TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 40, 15 October 1952, Page 1

TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

TALBS OF THE TAUPO COUNTRY

(By

R. H.

W.)

Motutere, on the eastern shore of the Lake, between Waipeha Waitetoko, is today one of the most popular lakeside camping spots. Its long low point protects the curving foeach from prevailing southwest winds, and a few miles offshore the wooded island of Motitaiko stands out against the blue of the distant. coastline. Long ago there was a village at Motutere, at a time when the main stronghold of the Te Heuheu family and its clan of NgatiTiirumakina and other hapus was the great palisaded pa of Waitahanui, on the southeast shore near the mouth of the Tongariro River. An in that far off time this stretch of lake shore was the stage upon which Hurihia, daughter and first - born ehild of the chief, played a part which has sent her name ringing down through the years. Hurihia, as the first-borfa. child of a great family, an ariki tapairu, h&d been trained in sacred and secret iore, and had accompanied her father 011 fighting expeditions. She is said to have been tall and well-formed, a powerful swimmer and canoe paddler, a perfect example of the best type of rangatira women. She was once at the kainga of Motutere when a war paity from Waikato raided into the Taupo country. Seizing a number of canoes they plundered and illtreated the people in several small defenceless villages, including Motutere, from which at the time most of the ablebodied men were away. j •From Motutere they paddled out to Motutaiko island, \a sacred burial place of the Tu wharetoa people, and desecrated it, setting fire to carved memorials and interfering* with the graves. To the people at Motutere the ris ing snioke from their wahi tapu confirmed the boastful threats the raiders had made. To Hurihia, the only member of her family at Motutere, the emergency was a call to action. Quickly she put off her garments of woven flax and hourid about her waist a small kupenga, a net used for inanga, and 'fchus unhampered she set off to Waitahanui, some ten miles away, ■racmg against time to rouse the fighting men of Tu wharetoa. As she sped sonthward, mainly following the beach line, and crossing the Tauranga -taupo, the Waimarino, and other streams at their mouths, she did not pause at any of the villages. But though she called not to the people they knew at once that some grave emergency wks upon them, for such alone could explain the portent of their chieft alness, racing grimly toward the tribal headquarters. As she ran Hurihia repeated now and then a karakia, a potent prayer for shortening the distance. Behind her followed at varying distances the men and youths from the village, all who wero old enough to carry arms, and at last she reachedl the great pa beside the delta beach of the Tongariro, It was as she raced onto the marae that she spoke for the first time since leaving Motutere, erying, as she pointed toward Motutaiko, "Maranga, maranga, whitiki, whitiki!" "Up! Up!' Be armed! Be armed!" Quickly the news spread, and as speedily as possible preparations were made to attack the raiders. The war canoes were launehed, and before long, filled with fighting men, were speeding northward through the cairn water s to-

ward Motutaiko. Meantime the Waikato party had left the island and had crossed to the northern shore and camped in the vicinity of Rangatira Point for the night, no doubt intendng to continue their homeward march next day. But the pursuing Tuwharetoa were not to be evaded, Toward dark they had seen the Waikato camp fires over the water at Rangatira, and when darkness fell their canoes swept silently across from Motutaiko. As dawn approached the Waikato camp was surrounded and at first light the men of Tuwharetoa rushed isavagely upon t'he^raiders, of whom but a shattered remnant eseaped. And as the heads of the killed adorned the palisade posts of Waitahanui pa, the °tory of Hurihia's raee from Motutere was told and re-told and celebrated in specch and song.