TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 60, 11 March 1953, Page 1

TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

TALES OF THE TAUPO COUNTRY

(By

R.H.W.)

Oue of the #vents of the vasit to Tapuaeharuru, Taupo, of Lieut. Herbert Meade, R.N., and Major William Mair, in January 1865, was a trip acrcss the Lake to Waihaha, the well known trout fishing; bay of to-. day. The visitors fotmd the kainga oecupied by people some of whom iiad taken part in the" desperate hattle of Orakau eight months earliesr, while others were refugees from places in the Waikato then oecupied by troops: They met there a heroine whose name will always. live in the history of New Zealand, Ahumai, daughter of the WT est Taupo chief Te Paerata, who- was to save Meade's life shortly after at Tataroa, north of Oruanui, when he was captured by a force of Hauhaus. The party traveJled to Waihaha ih a large canoe propelled by twenty paddles accompanied by a smaller canoe containing their- Mauri companions. Meade describes how they irugged the shore nearly all the way, erossing only such large bays as VJ/hakaipo and Whangamata, for the nasty sea that rises quickly on the Lake would soon have swamped the canoes had wind sprung* up. As they approaehed Waihaha they found a white flag flying over the kainga* a token of peace, and the men drawn up under araris in fighting array. As the canoes grounded, they were challenged by a loud shout from the people of the place, accor^ing to Mjaori custom. Springing from the canoes the visiting Maoris formed up and answered the mock challenge, and some with muskets and others with only paddles in their hands advonced at a run, a Red Ensign f lying, halting and forming a double row when within a hundred yards of the Waihaha people. As they stopped the W aikatos, who had adopted a crouching attitude as though in ambush, sprang to their feet and danced their war-dance with, as Meade says, great spirit and apparent ferocity. The Tapuaeharuru men then did the same, led by their chief Te Poihipi, and a salute was fired by the Waikatos and answered by the visitors. This Maori war dance, performed by men who had a few months before been engagecl in fieree fighting, nrust have been an exciting experience. A long tangi then eommenced, fhe effect being described by Meade as rather pleasing from the iromber of voices composing it, the echoes from the surrounding cliffs and the striking nature of the seenery. Among the Wraihaha people was Ahumai Te Paerata, who had suffered severai gunshot andi bayonet wounds at the Orakau. Meade describes her as possessing no little influence, a well-made rather goodlooking person, strong minded * and imperious. Her thusband, father, a biother and severai others of her house were killed at Orakau. When Mair, who now met Ahumai for the first time, had aeted as interpreter at that hattle in an endeavour to fialt the fighting, he had been told that the defenders would fight against h:m for ever, "E hoa, ka whawhai tonu ahau ki a koe, ake, ake!" Having answered that that was well for the men but that it was not right that the women and children should die, a voice replied, "Ki te mate nga tane, me mate ano nga wahine me nga tamariki," ("If the men die, ihe women and children •ni ust die also. ? It was the voice of Ahumai replying on behalf of the women before the men had time to

repeat their defiant refusal to surrender. Meade slept two night on a fern bed on the sandy beach and records that on waking on the seeond morn-ih-g Ngaroahoe was in full eruption great volumes of 'steam and smoke rising from the crater and as their hosts informed them, showers of light ash falling as far as the southeast shore of the Lake while the smoke "stained the elear morning j air for miles.v That day the party ascended the vaJley to the Patutiki waterfall, under which the Maoris told them there once dwelt a terrible taniwha. As soon as the heat of that ddy was over the canoes were launched and the return trip to Taupo 'commenced. Toward dusk a fresh breeze forced the Maori paddlers to take shelter in a little bay. They had a elever way of warding off with their broad paddles the little waves just about to break over the gunwale. A fire was lit on the pebble beach to dry the clothes which had got wet. It was a. glorious night with a bright moon, and as they proceeded round the northern. shores to Taupo there were miles of hills crowiil ed with blazing lines of bush fires, mingling on the lake of the red and silver blue reflections of fire; and moon light producing a curious efrect. A short stop was made to I drop some Maoris at Whakaipo. which Meade says was reported to have excellent duck-shooting, and l apuaeharuru was reached at two n the morning. During their ab;enee Mr Grace, pioneer missionary )f Poukawa, South Taupo, had re;urned from the eastern side of the Lake, whence he had gone to see vhether there were any possibility of iis being allowed to return to Poukawa. A few days later ' Meade became the first white man to be 'aptured bv the Hauhau party who ater murdered Mr Volkner at Opo'iki, and from whom Mr Grace narowly escaped with his life. Meade vas only saved by the influence of Ihumai Te Paerata. That, however, s, another story.