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[Archival audio (25 secs): All Black haka from the 1960s]
[Narrator] Lake Rotoaira, 10 kilometres south of Tūrangi, is the place where the famous
'Ka mate Ka mate' All Black haka was created. It was composed by Te Rauparaha, a famous
chief of the Ngāti Toa tribe, as he hid in a kūmara pit on the lake shore.
During the nineteenth century, Te Rauparaha, achieved notoriety for attacking powerful
neighbours in the Waikato. He then added to his reputation by boldly claiming the mana,
or prestige, of a dying chief from his mother's Waikato tribe, Ngāti Raukawa, which further
raised his profile.
However, during a ceremonial tour of other Ngāti Raukawa sub-tribes, which was designed
to consolidate his chiefly rank, he soon found that his past violent deeds made others uneasy.
Worse still, enemies made as a result of his earlier forays now sought to kill him. Te
Rauparaha fled the Waikato, seeking shelter on the southern shores of Lake Taupō from
the powerful Ngāti Tūwharetoa tribe. But the Tūwharetoa paramount chief, who considered
Te Rauparaha to be an upstart, turned him away. With his pursuers closing in, Te Rauparaha,
hoped to find refuge with another subtribe of Tūwharetoa, who lived on an island in
Lake Rotoaira.
Fortunately for Te Rauparaha, the chief at Lake Rotoaira, Te Wharerangi, took pity on
him. As his pursuers closed in on Te Rauparaha, Te Wharerangi directed him to hide in a nearby
kūmara pit. Then the chief's wife, Te Rangikoaea, squatted over it to hide him.
Usually a chief such as Te Rauparaha would go to great lengths to avoid such a humiliating
situation. According to tikanga, or Māori custom, a chief's body is tapu (sacred) and
it is a great dishonour is to be placed beneath a woman's genitals. But Te Rauparaha's life
was at stake - he would be killed if he didn't stay hidden in the pit.
As Te Rauparaha hid beneath his host's wife, and his pursuers arrived on the island to
question Te Wharerangi, Te Rauparaha murmured, 'Ka Mate! Ka Mate!' or 'it is death! It is
death!' But as his pursuers moved away, convinced by Te Wharerangi's assurances that Te Rauparaha
had fled south, Te Rauparaha sensed a reprieve and murmured, 'Ka ora! Ka ora!' or 'It is
life! It is life!'
And those two phrases became the beginning of Te Rauparaha's haka. When he finally emerged
from his kūmara pit, he performed that haka to thank his protectors, and also to reclaim
the mana that he had lost by hiding underneath a woman's body.
Today Lake Rotoaira is the central reservoir of New Zealand's most complex hydro-electric
generation system. Here the waters from numerous rivers on the sides of Mount Ruapehu, Ngāuruhoe
and Tongariro are held before being pumped through a tunnel to the nearby Tokaanu power
station where they generate power on their way to Lake Taupō.
They generate power again when the lake flows into the Waikato River, which has eight hydro-electric
power stations.
The Tongariro Power Scheme captures almost all the water sources on the Volcanic Plateau,
and a tunnel nearly 20 kilometres long takes eastern waters to the underground Rangipō
power station. On its completion, the Tongariro Power Scheme supplied 10 per cent of the nation's
electricity. Today, it supplies only about 3.5 per cent.
A relief model of the Tongariro Power Scheme can be seen in the Tūrangi Visitors' Centre.
The power scheme has also added a cosmopolitan flavour to the town, for some of the Italian
tunnellers who worked on the project stayed on afterwards, often marrying local women.