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Māui, the Hercules of the South Pacific, an over-achiever, whose many names captured his temperament and attitude to life. Variously known as Māui tikitiki o Taranga, Māui i toa, Māui nukurau and Māui potiki he was innovative, daring and resourceful, an agent of change who turned Te Ao Maori (the Māori world) on its head. Harnessing fire, fishing up Aotearoa or in trying to overcome death Māui did it all.
Tarawera erupted in 1886. It was a cataclysmic unzipping of the mountain that split it in half. A firestorm engulfed the sleeping kainga ( village[s] ) on the lake’s edge, levelled the bush and rearranged the landscape. My koro (grandfather) was 9 years old. He lived at Te Wairoa. He survived the onslaught. His kainga is now a tourist attraction called, ‘The Buried Village.’ Koro says that none of them knew that it was the next day until they all heard the rooster crow. His nanny carried him out on her back. The survivors made their way to Rotorua township. Their lives had changed forever.
