Legend - Kaingaroa

One day a priestess named Haungaroa explored the plains near Taupo.  She was not alone for she had companions with her and they had been sent out to explore the good places about that area.

Haungaroa was of lovely temperament.  She just went with the flow and never had a mean or nasty word within her being.  In the evenings when they set camp they worked together and gathered the wood, cooked the meals and prepared their sleeping places, but Haungaroa never spoke much at all.  She was more dreamy and seemed to have her mind in another place all of the time.

The other companions were chatty and catty.  They would talk about other wahine all day long, and not very nicely either.  Haungaroa would listen for a time and just close her mind to it because she did not like the things that came from their waha.

On the third evening they sat about their little camp and Haungaroa chewed her food thoroughly as she always did.  Her companions would quickly scoff their food down and then watch her silently.  On this third night however they began to tease poor lovely Haungaroa.
"Oh you do eat for so long"
"That is probably why she has a large ……"
The giggles were hysterical and yet the teasing carried on.

Haungaroa ignored them. The next night she again was poked at and jeered about, and the night after and the night after.  Each night the teasing became worse and worse.

She did not change her eating habits because unlike her companions Haungaroa liked to be regular.

On the tenth night, their last night, Haungaroa could stand it no longer, she exploded and lay a curse on these horrible indecent woman who claimed to be priestess yet all she ever heard from them was negative backstabbing, whining and complaints.

She returned to her village alone and had to explain what had become of her colleagues to her superior and was dumbstruck to find that there would be no consequence.

The plains that she so thoroughly explored became known as Kaingaroa which means Long Meal, the full name is Te Kaingaroa a Haungaroa, 'The Long meal of Haungaroa.'  And what happened to her companions?
They still remain out on the Kaingaroa Plains as cabbage trees!

Maori-in-Oz.com gratefully acknowledge Sara Delamere for sharing the above Legend.