Tamarereti

A long time ago  in the deep dark sky there were no stars. In Lake Taupo there was a taniwha who always came out to hunt people.Then a young man called Tamarereti was hungry and his belly was rumbling so he got his waka and set off. Tamarereti caught three large fish and put them in his kete. The wind stopped blowing and he was tired so he had a little sleep on his waka. Suddenly the wind awoke and pushed his waka on a beach. Tamarereti felt a little bump. He found himself at lake taupo.

He lit a fire and cooked his three large fish.  After that  he knew that the taniwha would eat him so he woke up and gathered as many pebbles as he could have in his boat. Then he put them in his waka. He jumped in his waka and went out to the middle of the ocean and threw the pebbles up into the sky and then they became stars. Suddenly a glowing face came to him. His name was Ranginui. Then he said thank you for saving the sky. Now the scary taniwha won’t come after the people.