THE LEGEND OF TAWHAITARI
A number of legends and proverbial sayings feature kahikatea. The Nga Potiki people have a story about its origins. A chief from Aotearoa, Pou-ranga-hua was blown out to sea in his canoe and was eventually cast ashore upon the island of Hawaiki. His canoe was destroyed and he stayed on the island where he was kindly treated by its people. Yet he yearned to return to his wife and home. He begged a huge bird, Tawhaitari, to fly him to Aotearoa. On approaching his homeland, Pou reached out his hand and stretching under the wings of the great bird, pulled out some of its finest downy plumes, which he threw into the ocean. From these plumes arose a lofty tree, which still bears fruit in the midst of the waters. A branch of this tree was broken off by the wind and cast ashore, and from this branch came all the kahikatea forests of Aotearoa.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI19870501.2.8
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Forest and Bird, Volume 18, Issue 2, 1 May 1987, Page 7
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159THE LEGEND OF TAWHAITARI Forest and Bird, Volume 18, Issue 2, 1 May 1987, Page 7
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