Waka Tipua

Canoe (waka) traditions abound throughout Polynesia as the mode of transportation of everything from fanciful beings to actual ancestors who traversed the oceans. A waka tipua is one that is associated with those beings that were from a mythological realm but were not actually gods or people. There were several early mythical canoes that visited the shores of Otago. Of note were Te Waka Huruhuru Manu and Te Waka A [sic] Raki who are recorded as being responsible for transporting ogre like characters to Te Waipounamu including Kopuwai, who became the Obelisk on the Old Man Range; Pouakai, a gigantic man-eating bird, and Kārara-hua-rau, a deceitful lizard who lured unwitting spouses to their death.

Te Waka A [sic] Raki was under the captaincy of Taiehu who cleaved the seas apart with his axe and who is remembered in the small rocky peaked hill immediately east of the Ōtākou Marae, Te Atua o Taiehu.