Paikea He Toa O Te Moana - Paikea the Great Warrior of the Ocean

During a hurricane on Mauke, when many people perished, Paikea survived by clinging to some debris on which he was carried across to the island of Mangaia. His wife watched as he was washed away clinging to the debris. She waited and watched for his return from that cliff top until she died. She was buried there and her grave is marked and revered to this day.

Paikea's survival of the hurricane was seen as a miracle. The event led to his name being changed from Kahutia Te Rangi to Paikea. Paikea is the name of a species of crab, well known as the only crab able to survive hurricanes by the tenacity with which it clings to debris, no matter how strong the wind. Paikea lived on Mangaia for some time before leaving, never to be heard of on those islands again. Some of his descendants still live on Mangaia.

Paikea then appears in Aotearoa on the back of a whale. He left Rarotonga on a type of canoe called tohorā, one specially carved in the shape of a whale, hence its name tohorā, the word for whale. This is likely to be the origin of the legend that Paikea arrived in Aotearoa on the back of a whale.