Tayla -- Blogmeister

Hatupatu and the Birdwoman!

Long ago not far out of Rotorua lived a boy named Hatupatu. When his brothers went hunting he wanted to come but they said ‘no!’. Hatupatu got so hungry he broke into the pataka. Before his brothers got back he smothered himself in dirt and berry juice and pretended a war party broke in and stole all the food and hurt him! The next day he tried this same trick again but his brothers got suspicious and hid. When they saw him they threw spears at him and Hatupatu ran deep into the forest and fell asleep. He was woken up by the fluttering of wings. He stepped back and he broke a twig. She tried to kill him but he was too fast for her! But what he didn’t know was that he was in her hands! She was flying to an old whare on a huge pole. She said ‘do not try to escape because my birds and lizards will tell me!’
When she was gone he put all the animals in an old net, but he missed one. Hatupatu grabbed the clothes and ran for his life. Then all of a sudden she was right behind him. He saw a huge rock he called “open rock” and to his surprise it opened. Hatupatu jumped in and closed it. An hour later it opened and out he ran. Then the bird-woman chased him across the mud pools. A mud pool squirted up and killed her. When Hatupatu arrived he gave his brothers each a cloak and they took him hunting.

By Tayla