Free Preview : MAUI

Our only other line of defence against our larger metropolitan city was using Maori mythology. Apparently the North Island is the 'Fish of Maui', while the South Island was his canoe, and the southernmost island, Stewart Island, was his anchor. Maui was a demi-god in Maori mythology who carried out all sorts of tasks such as slowing the sun down by restraining it, and beating it to a pulp. He was not unlike Homer's Odysseus, a bit of a wily character that used cunning and underhanded plans to succeed.
Maui managed to sneak on board his brothers' canoe one day and went out fishing with them. After a while, he hooked a rather large fish, shaped like a stingray. He planted his foot on what is now Bank's Peninsula, and hauled the fish to the surface. His magical fishhook, made out of the jawbone of his grandmother and then smeared with his own blood, is the curved bit of the North Island called Hawke's Bay.
Seeing the fish was clearly a big catch, Maui went off to appease the other gods so that he might gift it to humankind. In the meantime, his brothers set to carving up the fish, creating the mountains and valleys. Now, like most religions and mythology, all this is a bit hard to swallow. The story was passed down orally through the generations, seeing the Maoris had no written language. What amazed me is if the Maoris had no written language, how did they know how the landmasses of New Zealand were shaped? That would require not only great navigational skill, but knowledge of cartography and longitude.
Fishermen are well renowned for their stories of the 'one that got away', but you have to admit, that this myth is a whopper. I wonder whether they had been drinking at the time. It has been presupposed that you can picture the 'Fish of Maui' from space, where Wellington is its head, with Wellington Harbour and Lake Wairarapa its eyes and New Plymouth and Gisborne its fins, which, anatomically speaking, makes Auckland its arsehole.