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Wai-ta-hanui
New Zealand’s oldest known tribe, said to have arrived more than 2,000 years
ago. Of the original 200 tribes that dominated the islands, only 140 mixed descendants
were still alive in 1988. The Waitahanui were supposed to have been prodigious
mariners who navigated the world in oceangoing sailing ships, and raised colossal
stone structures, of which the Kaimanawa Wall is the last surviving example. Also
known as the Waitaha, or Urukehu, the “People of the West” were fair-skinned,
hazel-eyed redheads, who came from a splendid kingdom overwhelmed by the sea.
(See Mu, The Kaimanawa Wall)Wai-Tepu
The Brazilian Indians’ forefather, who arrived long ago after his island home
in the Atlantic Ocean caught fire. As he and his family sailed away to South
America, their burning homeland collapsed under the sea. His name, “Mountain
of the Sun,” implies volcanic Mount Atlas. Wai-Tepu’s story suggests the final
destruction of Atlantis.