Case file · Folklore / legend
Phantom war canoe on Lake Tarawera
On 31 May 1886 tourists and Māori guides on Lake Tarawera, including guide Sophia Hinerangi, reported a waka (war canoe) paddled by cloaked figures that vanished; eleven days later Mount Tarawera erupted.
1886 CE · -38.21, 176.43 · status: account
The account
The party was crossing to the Pink and White Terraces. Local elders read the canoe as a waka wairua, a spirit canoe foretelling disaster. The eruption on 10 June 1886 buried the village of Te Wairoa and destroyed the terraces, killing about 120 people.
The sceptical view
Proposed explanations include a real canoe seen through mist, or a wave or mirage on a lake already disturbed by volcanic activity, such as the reported fall in water level that day; the story was widely reported only after the eruption.