Maori Folk-Tales of the Port Hills

The hills above Christchurch were named and storied long before the town existed. Cowan set down what the elders told him about the Port Hills and the harbour below them: the ancestors, the fortified pa along the ridges, the taniwha in the water, the fights, the crossings, the places where each thing happened. Short tales collected while the people who held them were still willing to tell them.