Māui

Māui is one of Polynesia’s best-known mythological figures and he is generally associated with great accomplishments that span the world of gods and mankind. The standard Māui stories are well known from his beginnings as a discarded foetus, his rivalry with his older siblings who he meets later in life, securing fire from his ancestor, capturing the sun and forcing it to slow down, turning his brother-in-law into a dog, fishing up the North Island and ultimately failing to overcome Hine-nui-te-pō.

In southern New Zealand, the major distinction regarding the traditions of Māui are that he is also an ocean adventurer and explorer and he is the captain of his own waka, Māhūnui or Mahutūkiteraki. Whilst travelling the Pacific Ocean he sights land from a distance but thinks it is simply an ocean mirage, Kā Tiritiri o te Moana – the poetical name for the Southern Alps. Māui made land fall at Bruce Bay, Te Tauraka Waka o Māui, and then headed south to Piopiotahi, or Milford Sound, which is named after his pet piopio bird.

Māui continued his journey along the southern coast, leaving his name upon the landscape. Māui is a great sandstone column jutting out of the sea on Puketeraki Beach. Ōmāui is a small settlement south west of Invercargill and Pukekura, at the mouth of the Otago Harbour, is the place where Māui repaired the sail of his famous canoe after it was ripped by the wind.