Mokoia Island
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Mokoia Island is located in Lake Rotorua in New Zealand. It has an area of 1.35 square kilometres. The uninhabited<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> island is a rhyolite lava dome, rising to 180 metres above the lake surface. It was formed after the Rotorua caldera collapsed and rhyolitic magma was pushed through the cracks. One of the cracks was below where Mokoia island is today. The foreshores of the island have geothermal springs with hot spring water forming the Hinemoa pool, known to locals as Waikimihia. It also has very rich volcanic soil, which was why the local Māori grew kūmara on it. The stone statue of Matuatonga on the island protected the island's kūmara crop, and tohunga would bring seed kūmara to touch the statue.<ref name="TeAoHou">Template:Cite journal</ref> It was also a very good strategic location, which was why it was often fought over.
Mokoia Island is privately owned by local Māori iwi, who run it in conjunction with the New Zealand Department of Conservation. It is a bird sanctuary and access is limited to tour parties only. It is home to several rare species, including the North Island kōkako, the North Island brown kiwi, and a breeding population of the endangered North Island saddleback.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The island is also the location of regular Mau rākau training camps in the Māori martial art of taiaha.
Hinemoa and Tūtānekai
The island is sacred to Māori of the Te Arawa iwi, and is the location of one of the most famous legends of New Zealand, that of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai, which has parallels with the classical Greek tale of Hero and Leander.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
According to legend, the two lovers were forbidden to marry, and Hinemoa's father Umukaria, a chief from the shores of the lake, ordered that she not be allowed to travel by canoe to Tūtānekai's tribal village on the island. Hinemoa decided to swim 3.2 kilometres across the lake to the island, guided by the sound of Tūtānekai's flute-playing. For flotation she wrapped rushes (a type of reed) around her and swam her way to the island.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>The legend of Hinemoa and Tutanekai at RotoruaNZ.com Template:Webarchive</ref> According to another version, she made a flotation device from gourds.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The island is the setting of the Te Arawa version of the widely known traditional Māori love song "Pōkarekare Ana", which references the story of Hinemoa and Tūtānekai.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The lyrics imply Hinemoa's crossing the lake to reach Tūtānekai.
See also
References
External links
Template:Coord Template:Rotorua District Template:Authority control
- Pages with broken file links
- Taupō Volcanic Zone
- Lake islands of New Zealand
- Rotorua
- Māori mythology
- Māori culture
- Protected areas of the Bay of Plenty Region
- Uninhabited islands of New Zealand
- Pleistocene lava domes
- Private islands of New Zealand
- Rotorua Volcanic Centre
- Rift volcanoes
- Lava domes of New Zealand