Aoraki and Tūterakiwhanoa

Te Waka o Aoraki and Tūterakiwhanoa feature as the oldest stories that connect to Otago. Aoraki was one of the senior progeny from the first marriage of Rakinui (male) to Pokohāruatepō (female). The second marriage of Raki (Rakinui) was to Papatūānuku. Aoraki and his brothers were interested in Raki’s new wife and descended from the heavens in their canoe (waka) to greet Papatūānuku. The meeting appears to have been amicable but when Aoraki attempted to ascend to their celestial home, a mistake was made in the requisite prayers and the canoe began to list. Aoraki and his crew scrambled to the high ground but were caught by the sun’s rays and turned to granite, becoming the highest peaks of the Southern Alps.

It was the nephew of Aoraki, Tūterakiwhanoa, who was charged with the responsibility to determine the whereabouts of his uncles and he discovered that they and their waka had become an island in the vast ocean. After a period of grieving he grasped his great adze, Te Hamo, and set about shaping the canoe and its inhabitants so that it could be an inhabitable land mass.

He carved out the sounds in Fiordland and Marlborough and formed the peninsulas along the eastern seaboard including Otago Peninsula, Huriawa Peninsula and the Moeraki Peninsula. He left guardians in place namely Kahukura and Rokonuiatau. These atua kaitiaki (guardians) remained in place right up until the time the old religion was abandoned, and Christianity was adopted.

After the entire South Island had been shaped fit for habitation, Tūterakiwhanoa returned to Piopiotahi or Milford Sound. It was brought to his attention that the Sound was so beautiful that those who saw it would never move on. His relation, the goddess Hine-nui-te-po left behind the small namunamu, or sandfly, to ensure that nobody would stay put in the area for too long