Hine-pukohu-rangi

The Heavenly Mist Maid, the personified form of mist and fog. She and her sister Hine-wai lived in the celestial realms. In one myth, the sisters came down to earth in order to bathe in its waters. Ue-nuku, the rainbow, became enamored of the charms of Hine-pukohurangi and succeeded in making her his wife. She descended every night from the sky and proceeded to the abode of Ue-nuku, but always left him at early dawn and returned to her home in the heavens. Hine-wai accompanied her on her earthly visits and remained outside the abode of Ue-nuku to give warning of the coming of dawn. Hine-pukohurangi's aria (visible form of a deity) is the white mist seen rising from the body of the earth in the early morning.

In a different tradition she descended to earth and married Te Maunga, the Mountain, and had Pōtiki, from whom sprang Nga-pōtiki, an ancient people of Tūhoe land.

On the east coast (Te Wairoa) her place seems to be taken by Tairi-a-kohu who came down from heaven and married Ue-nuku, but having been ill-treated by him she returned to the sky. Ue-nuku went forth in search of her and eventually died in a far land.

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