TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 80, 29 July 1953, Page 1

TAUPO-NUI-A-TIA

TALES OF THE TAUPO COUNTRY

(By

R.H.

W.)

As one looks at the steep hillsides south of Waihi village, near Tokaanu, up which the man road to Taumarunui now finds its way, an area of steaming ground can be noticed, particularly in eold or wet weather. This is the hillside known of old as Hipaua, whence came the dread landslide that, in the year 1846, wiped out the stockaded village of Te Rapa. This disaster has ' already been referred to briefly in this column, but enquiries received suggest that some further details may be of interest. Te Rapa beeame the home of Te Heuheu Mananui after he had abandoned the great palisaded village of Waitahanui. This was stuated near the mouth of the Tongariro Rivef, and s not to be confused with the village of the same name near Taupo. At the time of the disaster Te Heuheu was living at Te Rapa with his clan and his wives, four of whom were ssters, and his son Te Waaka. The late Mr L. M. Grace explained to the late Mr James Cowan, by whom much of the traditional lore of the south Taupo

country was reeorded, the origin oi the son's name. He had lived at Hokianga, in the far north, for some years, with the famous chief Tama ti Waaka Nene, whose middle name, the Maori form of the pakeha name " Walker," he took when he left to ipjturn home. This was a custom not uncommon 4n olden days, in similar eircumstances. His eseort of Ngapuhi warriors brought with them a horse, as a present for Te Waaka, the first horse to be seen on the shores of Lake Taupo. This was about 1842. George French Angas, the artist, recorded in 1844 that he saw Te Waaka riding it barebacked about the beach. The day before the disaster Te Heuheu, and his younger brother Xwikau, had supervised the preparations at Te Rapa fpr the reception of large ope, or travelling party, of Ngati-Majniapoto. Heavy rain had set in, flooding the Kuratau River so that the party could not cross it. And this rain, which saved the visitors' lives by delaying them, preeipitated the great landslide. During the night a part of the rain soaked hillside, and a natural dam of fallen clay and rocks that had blocked the Wrai-mataii stream, which drained Hipaua, were carried away and roared down on the kainga. Apparently there were fwo landslides, the second bigger than the first. One of the three survivors, Tokena te Kerehi, said in 1901 that when he heard the noise of the second and greater disturbanee he ran out of his house, and escaped by rushing toward the lake and climbing on a moari, a tree used as a swinging-pole by the young people. A man named Karauti saw Te Heuheu, coming from the large wharepuni called Tapeka, and called to him : " Te Waaka ! Where is Te Waaka? " Te Heuheu at once returned to the house, when a mass of clay, rocks and watere thundered mto the village. Te Waaka perished with the chief and fifty-four of his clan, the only survivors of the family being Tokena te Kerehi, Iwakau and Te Heuheu's second son, who was absent from the district. Te Waaka's horse, which had been tethered outside the pa, was partly protected by a strong taiepe, or fenee, and its I plungmgs and struggles kept it above I ihe debris of the slip. In after years Tokena te Kerehi related that early on the night of the disaster, in the midst of a thunderstorm, Te Heuheu had mounted to the top of his whare, with the famous heirloom, the greenstone mere known as Pahikaure, to quell the spirits of earth and sky. There he recited the karakia known as " Kuruki whakataka, " and other prayers. Tokena beheved that had the Ariki used the most potent ehant, the karakia beginning " Hira mai ai te whekite o te rangi," the aitua mght not have befallen him. Following the death of Te Heuheu, his surviving brother Iwikau became the head chief of Tuwharetoa until his death n 1863. He had been a famous warrior, with a great reputation for killing the mata-ngohi, or rnata-ika, the first of ihe enemy to *>e slain in battle. His place was

out on the right front of the war party, and when his elder brother Te Heuheu gave him the signal, with the ery of " Whiua! " he would dash at his opponent and slay him with his taiaha. The second son of Te Heuheu the great, whose absence on a visit to the Ngati-Maniapoto people had haved hi^ life, later adopted the name of Horonuku, in reference to his father's death in the landslide. He was the father of the late Hon. Te Heuheu Tukino, M.L.C., whose grandson, Mr Hepi Te Heuheu, is the present chief of Ngati-Tuwharetoa.