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Hemi Matenga's Account of a whale

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Retold in
A remarkable story of how a dead whale made an effective substitute for a live taniwha and saved the lives of two survivors from a capsized canoe is told by Hemi Matenga, the old rangatira of Wakapuaka Bay, Nelson. About the year 1834 or 1835 a Maori canoe commanded by Paremata, the nephew of Te Puoho (one of Te Rauparaha's fighting chiefs, he who led the unlucky Ngatitama and Ngatiawa war-party down the West Coast and over the Haast Pass into Otago in 1836), set out from the Wellington side of Cook Strait bound for Arapawa Island. A heavy squall was encountered when The Brothers rocks were neared, and in the rough seas the canoe was swamped and lost, and all on board were drowned except two women. These women swam for a time, and then found themselves close to a huge whale which was drifting about dead. It had a harpoon in it with a line attached; it had been fastened to and lanced, probably by one of the shore whaling crews at Te Awaiti, Tory Channel, or at Kapiti Island, but had been lost. The women managed to climb on top of the whale andhold on by the iron, and there they stayed, though exhausted nearly to death, until the whale, drifting along before the wind and sea, was washed ashore near Okakare, at the entrance to Tory Channel. here the women reached land safely, and found their way over the hills to a settlement of their friends at Arapawa.

Korero o te Wa I Raraunga I Rauemi I Te Whanganui a Tara I Whakapapa