|
|
As with many important traditions, there are several versions, particularly in the Cook Strait region and in the north. In an account narrated by a man named Te Whetu of Te Āti Awa to the ethnographer Elsdon Best, Kupe travels down the west coast from the Auckland region to Taranaki, and then to the Cook Strait region. Here his two birds, which he had brought from Hawaiki, set off to the South Island to survey the new lands. One, a cormorant named Te Kawau-a-Toru, becomes ensnared at Te Aumiti, a narrow stretch of water off Rangitoto (D’Urville Island):
|
|
|
Mō ngā pūrākau rongonui, ehara i te mea kotahi anake te whakaaturanga. Ka kōrero a Te Whetu o Te Āti Awa ki a Te Pēhi mō te haerenga whakatetonga a Kupe atu i Tāmaki-makau-rau ki Taranaki, tatū rawa ki Te Moana-o-Raukawa. Nō tana taenga ki reira, ka rere ana manu nō Hawaiki kia tirotiro i ngā rohe o Te Wai Pounamu. Ka mate tētahi o ana manu, a Te Kawau-a-Toru ki Te Aumiti, he roma wai kei waho ake o Rangitoto-ki-te-tonga (D’Urville Island):
|
