Tamarereti

The people of the land were in danger because of a Taniwha that had lived in a lake. The land had no light so at night the Taniwha would come and eat anyone for a meal if they were near there home. People were terrified of going out at night.

During that time there was a warrior named Tamarereti, one morning Tamarereti woke up and his stomach was rumbling so he checked his kepu but it was empty so Tamarereti decided to go fishing on lake taupo in hope to catch some fish.

After fishing for a while Tamarereti had caught 3 large fish he was really happy until he realised that the wind had gone. It was mid morning and Tamarereti felt tired he thought that he would have plenty of time for the wind to come back so he took a little nap in his waka. After many hours later Tamarereti and his waka had washed onto shore so while he was sleeping the wind had picked up already, Tamarereti knew that he was in big trouble, his belly was still rumbling  so Tamarereti cooked some fish for him to eat. Since it was night Tamarereti knew the Taniwha would eat him. While Tamarereti was eating his kai he saw glistening pebbles glowing in the dark. This gave Tamarereti an idea,he gathered as many pebbles as he could and put them into his waka and threw them into the sky where they hung sparkling and shining, the lights had kept the taniwha away and made it safely back home. After a long day tamarereti fell straight asleep until noon. When he woke Tamarereti had a visitor waiting for him it was Ranginui god of the sky, Tamarereti was so scared of what he had done he had taken Ranginui’s black dark sky and filled it with lights. Tamarereti was sure to get punished but instead ranginui said ‘’Tena ko Tamarereti you have made the land safe and the sky more beautiful i would like to honor your change and cast your waka into the heavens so people will remember what you have done.Tamarereti was relieved and happy.