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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 12 (March 1, 1937)

Rotorua Government Spa Names

Rotorua Government Spa Names.

The following are a few examples, as explained by elders of the Arawa, with whom I walked around the places mentioned and discussed their history.

The name of the famous Priest's Bath in the Rotorua Spa gardens is Te Pupunitanga, which means “The Ambuscade.” It derives its name from an incident in the cannibal wars of old Rotorua. A battle was fought close to this spot four hundred years ago between the descendants of the chief Tu-o-Rotorua and the tribe Ngati-Tama-ihu-toroa. The cause of the trouble, according to local tradition, was the killing by Ngati-Tama of Kataore, the monster ngarara, or taniwha (perhaps a pet tuatara!) belonging to the chief Tangaroa-mihi, of Lake Tikitapu.

The Children of Tu lay in ambush for their foes in the green manuka scrub close to the hot spring, and at the appointed moment they threw themselves upon the Ngati-Tama war-party in an irresistible onslaught. The name given to this fight by the victors was “Te Wai whiti inanga” (“The waters of jumping whitebait”), because, said the old tattooed warrior, Kiharoa, of the appearance of the lakeside battlefield, covered with quivering and writhing heaps of men, like so many whitebait (inanga) struggling in a net.