| Tainui | |
| Great Māori migration waka | |
|---|---|
| Commander | Hoturoa |
| Landed at | Whangaparaoa, Auckland |
In Māori tradition, Tainui was the name of one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand, approximately 800 years ago. The Tainui waka was named for an infant who did not survive childbirth. At the burial site of this child, at a place in Hawaiki known then as Maungaroa, a great tree grew; this was the tree that was used to build the ocean canoe.
Several Tuamotuan stories are told of canoes named Tainui, Tainuia (captained by Hoturoa) and Tainui-atea (captained by Tahorotakarari), that left the Tuamotus and never returned.
In Māori traditions, the Tainui waka was commanded by the chief Hoturoa. On its voyage the Tainui stopped at many Pacific islands, eventually arriving in New Zealand. Its first landfall was at Whangaparaoa in the Auckland region of the North Island. Tainui continued on to Tauranga, the Coromandel Peninsula and Waitemata. From Waitemata Harbour on the eastern coast, the canoe was carried by hand across the Tamaki isthmus (present-day Auckland) to Manukau Harbour on the western coast. From Manukau, Tainui sailed north to Kaipara, then southwards to the west coast harbours of Whaingaroa (Raglan), Aotea and Kāwhia. It continued further to south of the estuaries of the Mōkau and Mohakatini rivers before returning north to its final resting place at Maketu, Kāwhia harbour.
Crew members disembarked and at each landfall site along the way. Descendent groups formed several iwi, many associating under the Tainui confederation of iwi.
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