Pages

Sunday 5 April 2015

The Legend of Taranaki





In Māori legendTaranaki is a mountain being that lived peacefully for many centuries in the centre of New Zealand's North Island with three other mountains, TongariroNgauruhoe and Ruapehu.
Nearby stood Mount Pihanga. Covered in a cloak of deep green forest she presented a stunning sight and all the mountain gods were in love with her.
Taranaki dared to make advances to Pihanga and was reproached by Tongariro and a mighty battle ensued between them. The earth shook and the sky became dark as the mountains belched forth their anger. When the battle ended the lovely Pihanga stood close by Tongariro's side. Taranaki, wild with grief and jealously, angrily wrenched his roots from the ground and left the other mountains.
Weeping, he plunged towards the setting sun, gouging out a deep wide trench. When he reached the sea he turned north and stumbled up the coast. As he slept that night the Pouakai Ranges snared and trapped Taranaki in the place he now rests.
The next day a stream of clear water sprang from the side of Tongariro. It flowed down the deep scar Taranaki had left on his journey to the coast to form the Whanganui River.
There are those who say that Taranaki is silently brooding and will one day try to return inland again to fight Tongariro. Consequently many Māori were wary of living in the area between the mountains.

4 comments:

  1. Caro
    Good job I did not now some of this stuff but now I do.How did you find out this stuff?
    Jayden.F

    ReplyDelete
  2. Caro
    I really appreciate the effort that you've gone to with this post. We talked about Hyper Linking and adding information and sources and you've done a fantastic job with that. This is a huge amount of information for someone who wanted to know more about our area.
    Mr Webb

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Caro,

    What lovely language you used in this post. I love your use of adjectives, adverbs and verbs. Your choice of language brought this story alive.

    Well done on your hyperlinking too.

    I live in Ireland. Like New Zealand we have lots of myths and legends too.

    Keep up the good work,

    Merry Beau

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for visiting m'y blog

    ReplyDelete