Kia ora! Greetings from Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud, a/k/a New Zealand. Much as Polynesian voyagers traveled several thousand miles north to Hawaii from the Marquesas and Tahiti, they also navigated south across the vast Pacific to the three major islands of New Zealand: Te Ika a MÄui (“the fish of Maui,” or the North Island), Te Waka a MÄui (“the canoe of Maui,” or the South Island) and tiny Te Punga a MÄui (“the anchor of Maui,” or Stewart Island).
The MÄori (as it’s spelled now) of New Zealand also call the South Island Te Wai Pounamu, “water of the greenstone,” for its prized jade, and you’ll sometimes see “Te Ika O Maui” and “Te Waka O Maui” and other variants … but that’s not what really matters to those with an interest in Hawaiiana. It’s the fact that this is the same Maui who figures in so many Hawaiian legends and lent his name to the Valley Isle…Â More info
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