Tamatea's father was
Rongokako, himself the son of Tamatea Arikinui who captained the
Tākitimu canoe on its journey from
Hawaiki to
New Zealand. His mother was Muriwhenua. In some versions, he is said to have been born in
Hawaiki. He received his second name,
Urehaea ("cut penis"), because he was
circumcised.
Circumnavigation of New Zealand When Tamatea came of age, he engaged the craftsman Kauri to build a canoe for him at
Whangaroa, which he named
Tākitimu after his grandfather's vessel. He gathered a crew of seventy men and set off to circumnavigate New Zealand. For most of this circumnavigation, Tamatea alternated between paddling in the canoe and walking on the shore, while his companions sailed the canoe. He set out from Tauranga Bay, just east of Whangaroa. From there, he travelled down the east coast to
Te Whanganui a Tara (
Wellington Harbour), where he crossed Raukawa (
Cook Strait) and travelled down the east coast of the
South Island until he reached
Murihiku, turned west, and travelled up the west coast to
Cape Farewell. From there he sailed straight across the sea to
Whanganui. Then he travelled north past
Port Waikato. According to Northland traditions, he explored
Kaipara and
Hokianga harbours. Travelling around
North Cape, he returned to Tauranga Bay. For these feats, he received the name
Pōkai-moana ("explorer of the seas").
Henry Matthew Stowell (Hare Hongi) calls him "the most famous navigator of purely Maori history" after
Tamarereti. ) In a South Island Māori account, Tamatea was shipwrecked at
Te Waewae Bay as he rounded Murihiku and his canoe became the
Takitimu Mountains. He then walked north to
Kaiapoi, where he called out to
Mount Tongariro for help. A vast fire came down from the mountain along the
Whanganui River and over the Cook Strait, boiling away the water, so that Tamatea could walk all the way back to the central North Island. Tamatea took the fire with him and left it at various locations along the east coast of the South Island. In another version, he built a new canoe and sailed to Whanganui in it.
Expulsion from the North standing on a rock. After the circumnavigation, Tamatea went to the nearby
Rangaunu Harbour and married the three daughters of Ira and Tekeru-wahine: Te Onoono-i-waho, Iwipupu, and Te Moana-i-kauia. Tamatea established a settlement called Tinotino at
Ōrongotea, where he and his men hunted
kererū in such great numbers that the location was renamed
Kaitaia, which means "food in abundance." When his son Kahungunu was born, he buried the child's
umbilical cord nearby with three
whatu-kura (sacred stones), so that it would be an
iho-whenua, a link which would bind the land to him. These actions angered the local people, who banded together under
Ruakerepeti to drive him out of the region. They built fortresses at
Whangape, Rangaunu,
Herekino,
Ahipara, Hukatere, and Rangiaohia, hemming Tamatea in. Tamatea responded by digging a great trench, intended either to flood the Kaitaia area with seawater or with water from the Kaitaia stream, thereby making the land useless to anyone. However, the tools kept breaking and he had to give up the task. Traces of his efforts were still pointed out as of 1944. Two traditional sayings are associated with this canal: ("Oh Kauri! These adzes are broken!") and ("Let them break. They are broken in the many tasks of the son of Tawake.").
Migration to the East Coast and inland exploration fish. Departing from Kaitaia, Tamatea travelled to Te Aurere in
Mangōnui harbour. The local people exhorted him to settle there, but he refused, saying ("a shoal of maomao fish that passes beyond Nukutaurua never returns"), which has become proverbial. Nukutauria is a rock at the mouth of Mangōnui harbour. Instead, he settled at his grandfather's old settlement of Maungatawa at Kawhai-nui. Eventually, he departed, leaving the settlement to his son Ranginui. ). From here, he travelled to
Ōpōtiki. He remained there until he heard that his son Kahungunu had married
Rongomai-wāhine at
Māhia Peninsula and that she was pregnant. He gathered presents and set out to bless the newborn. He travelled up the
Waioeka River, where his pet
karoro (
kelp gull) turned to stone. The stone bird remained a local landmark as of 1944. When Tamatea came to Moumoukai, a village near
Mōrere, he received the news that Rongomai-wāhine had given birth to a girl, who was the child of her previous husband, not Kahungunu. Tamatea threw the presents away in anger and went to Tapu-te-ranga island in Whanganui-a-rotu lagoon (now
Napier). The girl was named Hine-Rauiri ("castaway girl") as a result. Exploring inland, he identified the route through the
Ahimanawa and
Huiarau Ranges, going up the
Otamatea River, which was named after him. Travelling up the
Mangakopikopiko River, he nearly starved at Pohokura in the
Ruahine Range, but continued all the way overland to
Lake Taupō. On another trip, he went up the
Ngaruroro River over the Ruahine Range to
Waiouru and
Taihape. When he reached the
Moawhango River, he filled it with (freshwater crayfish). For this second journey, he received the name
Pōkai-whenua ("explorer of the land"). . From Moawhango, Tamatea set out on a final exploratory journey through the North Island, heading up the
Whanganui River and then going overland to
Lake Taupō. The
Tama Lakes between the
Volcanic Plateau and Lake Taupō were named after him Nga Puna a Tamatea ("The Water-springs of Tamatea"). From Taupō he sailed into the
Waikato River and was killed by the rough water at
Huka Falls or the
Aratiatia Rapids. Another version says that he survived going over the falls and walked back to Tauranga.
Family Tamatea married three daughters of Ira and Tekerau-wahine, a descendant of
Paikea, at Rangaunu and had children with all of them. By Te Onoono-i-waho, he had one son: • Te Whaene: :* Rongoiri ::* Ruariki :::* Pou-wharekura, who married her elderly great grand-uncle Kahungunu. By Iwipupu, he had one son: •
Kahungunu, ancestor of
Ngāti Kahungunu. •
Iranui, ancestor of
Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and
Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti. By Te Moana-i-kauia, he had a daughter and a son: • Haumanga, who married Tunanui Haruatai and settled with him at
Ōpōtiki, where she had two sons:, :*
Tūtāmure, by her husband :*
Tamataipūnoa, by a slave of her husband, Ahukawa. He married Tauhei-kurī, daughter of Kahungunu, and had two sons: ::* Tawhiwhi, who married Te Ahiwhakamauroa and died young. :::* Hine-pua, who married Tama-konohi: ::::* Karakia-rau: :::::*
Hikairo, ancestor of
Ngāti Hikairo. ::*
Māhaki, ancestor of
Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki. • Ranginui, ancestor of
Ngāti Ranginui. In addition, he was the father of: • Tamakopiri, ancestor of Ngāti Tama of
Ngāti Tūwharetoa. • Te-Papa-whaka-iri, father of Moe-puia, father of Whana-a-rangi, father of Apakura, who married
Whatihua of
Tainui and became the ancestor of
Ngāti Apakura.
Sources The story of Tamatea is recounted by J. H. Mitchell in
Takitimu. He draws the story of the initial circumnavigation from Henry Matthew Stowell (Hare Hongi) of
Ngāpuhi. The account of Tamatea's death on the upper Waikato River is given by
Thomas Lambert. ==Commemoration==