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Pioneering Reminiscences of Old Wairoa

Lake Legends

Lake Legends.

The reader would naturally expect that Lake Waikaremoana would abound in legends of all kinds, but mainly all bearing the brand of superstition. Yet in this respect even local people can cast their memories back to the countries of their birth, be it England, Ireland or Scotland, and recall similar superstitions. One will suffice to show that it had a counterpart in Europe.

Te Waiwai, of the ancient Ruapani tribe, himself says: "I was in my canoe, fishing for maehe at Tawhitinui, when I heard a strange sound, and two great waves came rolling in from the lake. Then resounded two loud reports like the cannons of the white man. Then I knew that the taniwha was angry. Friends! I quickly page 62plucked a hair from my head and cast it into the water, at the same time uttering a karakia to render the demon harmless (hei whakahaeo i te taniwha) and to again render calm the waters."

The question is: Did Te Waiwai experience an earthquake?

Then there is the legend of Hau Mapuhia, who is credited with having formed the lake, and become our first hydro-electric engineer. Manaia and his wife, Kauariki, with their child, Hau Mapuhia, lived at Waikotikoti on Wairaumoana, and here he grew up into a fine young man, and became an adept at bird-snaring. His education, however, seems to have been much neglected, or else he was a spoiled child, for one day, having been ordered to bring a calabash of water from a neighbouring spring of high repute, he flatly refused to do so. His indulgent father—poor foolish old man—thereupon went himself instead, but he was away so long that Hau Mapuhia went after him. When the father saw his son the idea entered the old man's head that he ought to kill him for his disobedience. He therefore seized his son, and thrust him into the waters of the spring, holding him beneath the surface. Here was the disobedient Hau in a dire predicament, but he called on the gods of the ancient people to help him, and they transformed him into a taniwha, or water-god, endowing him specially with all the powers of demons. Thus, indeed, Hau Mapuhia forced his way through the solid ground, and formed a great dry basin in which now lie the waters of Waikaremoana. It was while forcing his way through the ground that Hau Mapuhia page 63formed the numerous inlets of the "Sea of Rippling Waters." The fiercest struggle he had was when he forced his passage from Te Puna, and the efforts made were so great that the waters which followed him were greatly agitated, and since then the lake has been called "The Sea of Dashing Waters." Hau Mapuhia first tried to escape towards the west of the great basin, and formed Wanganui inlet to Hereheretaua, but Huiarau stopped him. Next he tried another direction, and Whanganui-o-parua resulted, but the ranges still barred his way. Then he turned towards the east where the roar of the great ocean of Kiwa fell upon his taniwha ears and he determined to reach it before daylight. So down he forced his way to Te Whangaro-Manga and endeavoured to burrow through the ranges but when he reached the present outlet just above the measuring weir recently put in, he became blocked there. In his sad position he wailed aloud—very much unlike a god indeed—and Manaia, who had gone down to the ocean, heard him. Filled with pangs of remorse he called upon the tuna, the koiro, the kokopu, maehe, korokoro and other fishes to go up Waikaretaheke and provide food for his son; but the koiro would not face the fresh water, and the tuna were unable to pass the Waiau, so the maehe and the korokoro (lamprey) were the only fish that reached the top of Waikaretaheke to sustain the taniwha. And Hau Mapuhia still lies at the outlet, turned into stone—the result of disobedience. His head lies downhill, his legs extend up the hillsides, and the lake waters flow through the body to form the page 64Waikaretaheke, now utilized by the Pakeha of 1936 to illuminate the town of Wairoa and drive the wheels of industry.

There is another story connected with this spot which may as well be given, for it will take the conceit out of those presuming Europeans who long thought they had a monopoly of the "Man in the Moon" story. Opposite the outlet there is a singular rock, Te Kuha, and this is its origin, according to the Maori legend: On the lake shore in the Dim Past there dwelt an old and famous chief, who, being consumed with thirst, sent one of his women for a calabash of water. She went obediently enough, lighted on her way by the full moon, but as she neared the water the Marama became suddenly darkened—and no Maori, however brave otherwise, likes the darkness. Incensed at this, the woman used the kaanga, or curse against the moon for her fickleness, which so angered the moon that she sent down Rona (the Man-in-the-Moon), who cast the woman into the waters, and transformed her into a stone, where she still appears stooping as if in the act of lifting a vessel of water. Her head points towards Wairoa, and it is from her figure that the Waikaretaheke flows subterraneously—the opening being called Haumu—in such a wonderful manner on its way to Kaitawa and the turbines.

What better Birthday or Christmas Present than a copy of this Booklet?