Every year in November, the Milky Way stretches low across the evening sky of Aotearoa, revealing what Māori call Te Waka o Tamarereti — the Canoe of Tamarereti, which we photographed from the Wairarapa Dark Sky Reserve. For about three weeks, you can see the full waka gliding along the horizon after sunset, from the bright star Hekenukumai in Scorpius at the prow, to Orion and the Pleiades rising at the stern.
The Story
In Māori tradition, there was once a time when the night was utterly dark. No stars lit the path across the sky, and great taniwha (guardians or monsters) made it unsafe to travel. Tamarereti, a young man, went fishing one day on Lake Taupō. The wind carried him far from home, and as night fell, he realised he had no light to guide him back. He lit a fire and noticed how the shining pebbles near the shore reflected the glow. Gathering them into his canoe, he sailed out once more.
When he reached the sky, he scattered the luminous stones across the darkness — creating the stars — and his canoe became fixed in the heavens as Te Waka o Tamarereti. Ranginui, the Sky Father, was so pleased that he placed the canoe permanently among the constellations, to remind us that light brings safety, beauty, and order to the world.
Read the full story and how to find it in the sky on our Milky-Way.Kiwi website.
Seeing the Waka
From the latitude of Aotearoa, around mid-November, just after sunset, look toward the western, southern and eastern horizons. You’ll see the Milky Way lying almost flat, close to the horizon — this is the moment when the entire waka appears.
- Prow: Scorpius, near the western horizon.
- Anchor: Southern Cross (Crux), trailing the waka.
- Stern: Orion rising in the northeast with the Pleiades as the feathers that adorn the waka
- Wake: the Hyades star cluster and the Milky Way itself, a river of light connecting them all.
You can spot the waka for about three weeks in November before it begins to tilt and disappear into the evening twilight.
You can also see the waka in our planetarium movie, Nga Tohunga Whakatere, which we can play in our planetarium for schools.
For the Classroom
Curriculum connections:
- Science – Planet Earth & Beyond: observing seasonal patterns and the movement of constellations.
- Social Sciences / Aotearoa Histories: exploring Māori knowledge systems and navigation.
- Arts / English: using storytelling, poetry, or photography to express our relationship with the night sky.
Activities:
- Sky mapping: have students trace the waka on a printed night-sky map or planetarium app.
- Storytelling: retell the legend from Tamarereti’s point of view — what would it feel like to sail into the stars?
- Light and safety: discuss why light was important in the story and relate it to our use of light today — from streetlights to spacecraft.
- Photography challenge: encourage students (or teachers!) to photograph the Milky Way and try to identify the waka’s features.
- Science link: connect the legend to the Milky Way galaxy — 100 (to 400) billion stars, each a pebble of light scattered across the cosmos.
Reflection and Notes
Te Waka o Tamarereti is in the sky for a very short time — about three weeks in November — putting it out there with all the other yearly transient phenomena, like the meteor showers people always ask about, except this is an exceptional story from Aotearoa. For the Pacific navigators travelling here this time of the year, it was the signpost that they reached the latitude of Aotearoa. It reminds us how the stories of the sky are not just myths; they are ways of observing, remembering, and connecting. When we look up at the Milky Way, we see both our galaxy and our human story — how we bring light to the dark, order to the unknown, and meaning to the Universe above. The story of Te Waka O Tamarereti is unique to our country.
As educators, we can help our students see that science and story share the same sky — one through myth, the other through measurement, both full of wonder.
Photographs: Star Safari Observatory, November 2025 — showing Te Waka o Tamarereti in the evening sky over the Wairarapa hills.
