Rangitihi’s sons moved most of the Te Arawa tribe inland to the geothermal lakes. A place desired by all was Te Motutapu-a-Tinirau (an island – later renamed Mokoia – in Lake Rotorua) because of its strategic importance and geothermal-warmed gardens. It took a generation for Rangitihi’s grandsons Rangiteaorere and Uenukukōpako to wrestle the island from the control of the descendants of the explorer Ika.
The tribe’s settlement of the region then progressed peacefully. In time, descendants of Rangitihi aligned themselves through intermarriage into three major kin groups:
- Ngāti Pikiao (at the eastern end of Lake Rotoiti and around lakes Rotoehu and Rotomā)
- Tūhourangi (upper Kaituna, western Lake Rotoiti and the south-east side of Lake Rotorua including Ōhinemutu)
- Te Uri o Uenukukōpako, later known as Ngāti Whakaue (Mokoia and north-west side of Lake Rotorua).
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