Mrs+Haerewa+-+Paikea+and+the+whale




 * Paikea **

According to legend, Paikea came to New Zealand from the Pacific Islands on the back of a whale many centuries ago. His descendants include the Kati Kuri people of Kaikoura.

Paikea was the youngest and favourite son of the chief Uenuku from the island of Mangaia in the present day Cook Islands. This favouritism made Paikea's elder brothers extremely jealous. They conspired to kill Paikea while fishing offshore and tell Uenuku he drowned. But the night before the trip Paikea feigned sleep and overheard his brothers plotting. When far out to sea, Paikea foiled their plan by deliberately sinking the canoe and drowning his brothers.

Now adrift in a great ocean, Paikea clung to a canoe plank and awaited his own death. It was then that Tohora the whale appeared and lifted Paikea onto his great back. Tohora took Paikea south to New Zealand and the settlement of Whangara just north of present day Gisborne. Here, Paikea began a new and prosperous life.

Many years later one of Paikea's sons, Tahupotiki, travelled further south and became the founder of the great South Island tribe of Ngai Tahu. It is from Tahupotiki and Paikea that the Ngai Tahu and Kati Kuri of Kaikoura claim descent.