Fortunately for those concerned, the wife of Tamatekapua, Whakaotirangi, refused to be parted from her supply of kumara and hid seven tubers in her kit which were planted at Maketu and over time multiplied to become many.

According to Stokes, the account best known amongst Whanau a Tauwhao relates that a decomposing body, that was further disfigured by the feeding of sea lice, was washed up in a cave at the Katikati Heads entrance below the pa Te Kura a Maia. The body was identified by its tattooing:

as being that of Pukeko of Ngati Tamatera, who had married a woman of Ngati Awa, and lived at Whakatane. On one of his journeys back to his own people, he had been drowned at sea. The body was hung on a tree in the cove called Paraparaumu, now known as Shelly Bay.¹⁵

No doubt the claimants will wish to present oral evidence to the Tribunal which more fully conveys these matters and the special significance of Otawhiwhi to them.

¹⁵ Stokes, 1980, p 20