He would eat the creatures that go to the lake at night to get a drink. He would also eat people who were close to the lake as well. Because of the lack of light and the Taniwha, people were petrified to go into the lake at night
Tamarereti was a boy who grew up in the village. When he woke up from a good nights sleep he felt hungry, so he decided to go fishing,in the hope of catching some fish.
After fishing for a while he decided to have a little nap in his boat, but the the wind blew his boat to an island. When he woke up from his nap he found he was beached on the island, he knew then that he was in trouble.
Next he went and made a fire so that he could cook one of his three fish that he had caught that day. After night fell he knew he was going to be eaten by the Taniwha. When he saw something glowing out of then corner of his eye, It was wet pebbles on the sand, they were shining in the glow of the fire like little lights.
So he put lots of little stones on his boat and pushed off in to the lake. One by one he flicked the stones into the night sky. For some reason there were seven stars that stood out and they are the stars of Matariki.