Kupe and the Discovery of Aotearoa

6. - First People in the Traditions of M?ori - Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Kupe was the first Polynesian to explore the New Zealand archipelago. He travelled there because of problems in Hawaiki, his home country, where he had to fish. Koupe went in his boat to shoot the squid, and that was the length of the persecution that took him to New Zealand.

In another kayak named T?whirirangi with a fellow named Ngake (or Ngahue), he tracked the beast to Cook Strait (known as Raukawakawa), where it was eventually wiped out. Kupe's advent is of great importance, and many strains are trying to quote a relation to him.

They say that his woman, Kuram?r?tini, invented the name Ao-tea-roa ("long cloud") when she first saw the North Island. As at M?ui before him, Kupe's advent is a foot in the country for M?ori Most of his adventure took place in the areas of Southern Wairarapa, Cook Strait and Northland.

But in some editions he traveled as far as Arahura on the western shore of the southern island and to the Coromandel Peninsula. Like many important tradition, there are several varieties, especially in the Cook Strait area and the northern part. Awa to the anthropographer Elsdon Best, Kupe is travelling along the western coastline from the Auckland to Taranaki and then to the Cook Strait area.

It was here that his two migratory flocks, which he had taken from Hawaiki, made their way to the South Island to explore the new land. One of them, a Kormoran called Te Kawau-a-Toru, is caught in Te Aumiti, a small river off Rangitoto ki te Tonga (D'Urville Island): Tales of Kupe are also told in the Nordic countries.

Kupe mentioned many places like Arap?oa, Mana, the Matiu Island (Somes Island) and M?karo in the Wellington, Kohukohu, Pouahi, Maungataniwha and Hokianga regions in the south. Whilst some of the other ancestor' s name have been forgotten, those associated with Kupe seem to have withstood it.