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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 5 (September 1, 1929)

Taua's Victory

Taua's Victory.

Long before daylight next morning the war-party was on its march southward again through Orakei-Korako. The warriors reached a deep valley on the old trail from Orakei-Korako to Taupo, a mile or two before it joins the present Atiamuri-Taupo motor road at the “height of land.”

“I have not seen the place could more surprise,
More beautiful in nature's varied dyes.”
—Ben Jonson.

(Photo, C.R. Barrett.) A section of the beautiful multi-coloured silica flat with its many boiling pools at Orakei-Korako.

(Photo, C.R. Barrett.)
A section of the beautiful multi-coloured silica flat with its many boiling pools at Orakei-Korako.

Here at dawn they fell on their unsuspecting enemies. The Arawa were victorious this time and Taua avenged his wrongs; the utu was complete, and he returned to his Rotorua home satisfied.

And in memory of that moonlight night by Waikato side and the rock of inspiration, Taua took the name Haere-huka, and the place, too, is known by that name to-day. Haere-huka is preserved as a family name; it will never be forgotten. My old tohunga friend Taua Tutanekai Haere-huka is the grandson of the Taua of that story.