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.