Tainui

[john sefton]

Tainui. An enormous double canoe used on the great trans‑Pacific migrations. New Zealand was settled from Rarotonga in such large canoes, over 70 ft. long, equipped with two claw shaped sails and resembling two canoes joined by massive cross beams, on which was built a large cabin to accommodate the chief and his men while the womenfolk lived in the canoes. Food supplies for the several thousand miles voyage were carried in the deep holds. The tainui had huge blade‑shaped decorations on the stem which were often 20 ft. high and ornamented with the traditional spiral motif of the Maoris.
Sea Breezes November 1973 by Ernest Argyle.
Detail from Cook Islands Post Office.
Cook Islands SG439

[Anatol]

In Mаori tradition, Tainui was the name of one of the great ocean-going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand, approximately 800 years ago. The Tainui waka was named for an infant who did not survive childbirth. At the burial site of this child, at a place in Hawaiki known then as Maungaroa, a great tree grew; this was the tree that was used to build the ocean canoe. Several Tuamotuan stories are told of canoes named Tainui, Tainuia (captained by Hoturoa) and Tainui-atea (captained by Tahorotakarari), that left the Tuamotus and never returned. In Mаori traditions, the Tainui waka was commanded by the chief Hoturoa. On its voyage the Tainui stopped at many Pacific islands, eventually arriving in New Zealand. Its first landfall was at Whangaparaoa in the Auckland region of the North Island. Tainui continued on to Tauranga, the Coromandel Peninsula and Waitemata. From Waitemata Harbour on the eastern coast, the canoe was carried by hand across the Tamaki isthmus (present-day Auckland) to Manukau Harbour on the western coast.
Palau 80c; SG? books.google.ru/books/about/Tainui_Canoe