One summer morning when Whātaitai was enjoying the morning sunshine at the north end of the lake, Ngake began circling around at high speeds yelling, "Today is the day that I will break free of this lake and swim in the endless sea!"
Ngake was adamant he had outgrown his home and soon convinced Whātaitai that they both needed to break free from the lake that imprisoned them. Ngake would swish his tail furiously, making huge waves that crashed against the lake's shore.Īs the years went by the two taniwha grew bigger, and the boundaries of their lake seemed to grow smaller.
Whātaitai would loll on his back in the middle of the lake dreaming, imitating the sea noises in his throat. Whātaitai and Ngake could only imagine what secrets the sea held. The sea is the home of Tangaroa, of Hinemoana and many others." When Ngake and Whātaitai were close to the south side of the lake, where the cliffs came down to the waters edge, they could hear the crashing waves of the ocean falling on the shores nearby so when sea birds flew overhead, Ngake and Whātaitai often yelled to them, "Tell us, sea birds, what is so special about the sea?"Īnd the birds would always reply, "The sea is deep, it's vast, it's wide, it's where many different fishes hide. Whātaitai was the opposite, he preferred to laze on the lake's shores, sunbathing and dreaming taniwha dreams. He liked to race around the shores, chasing fish and eels and leaping after birds that came too close. Ngake and Whātaitai had a great life in their special lake, with all the time in the world to do as they pleased. Ngake and Whātaitai lived here in the lake at the head of the fish of Māui (Te Ika-a-Māui). In those times, Wellington Harbour, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, was a lake cut off from the sea, and abundant in fresh water fish and native bird life. Once long ago, before the time of Kupe, when Te Ika-a-Māui was just fished from the depths of the ocean, there lived two taniwha, Ngake and Whātaitai.
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