This article is about the most important figure in New Zealand’s mythology.  Do you know who it was?

In one of my previous articles titled “New Zealand – One Big Volcano?” I already mentioned Maui. New Zealand’s ancient history is rich in myths and legends, but Maui clearly stands out from all other mythological characters.

Before telling more about Maui from Maori mythology, I should say that Maui is famous figure in all-Polynesian mythology and legends about him are told almost on every Polynesian land. In some legends he is regarded as demigod, in others he is fully divine, and yet in other myths Maui is human. But in this article I am interested in Maui as he appears in Maori mythology.

Maui is a demigod; he is kind, inquisitive, hardworking, courageous, loving, caring not only about his relatives, but also about all mankind. Thanks to Maui New Zealand was formed, tribes received fire, day became longer, and stars appeared on the sky.  Maui even courageously tried to relieve of death all that has life on earth, but died tragically in this battle.

Maui’s Biography

Birth

Cradle made from seaweed was drifting on the waves in the middle of endless ocean. A baby was lying in that cradle, and nothing except from the seaweed protected it from birds and marine predators. This baby was Maui, wrapped up in the hair of his mother Taranga (For some reason legends don’t tell us how cradle has appeared in the ocean in the first place. Maybe Maui’s brothers had something to do with this or it was just a Fate). Eventually sea cast the cradle ashore. Seaweed has dried, ceasing to protect the baby, and then birds grew bolder and began attacking the child bringing him to tears. An ancient god Tama (his full name was Tama-nui-ki-te-rangi, and he is also known as Rangi) heard the baby cry, descended to earth and took Maui to his home. This was the first adventure in Maui’s life.

Growing Up

Maui grew up, Tama shared his wisdom with the boy teaching him habits and language of birds, secrets of fishing and various magic spells. At some point Maui found out about his family and decided to get back to them. Tama sadly let the boy go prophesying him a lot of adventures, feats, glory and long memory in hearts of people. Wise Tama already knew that Maui won’t win his last battle, but he also knew that it wouldn’t diminish the gratitude from people.

Meeting Mother

After walking several miles Maui saw a hut and felt that his mother is inside. He looked through the window inside and saw his brothers and mother dancing. Maui quietly stepped inside and joined the dancing. When they noticed him, Maui told his story and his family named him Maui-the-girdle-of-Taranga. Maui’s appearance in the family became a real punishment for his four brothers – he was luckier and more successful in everything he did: kite flying, running, throwing a dart, diving. When the annoyed brothers wanted to teach him a lesson, Maui used spell that he learned from Tama and escaped them as a bird.

Meeting Father

Only one thought disturbed Maui: he never saw his father. Every evening Maui fell asleep beside his mother, but when we awoke in the morning his mother was gone, returning only in the evening. When Maui asked his brothers where Mother goes every day, they told him that it has never interested them, and Maui decided to find out by himself. He did a trick – when everybody fell asleep he closed all the windows so that sunlight wouldn’t wake his mother the next morning. As a result his mother woke up late and Maui could spy on her. He found out that during the day his mother visits his father who was living in the underground world. His father very happy to meet his youngest son and then he preformed the ceremony which made Maui to be warrior.

Wait for my next post to find out what happened next! My second post about Maui is titled Attempt at Immortality

New Zealand is “first” in many different areas. When reading about the country, you will find the word “first” describing many of its properties. Lets see here some of the fields in which New Zealand is first.

1.The Best Country on Earth
According to United States National Geographic society, New Zealand is the most attractive country to live in. They took in account the following parameters: Climate, population density, national relations, safety, availability and quality of education, ecology, and more. Wellington and Auckland are in the top ten best cities of the world.

2. Has Largest man-made Forest
The government owned forest “Kaingaroa”, which is located on the North Island, is the largest forest in the world created by humans. Its area is 150,000 hectares.

3. Flora and Fauna diversity
There are no predators, snakes and poisonous insects in the country. There are about 80,000 different species of flora and fauna in New Zealand. Part of them survived from Jurassic period, the best example being the Kiwi.

4. Famous people of New Zealand
Sir Edmund Hillary – with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first in the world to ascent Mount Everest in 1953. Naomi James was the first woman to sail single-handed around the world. Peter Blake was one of the great yachtsmen and explorers in the world. Wendy Pye, entrepreneur from Auckland, created a reading learning system. Her “Sunshine Books” series were sold worldwide in more than 180000000 copies. Lucy Lawless is a famous New Zealand actress and singer best known for playing the title character of the television series “Xena - Warrior Princess”.

5. Inventions of worldwide importance
New Zealanders built the fastest motorcycle in the world – Britten, invented a jet boat, and disposable syringes. Alexander Mackay invented the telephoto lens. Ernest Rutherford was also known as “father” of nuclear physics. He discovered the Rutherford scattering off the nucleus and thus pioneered the orbital theory of the atom.

6. More of the Best
Wellington is the southernmost capital of the world. Here is located one of the most original and unique architectural constructions of the country – “Beehive”, the parliament building. Also located in Wellington – National Museum Te Papa Tongarewa. I you’ll decide to read every sign for every exhibit in Te Papa it will take you full eight days! In the National Library there is huge archive of newspapers, so that if you will put all of them one on top of the other, you they will rise to the height of 1 kilometer (3,280 feet)!

7. The most caring Country
New Zealand was the first country in the world to pay pension to senior citizens, decided on eight-hours work day and then five days work week.

So as you can see New Zealand’s importance in the modern world development can hardly be overestimated.

This is a fifth article in Volcano Series, the previous is titled New Zealand - One Big Volcano?

The shape of New Zealand’s islands and landscape as we see it nowadays are not static but in constant dynamic change. Volcanic activity of the region is still very high. There are six volcanic active zones on New Zealand’s territory, five of which located on the North Island. Annual amount of earthquakes is about 15000! Though most of them are minor and only about 250 earthquakes can be counted as significant.
I would like to present here few examples of recent volcanic activity in New Zealand. Nowadays most of New Zealand’s volcanoes are dormant but they are still very impressive.

Rangitoto – Youngest and Largest

Take Rangitoto for instance. It is a volcano-island located 20 minutes sail from Auckland piers. Rangitoto is the youngest and the biggest in Auckland Volcanic Field. Its eruption began about 700 years ago and continued for 200 years growing a whole island, and it is dormant ever since. Rangitoto is 260 meters high (853 feet) above sea level. Now it is covered with Pohutukawa forest. In late December – early January Pohutukawa trees blossom covering the whole island in beautiful red color. In Maori language “Rangitoto” means “Skies stained with blood” (which is only one of the versions) – and this is how people see it every Christmas. Island’s soil formation isn’t finished yet, and inflows of lava can be seen all over the island, volcanic rubble crackles under your feet almost anywhere you go. In certain places on the island lava caves-corridors are found, they were created when rivers of lava have shoaled. In sunny days the lava on Rangitoto gets heated a few degrees more than ordinary soil, making the temperature on the island a little higher than temperature in near Auckland. The amount of rainfall that Rangitoto receives each year is lower than Auckland’s. Nobody lives on the island nowadays; Maori say that it is a time bomb that can explode at any time. But many tourists visit Rangitoto each year, fascinated by the idea of being in the heart of volcano and magnificent views of the near islands and Auckland city.

Ruapehu – Active and Dangerous
Ruapehu is an active volcano located in one of the most beautiful national parks of New Zealand – Tongariro (North Island). Ruapehu is the highest mountain of the North Island (2795 meters or 9169 feet). It looks like truncated cone with two craters. These craters were created later as a result of later explosions. Its current status is described as “restless”. There is a high possibility of future volcanic activity of the mountain. Now the crater of Ruapehu forms a lake, and any even lightest eruption may result in lahar (a destructive mudflow on the slopes of volcano). Last significant lahar on Ruapehu occurred in 1953 destroying railway bridge, and killing 151 people who unluckily were on a train crossing that bridge at that exact time. Currently the water level in the Ruapehu Crater Lake rose to more than a meter from its previous level as a result of minor eruption on 4th October 2006 and now only 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) are separating between the water and crater rim. In order to prevent consequences from future lahars a complicated tracking system was built and all the bridges, roads and settlements were moved to safe distance from the volcano.

Volcanism – controversial phenomena
Volcanism is one of the most wonderful and impressive phenomena nature has to offer. Eruption may not only destroy cities and even continents but it also gives push to birth of new life, for example gave live to New Zealand (according to one theory). Theories exist claiming that volcanic processes contributed to the creation of our earth’s crust, atmosphere and hydrosphere. It is known for fact that volcanic areas have rich deposits of precious metals and minerals. Volcanoes made our Earth fertile, produced healing heat and hot springs in which people healed their illnesses. Volcanoes not just showed people terrible and frightening sights, but also encouraged humans to think and try to understand and explain the nature of volcanic activity. From such early efforts many legends about hell and other related subjects were born. Thanks to development of technology humans could descend into open volcano craters and gain an important knowledge, but at the same time more question aroused. The information that is hidden inside volcanoes is endless and I hope that they will reveal us more of their secrets and treasures in the future.

This is a fourth article in Volcano Series. The previous article is titled The might of volcano in numbers.

How New Zealand was created? A number of hypotheses exist. One of them claims that New Zealand archipelago was created as a result of huge volcano eruption. Our ancestors not so long ago witnessed how New Zealand’s landscape changed as a result of eruptions. New Islands were formed and other territories disappeared. One thing is clear – New Zealand is live and breathing organism, and some times it spits fire. It is sleeping now, but no one can be sure if or when it will wake up.
I would like to begin this fourth article in series of articles about volcanoes with a legend. This time we will go a long way back in time to ancient New Zealand, and our main character will be Polynesian demigod, owning to whom New Zealand’s islands were created and got their geologic volcanic structure. All this, of course, according to Maori famous legend.
Maui was very naughty boy, and he also was the youngest child in the family. Older brothers disliked him for being sharp-witted and lucky in everything. Once brothers decided to go fishing in the sea, and refused to take Maui along. So Maui hid on the canoe, and when brothers discovered him, it was too late to go back to shore. Maui asked his brothers to give him some bait, and since they didn’t share he decided to make his own. He hit himself on the nose and used his own blood as bait – he smeared it on his magic fishhook, which was made from his grandmother’s jaw. Soon he caught something - a huge fish was struggling to get free, and Maui tried so hard not to let it go that he broke one side of the canoe. After pulling the fish onto the boat, Maui quickly realized that he needs Magician help in order to calm this huge fish. But his brothers decided otherwise – they began touching it, hitting it with oars, and tearing of its scales. The huge fish started to shake in agony and finally turned into stone. This is how the North Island of New Zealand was created. If brothers would wait for the magician to calm the fish, North Island would be smooth, flat and very convenient for living, but instead it is abundant with hills, mountains and volcanoes. Maori name for the North Island is “Te Ika a Maui” – Maui Fish. If you look on the map of the North Island you may notice its resemblance to diamond-shaped fish with open mouth, fins and tail. If you can’t see it right away try to use your imagination! While the fish turned into stone and became North Island, canoe itself became the South Island, and its broken side became Banks peninsula. Canoe’s anchor became Stewart Island.
This beautiful legend to some extent echoes the real processes of geological formation of New Zealand’s archipelago. This “fishing day” of Maui and his brothers can be paralleled with processes that took place about twenty million years ago, when the Pacific tectonic plate began to shift onto Indo-Australian plate. The agony of Maui’s huge fish wonderfully reflects the volcanism and mighty earthquakes that occurred during the whole formation process of the Islands.
Chinese chronicles of the second century of our era describe events in which “the sky was red as blood”. These evens correspond also to ancient Roman chronicles of the same period. Roman chronicles tell us about very bright sunsets and sunrises, atmosphere turbidity and strange celestial occurrences. Such optic phenomena are usually result from huge volcanic eruptions. The only eruption on earth corresponding to these chronicles in terms of time and scale is the eruption of Taupo Volcano. Scientists calculated that this eruption was the most powerful in the last five thousand years and was ten times (!) more powerful than the famous Krakatau eruption (about Krakatau eruption you can read in Third Article of Volcano Series).
In the next article in Volcano Series I will deal with nowadays active volcanoes of New Zealand. My next article is titled Dynamic Volcanoes of New Zealand