The Tuhoe name for the 9th month is Hui-tanguru.
The ninth month is the period when the crops begin to furnish a partial food-supply
The Ngati Awa name is Rūhi-te-rangi
At this time, the foot of Ruhi rests on the earth.
Rūhi-te-rangi (also called Peke-hawani) is a star, one of the wives of Rehua (personifies the effect of the Sun). When Rehua goes to live with Ruhi, (Sirius rising just after sunset in early December) she places her feet on the earth, the left food first, and then the fruits of the earth are formed. When Rehua moves on to his other wife, Whakaonge-kai (Antares rising just before the Sun in mid-December) then blazing summer is upon us, and she renders food scarce, as her name denotes. All three personify spring and summer, also the enervating effects of summer heat.
Taylor gives Rangawhenua (Coalsack Nebula) and Uruao (curve of stars in Scorpius) as the stars or constellations marking the month of January.
The birds feed on the berries ripening in the bush
The Karkariki (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae), red-crowned parakeet and (C. auriceps) yellow-crowned parakeet) are birds which feed in the canopy trees feeding on seeds, berries, flowers, leaves and insects. The Red-crowned parakeet forages on the forest floor as well. Karkariki live in holes in tree trunks and branches or ground burrows.
The young leaves of Ti Parae, Forest Cabbage (cordyline banksii) were harvested for food if supplies were short. The leaves had bitter aftertaste. In summer it has very large brackets of fragrant white flowers. The berries, much appreciated by the forest birds, begin to form from late summer.
The Kereru(hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), the native pigeon) is the only bird able to eat and distribute the large seeds of the karaka and tawa. The kereru eats fruits and leaves and is particularly important in the distribution of the large berries like those of the karaka(Corynocarpus laevigatus). The orange Karakia berries ripen from mid-summer through autumn. The single large seeds in the berries are poisonous to humans until very carefully cooked and prepared, but even so, they were an important food for the Maori.
In lowland forests, the Tawa(Beilschmiedia tawa) is a dominant canopy tree. Tawa is much taller than karaka. The plum-like fruits, dark purple to black in colour are eaten and dispersed by Kereru from mid-spring to late summer.
At this time, Pate(Schefflera digitata, Seven finger) is covered in many clusters of small greenish yellow flowers. The Pate sap contains a fungicidal agent effective against ringworm.
Tutu (Coriaria aborea) often colonises bare sites before a soil has developed. Its purple berries, poisonous to humans, ripen though summer and autumn and are beloved by Kakapo(Stigops habroptilus), the flightless nocturnal heavyweight of the parrot world.
At the coast
At the heads of estuaries and along tidal creeks, Manawa (Avicennia marina, mangrove) trees form quite dense groves, surrounded by upright breathing roots. At low tide the breathing roots are submerged often along with the trunks and lower branches of the trees. Old breathing roots become encrusted with barnacles, oysters and flea mussels. The mangrove forest is an important shelter for the juvenile stages of about twenty species of fish. Manawa seeds ripen in late summer and germinate while still on the tree.