He aha te rangi?

Despite Tāwhirimātea throwing ever stronger hurricanes at Tāne and destroying the trees in Te Wao Nui a Tāne,  Tāne and his siblings still stood strong. Tāwhirimātea called on Te Ihorangi (god of rain) to help.  Te Ua-nui, and Te Ua-roa lashed the forest with their incessant and powerful rain. Te Ua-whatu sent hailstones raining down, Te Hau-māringiringi (mist) and Te Hau-mārotoroto (dew) soaked the earth and attacked the roots of the trees.  He also attacked Tangaroa with cyclones and tempests and sucked his children into the skies. 

There was a break in the proceedings when night fell and the brothers regrouped. They decided to change tactics, play a long game, and they hid in the depths of the sea and in the forests. Tāne  instructed Te Wao Nui to bend and sway rather than stand firm so that the winds would blow through rather than knock the forest down.  Tūmātauenga was scornful of this idea  and was angry at his brothers for being cowards. He turned against all of them. 

Tāwhirimātea was not for stopping though. He had married Pārāwera-nui and they had 28 wind children.  They were sent into battle. Tūāraki to the north, Te Hau-marangai to the east, Te Hau-0tonga to the south and Te Hau-ā -uru to the west.  Other children also went into battle - Apū-hau, Apū-matangi, Ao-nui, Ao-roa, Ao-pōuri, Ao-pō-tango, Ao-whētuma,  Ao-whēkere, Ao-kānapanapa, Ao-tākawe, Ao-pākinakina,  Ao-pakarea.

Te Ihorangi, god of rain, had married Huru-tea-rangi and she gave birth to 12 snow,  frost, ice and  hail children. They too were unleashed into the battle. Generations followed one after the other and "the space below the heavens was  filled with warrior children  assaulting the Earth and ocean below."

Eventually, Tangaroa and Tāne fell out - long story - and Tangaroa allied with Tāwhirimātea. So now we had the all the weather elements aligned with the seas and oceans.  Tangaroa sent waves to lash the land,  he allowed Tāwhirimātea to pull water from the ocean creating tornadoes and water spouts to drown the whenua, tsunami waves engulfed the land and pulled even the birds from the trees into the ocean. 

We have already heard how Tūmātauenga had declared war on all of them  and so as well as the onslaught from Tangaroa and Tāwhitimātea, Tāne and Rongo had to face Tū.  Tūmātauenga was powerful.  He made snares and caught the birds of the forest, he made nets and caught the fish of the sea, he attacked the kūmara and fernroot of Haumi and Rongo. According to Gavin Bishop 'Rongomātāne, Haumietiketike, Tānemahuta and Tangaroa were all defeated by Tūmatauenga. All of their children were made common by his cooking and eating them. " Tāwhirimātea was not defeated though - he simply slipped away, an elusive wind hidden in the clouds. 

The relationship between the ātua is still the same today.   The constant battle of the elements, a power struggle, good against evil, 'utu' is being played out to this day in our skies and we feel the effects of it on our whenua.