In Māori mythology

Maori mythology

Māori mythology and Māori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Māori of New Zealand may usefully be divided...

, Te Wheke-a-Muturangi is a monstrous octopus destroyed in Tory Channel

Tory Channel

Tory Channel is one of the drowned valleys that form the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand.Tory Channel is named after the "Tory", a pioneer ship that brought British colonists to Wellington in 1840. It lies to the south of Arapawa Island, separating it from the mainland. At its western end it...

 or at Pātea by Kupe

Kupe

In the Māori mythology of some tribes, Kupe was involved in the Polynesian discovery of New Zealand.-Contention:There is contention concerning the status of Kupe. The contention turns on the authenticity of later versions of the legends, the so-called 'orthodox' versions closely associated with S....

 the navigator.

The octopus was a pet or familiar

Familiar spirit

In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...

 of Muturangi

Muturangi

Muturangi, also known as Ruamuturangi, was the son of Ohomairangi and a renowned High Priest presiding over Taputapuatea marae at Rangiatea.Muturangi was an accomplished navigator and it was he who started the tradition of The High Priest at Taputapuatea...

 a powerful tohunga of Hawaiki

Hawaiki

In Māori mythology, Hawaiki is the homeland of the Māori, the original home of the Māori, before they travelled across the sea to New Zealand...

. The wheke was nonetheless a wild creature and a guardian.

When Kupe reached New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, he encountered the beast off Castlepoint. The giant octopus then fled across Cook Strait

Cook Strait

Cook Strait is the strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the west with the South Pacific Ocean on the east....

, and was chased by Kupe through Tory Channel. Here a great battle took place, and when the octopus appeared to be about to flee, Kupe cut off its arms with his adze, killing it (Tregear 1891: 184, 620).

In the traditions of the Ngāti Ranginui people of Tauranga

Tauranga

Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...

, Te Wheke-a-Muturangi was killed by their ancestor Tamatea, and is not associated with Kupe. New Zealand ethnologist David Simmons has suggested that this may be the more authentic tradition, and that the association with Kupe is found only in problematic sources (Simmons 1976).