Rākaihautu

Rākaihautu is associated with the Uruao canoe and the Waitaha people. There are several different versions of the journey but the storyline recounts Rākaihautu leading the people away from war on a small island in the Pacific. Their canoe made landfall in Marlborough and then the party split up. Te Rakihouia, the son of Rākaihautu, took the canoe and explored the coastline of the South Island while Rākaihautu led the exploration of the land on foot.

With the help of a mighty digging stick Rākaihautu discovered, named, and dug out nearly all the significant freshwater lakes in the South Island. He started at Rotoiti and continued his inland journey through the McKenzie Country and Central Otago, discovering all the interior, glacial fed lakes. Eventually Rākaihautu circled through Southland and while heading north he came upon, and dug out, Lake Waihora (Waihola). Rākaihautu and his party then stopped at the mouth of a river to eat, close to modern Dunedin. Their food was a recently killed seabird known as a karae, so this particular location and the river was called Kai-karae. This is now the well-known Kaikorai Stream, the name ‘Kaikorai’ being corrupted from the traditional name, ‘Kaikarae’.

Both parties of travellers met up at the Waihao stream north of Waitaki and made their way to Akaroa where they established the first South Island settlement. Although alternative versions of this story often include different groups of people such as Rapuwai, Māeroero and Kāti Hāwea they are generally remembered as the Waitaha people.