Ngā kōrero pakiwaitara mō ngā Tohora e Toru - The Story of Mangatawa, Hikurangi and Kōpukairoa

Long, long ago, a whale and her baby cruised into the harbour through the entrance past 
Maunganui and Matakana. They swam up the harbour past Te Papa and Matapihi toward 
Maungatapu. They found the water was getting more shallow and they turned round to 
return to deeper water. Unfortunately, they turned into the Rangataua arm of the harbour 
between Matapihi and Maungatapu. They knew which direction the ocean lay. They could 
hear the waves pounding on the beach at Omanu and Papamoa. They struggled over the 
mudflats of Rangataua, trying to find a way back to the open sea. They stopped at 
Karikari on the eastern shore of Rangataua. There was a spring there and they drank from 
it, because they were tired and thirsty. They did not know that this spring was magic. 
All life departed from the body of the mother whale and she was fixed there, gazing 
northward out to sea, known today as Mangatawa. The baby nestled beside the mother 
and was also fixed there as the smaller hill beside Mangatawa on the Papamoa side, the 
smaller hill called Hikurangi.

The father whale came into Tauranga Moana looking for his family. He followed them up 
the harbour and he too struggled across the Rangataua mudflats and drank at the spring 
at Karikari. He was also transformed into the high rounded hill south of Mangatawa that is 
called Kōpukairoa. 

There is still a spring at Karikari and it is called Te Waiū o te Tohorā, the milk of the whale. 
It is at the base of Mangatawa near the shore of Rangataua. Sometimes the water flowing 
from it is quite white, so it must be the milk from the whale, which rests there as a guardian 
of the people of Te Arawa and Tauranga Moana.

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Ngā kōrero pakiwaitara mō ngā Tohora e Toru
I ngā rā onamata, i kau mai tētahi Tohorā me tāna kūao, mai i te ngutu o Te Awanui ki roto 
ki te Moana o Tauranga.  I tētahi taha e tū ana te maunga nui o Mauao, ā, te anganui ki 
Mauao, ko te moutere o Matakana. Ka kau atu rāua i te wahapū ki tua atu o Te Papa, arā, 
i te wāhi e mōhiotia nei e te tāone o Tauranga. Ka kau tonu rāua, ā, ka whakarērea e rāua 
te tahuna o Waipu, ā, ka mau tonu tō rāua haere, ā, ka tae rāua ki te takiwā ki Maungatapu. 
I konei, ka kitea e rāua te pāpakutanga o te wai, ā, ka puta te whakaaro ki a rāua me huri 
whakamuri rāua ki te kimi i te hōhonutanga o te wai, ka mōhio hoki rāua, kua pōauau rāua.

Ka tae rāua ki te Tahuna o Rangataua, ki te wāhi e mōhiotia nei mō te huhua o ngā 
kaimoana, arā, mō te pipi, mō te tītiko, mō te maha o ngā ika, pērā i te tāmure, 
te kahawai, te araara, te pātiki, te kanae me erā atu momo ika e kitea ana i ngā wā e tika 
ana. Ko tēnei wāhi o te moana kei waenganui o Maungatapu me Matapihi. I reira, ka rongo 
rāua i te hāruru o te karekare i te onepū o Omanu me Papamoa. I konei, ka karawheta rāua, 
nā te mea, kua tino pāpaku te hōhonu o te wai. I a rāua, e karawheta ana, ka tūpono rāua 
ki tētahi puna wai i karikari, ā, ka inu rāua kia ngata ai tō rāua hiainu, engari kāhore rāua i 
mātau, he wai mākutu tēnei wai.

Ka puta te ha o rāua, ka whakakōhatutia rāua hei maunga tokorua. Ko te maunga rahi o 
rāua, ko te maunga e mōhiotia nei ko Mangatawa, ā, ko tēnei te Whaea Tohorā, ā ko te 
maunga itiiti, ko Hikurangi, ara, ko tēnei te Tohorā Kūao.

Nō muri ake, ka kau mai te Pāpā Tohorā ki te rapu haere i tōna whānau. Ka whai ia i 
te huarahi i kauria ai e tōna whānau, ā, ka tae atu ki te Tahuna o Rangataua, engari, kāhore 
ia i kite i tōna whānau. I roto i ōna whakapōhēhētanga me ōna karawhetatanga, ka tūpono 
hoki ia ki taua puna mākutu i Karikari, ā, ka inu ano ia i aua wai mākutu, engari kāhore i 
tere te mau o te mākutu ki a ia. Ka karawheta haere tonu te Pāpā Tohorā nei, ā, ka tae ki 
te wāhi e mōhiotia nei e Otepou, i reira ka uru atu te hōhonutanga o te mākutu ki a ia, ā, 
ka whakakōhatutia te Pāpā Tohorā nei, hei maunga. Ko ia te maunga e tū tonu nei, ā, 
e mōhiotia nei, ko Kōpukairoa.

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'Three Whales' sculpture by Peter Cramond outside Te Ao Mārama - Pāpāmoa Library [photo].