Description
Nga Hautupua I Eke Tai Roa
12 hand drawn maps by Barry Brailsford, text by Barry Brailsford with translation to Te Reo Maori by Romana Potts.
Heroes, covers twelve hundred years of voyaging by Waitaha navigators. It embraces remarkable voyages between Te Pito o Te Ao (Easter Island) and Aotearoa/New Zealand, to the Sub-Antarctic Islands and to South America. Their huge double-hulled catamarans sailed remarkable distances on strong ocean currents they called Long Tides. These ocean currents are among the fastest in the world and could carry them 200 kilometres in a day. Some voyages involved island hopping but many did not.
Danger stalked these Long Tides. The Octopus, their name for the wild seas created when two currents collided, tested their courage and skill. Usually they won through but death often hovered close. They accepted that danger. Drowning in the arms of Tangaroa was considered a noble death.
Ngā Hautupua, ko ngā hōpara maha ā ngā Pae Ārahi o Waitaha, i toro atu rā mō ngā tau kotahi mano rua rau. E ū ana ngā kōrero nei ki ō rātou tini wharaunga, mai i Te Pito o Te Ao ki Aotearoa, ā, ki ngā motu o ngā maunga huka, atu ki Hawaikiroa ki te tonga anō hoki. i whakaterehia e ō rātou pahī taparua nui mā ngā au moana tino rīrā, i meingatia e rātou ko ngā tai roa. Ko ēnei tai he tino tere rawa atu, horekau he tai i tere atu i ēnei, ā ka taea te kawea ngā pahī atu i te rua rau kiromita, i te kotahi rā. I ētahi hōpara ka tū ki ngā motu, engari te nuinga i haere tōtika ki te whenua i tāwāhi.
Nā roto i ēnei tai roa, he mea mōrearea e konihi haere ana. Ā ko te Wheke tērā, he ingoa nā rātou i tapa, mō tētahi moana hūkerikeri kua ahuahungia e te tukitukitanga o ngā tai e rua. Otirā, he wāhi anō tēnei e whakapātaritari ana i ō rātou pūkenga, māia hoki, pau te kaha. Te nuinga o te wā i puta, engari, I ētahi wā ko mate e topa tata ana. Heoi, ahakoa he mōrearea e puta ana, ka tū tōkeke te tikanga, i te mea ka mate koe i ngā ringa a Tangaroa, he mana hira tō te mate nei.
