Comment by phyalow

This is pretty much a myth and deserves to be treated as such. It stems from adjcanet political ideas that support the recent fad of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81tauranga_M%C4%81ori

I find it hard to believe that this could have occured a full ~700 years before New Zealand had its first polynesian arrivals (~1200-1300 AD).