Our range of wines takes its name from Maui, the Māori demi-god who as legend tells us captured the sun and pulled New Zealand out of the sea. He was a great adventurer with an inquisitive nature and a fearless spirit. These attributes are at the very heart of New Zealanders and our range of wines.
An adventurous Māori demi-god known for his adventurous exploits and his mischievious nature, Maui is synonymous in the stories and legends of how New Zealand came to be. Slowing down the sun, discovering the secret of fire and catching the giant fish we know today as the North Island of New Zealand, are talents he is credited with in Māori legend. Using a giant jawbone gifted to him by his ancestor Muri-ranga-whenua, he caught the giant fish from his waka (canoe), which as legend tells us, is now the South Island of New Zealand.
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Our MAUI label was inspired by Kowhaiwhai patterns which over time have been used by Māori to record the history of their people. Incorporated into the design of wharenui (great meeting houses) you’ll find them most often in the tahu (ridgepole) or heke (rafters). Where you find them on the tahu the kowhaiwhai represents the genealogy of the tribe or iwi, the main line of descent beginning with the founding ancestor. When designed into the heke, the patterns represent the diverging branches of the whānau (family).
Our hero takes the jaw-bone of his ancestress Muri-ranga-whenua and uses it as a weapon in his first expedition. This is to snare the sun and make it go slower because the days were too short for people to get their work done. With the help of his brothers, Maui nooses the sun and beats him severely with the jaw bone club until the sun promises to go slower in the future.
