Wakatipu and the Giant




Many of the Maori legends that shape New Zealand history are fascinating and creative!

One of my personal favorites was the one behind Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.

As you can see from this photo, this lake is a very unusual shape, with several little islands jutting into it. The Maori believed that this was the result of a fallen giant who was bested by a boy in love.

There are many versions of this story, but my personal favorite rendition was told to me by a sweet old man as he drove a shuttle full of exhausted tourists around the beautiful blue lake.

Long ago, there was once a Maori chief who had a lovely daughter known throughout the land for her beauty and kindness. Fearful that she would be taken away from him, the chief kept his daughter close and refused to let any man court her.

Unfortunately for a simple commoner, this meant he could only love the lady from afar.

When word of the lady's beauty reached the ears of a terrible giant, he stormed through the valley to find and take her for his own. He tied her to him with a magical cord.

Enraged and fearful, the chief sent word that he would give his daughter's hand in marriage to any man who could rescue her from the giant.

The commoner saw his chance and vowed he would be the one to save her.

One night, while the giant was fast asleep, curled up on his side, the boy crept up behind him and called to the chief's daughter. She very quietly slipped from the giant's grasp and ran to him, but try as he might, the commoner could not sever the cord!

Terrified that the giant would wake and kill the boy, the chief's daughter began to cry, and her tears fell upon the cord and began to dissolve it!

But before the two could make their escape, the chief's daughter feared that the giant would destroy the village in his anger if he found she'd escaped!

Never fear said the commoner, and he took his torch and set a great fire around the body of the sleeping giant. The fire burned so hot and so long that the giant disintegrated and left an enormous trench in the ground. All that was left of the giant was his stone heart.

As the couple made their way back to the village to be wed, the rains fell as a blessing upon their union and filled the trench with water to form the lake.

Today, you can see the islands in the lake formed from the giant's stone heart, and it is the slow beating of that heart that causes the rising and falling tide in the lake

Queenstown, New Zealand

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