The third month is Otoru, sometimes termed Upokopapa, Torou-kai-tangata and tahu-tahu-ahi (to denote the kindling of many fires), these names are connected with cold and frost. To the Tuhoe people, the third month is Hereturi-koka. It is a time when the scorching effect of fire is seen on the knees of man.
The third is a frosty time of year. The ground has been chilled throughout the winter and although the days are lengthening it is still cold and hard frosts are common. However, when the weather clears the days are clear and sharp. At night, the stars shine in a clear black sky, and during short, daylight hours it can almost feel like an early summer morning for just a little while before the cold winds or overcast return.
For those who succumbed to winter ills, a tea made from the leaves soft Mingimingi(Cyathodes fascucalu), helped to relieve headache and influenza symptoms. In the third month, soft Mingimingi has small greenish white flowers in hanging clusters. Karamu (Coprosma robusta) decoction was used to reduce fever and kidney or urinary problems, as was Prickly Mingimingi (Cyathodes juniperina).
One of the names for the third month is Kaiwaka. Kaiwaka is also a star of late winter. Kaiwaka has not been clearly identified in the literature, but it seems evident to us that it could well be Altair. In the morning, just before dawn, Altair is moving toward the western horizon, and that seems to fit the description:
Tera te Kaiwaka ka tu ki te uru
Tera Kaiwaka ka marewa i te pae
Behold Kaiwaka stands in the west
Behold Kaiwaka raised up at the horizon.
Another name for Altair is Poutu-te-rangi. It is also a name for the 10th month. At that time, Altair is rising just before the Sun.
Although the ground is cold, the days are increasing in length. The forest is responds to these seasonal changes. The first trees are beginning to flower and will continue throughout the spring but there are few edible berries for people.
A story that is told of this time concerns Puawanānga/Poananga (Clematis paniculata) and Tahumate/puahou/Whauwhaupaku (Pseudopanax aboreus – five finger). They were said to be twins, the offspring of Rehua (Antares) and Puanga (Rigel). Puanga was their mother. It was the task of the two plants to make known the warmth of summer.
Rehua is visible throughout the winter in the night-time sky. It rises in the dawn of December as summer becomes really hot, not far away from the longest day of the year (mid-summer solstice). Puanga rises in the dawn at the beginning of the Maori New Year, at the time of the shortest day of the year (mid-winter solstice). It is visible throughout the summer in the night-time sky.
In Autumn, both were still suckling (in bud). Whawhaupaku, the firstborn was the first to respond to the increased warmth of the Sun with many tiny, sweet-scented brown-purple flowers in ball like clusters at the branch tips. The flowers open during the winter. The tiny, flattened, black berries that develop and ripen throughout spring and summer.
By late winter and early spring Puawanānga responds to the returning warmth sun with an abundance of starry, white flowers that Maori wāhine (women) delighted to wear in their hair.1 . Leaves are applied to produce blisters as a counter irritant and the sap was blown onto wounds. The bark and some of the wood was scraped and the shaving inhaled for head colds. Puwhanaga, the sacred flower.
In the third lunar month, the glossy Pūriri (Vitex lucens) was decorated with an extra abundance of pinkish-red flowers and their nectar attracted many birds. The Pūriri flowers throughout the year, so it always provides some round, red cherry-like fruit for birds. The water from boiled leaves is still used to bathe sprains and backache. It was also a remedy for ulcers and sore throats.
The flaky barked Kotukutuku (kohutuhutu, tree Fuchsia or Fuchsia excorticata) is coming into bloom. The long green and purple flowers appear on the twigs, larger branches and even the trunk. Sometimes they are pollinated with the long, curved bills of honeyeaters such as the Tui or Bellbird. The flowers signal the change by turning red. Another red flower attracting honeyeaters was the Flowering rata (Metrosideros carminea).
Rangiora, pukapuka, wharangi (Brachyglottis repanda) was in flower. The Rangiora leaves were used for wounds and old ulcerated sores. They were also useful as toilet paper. The gum could be chewed and worked as a cure for bad breath, but it was reputed to be poisonous if swallowed.
Milk Tree(Streblus banksii) exudes milky juice when a twig is broken. It is in flower, but the greenish yellow flowers are very small. They will form wind pollinated catkins.
Heretara (Oleria rani), is a flowering tree daisy with long white petals and Toro (Myrsine salicina)
small and pink flowers, borne on the woody twigs mostly below the leaves.
In coastal areas, Karaka groves (Corynocarpus laevigatus) are flowering. Flowers are small and greenish. Later, the trees will become weighted down with edible, orange fruits with poisonous seeds.
The nocturnal kiwi (Brown Kiwi, Great Spotted Kiwi and Little Kiwi) are breeding, emerging at night to gorge on the harvest of fallen forest fruits littering the forest floor and to forage for insects and worms by probing in the ground with their long bills.
In the South Island forest and alpine areas, the Kea (alpine parrot) are nesting. Often these nests are just scratched out hollows on the ground. The kea feed on leaves, buds, fruits, insects and carrion and the in day past the forest rang with their penetrating and drawn out territorial “keaa”. Birds were not usually hunted during their breeding season. They were protected by a rahui (ban).
Out at sea, off the eastern coastline, the Southern Right whales are moving south to their breeding grounds off the Auckland islands.
1 Elsdon Best, Forest lore of the Maori, page 33