Ui-te-Rangiora


Ui-te-Rangiora is believed to have been a 7th-century AD Polynesian navigator from the island of Rarotonga. According to Māori legend, Ui-te-Rangiora sailed south and encountered ice floes and icebergs in the Southern Ocean. He called this area of southern ocean Tai-uka-a-pia due to the ice floes being similar to arrowroot powder. It is also claimed by some that Ui-te-Rangiora reached the Ross Ice Shelf, although he did not land on it.

Authenticity

The veracity of Ui-te-Rangiora reaching Antarctic waters has been questioned. It has been claimed that in 1886 Lapita pottery shards were discovered on the Antipodes Islands, indicating that Polynesians did reach that far south.
Enderby Island, considerably south of Antipodes in the Auckland group, has been found to have proof of 13th- or 14th-century Māori use.

Possible discovery of Antarctica

Very little is known about Ui-te-Rangiora, or about early Polynesia for that matter, but it is told in Māori legends that, around the year 650, Ui-te-Rangiora led a fleet of Waka tīwai southwards in the Southern Ocean until they reached "rocks that grow out of the sea, in the space beyond Rapa".