Hatupatu's Rock

Te Ao Hou, March 1965, Page 11

Hatupatu's Rock Our next stop was Hatupatu's rock. Hone Ratema told us the story as we stood by the rock searching for the scratches left by the long pointed fingernails of the witch Kurangaituku as she reached out to grab the fleeing Hatupatu. Well for Hatupatu that he remembered the spell taught him by his father, ‘Te kohatu nei-e, matiti, matata’, to open the rock and to dive in, to close it again and keep him safe from the cruel witch. It was an exciting story dramatically told by Hone in voice and gesture. He told us that we must leave an offering, and we placed some manuka sprigs inside the rock. He told us later that the perfect weather we had for the rest of the journey was our reward for this. There was a small hotel at Atiamuri—a four-roomed cottage. An eighteen gallon of beer stood in the bar and there were a few bottles of wine and spirits on a shelf. Ernest's choice of a drink was lime juice and the barman charged him an extra shilling for drinking it neat. Then we came to Oruanui where we had another warm welcome from the Maori residents. During the korero that followed, Hone Ratema told the people that one of our party had false teeth. This was discussed very seriously and two old ladies refused to believe the story. Nonsense they said, the teeth would fall out. And they would look very ugly.