Tia

In Māori traditions, Tia was an early Māori explorer of Aotearoa New Zealand and a rangatira (chief) in the Arawa tribal confederation. Through his descendants, he is an ancestor of the Tapuika and Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi (tribes). He is responsible for the names of various features and settlements around the central North Island, most notably Lake Taupō. He might have lived around 1400. Life

Tia was born in Hawaiki to Tuamatua and Tauna. Together with his son, Tapuika, he travelled with Tama-te-kapua and Ngātoro-i-rangi on the Arawa canoe, which made landfall in New Zealand at Maketu in the Bay of Plenty. Te Hata says that when other members of crew started staking claims to land immediately after landing, Tia did not. D. M. Stafford says that he declared the area from Maketu west to Te Puke to be the belly of his son Tapuika. Later, Tapuika did settle in this area.

Exploration From Maketu, Tia set out with his brother Oro, Oro's son Māka, his own son Tapuika, and Hatupatu to explore the interior of the North Island. They first headed inland to Kaharoa, then continued to Lake Rotorua. From there Tia continued to Horohoro, which received its name because he touched the dead body of an important chief there and had to be cleansed by a tohunga in a ceremony called Te Horohoroinga-nui-a-Tia (the great cleansing of Tia). Other accounts say that this happened to Kahumatamomoe, not Tia. Tia met the Waikato River at Whakamaru, climbed nearby Mount Titiraupenga, then headed upstream, giving Ātiamuri its name, which means 'Tia who follows behind', because the murkiness of the Waikato led him to believe someone was ahead of him.