The Waitaha who at that time were occupying the Eastern districts of the South Island, appear to have been a numerous people, with a large Pa near Mairangi and Kapukariki and other settlements on the banks of the Rakaia River. One of these people, Te Hau, is credited with having destroyed a large bird of prey, which nested on one of the large spurs of the Torlesse Range. The reference to this bird is interpreted as being a composite memory of the extinct swan (Chenopis) and the extinct eagle (Harpagornis) which were contemporaries of the moa in the pre-fleet era.