To Lake Wakatipu.
The rail terminus at Kingston (1,023 feet above sea level) at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu, South Island.

We may take it that this explorer of old was something of a geologist in his Maori-Polynesian way, and had more than a glimmering of scientific fact, the glacial origin, in part at any rate, of these southern lakes, Wakatipu in particular, is so obviously trenched out by that slow but most powerful of agencies, the rock-grinding ice mass.