The original migrants came from a region in East Polynesia which Māori later called Hawaiki. Bringing dogs and rats, taro and kūmara (sweet potato) to New Zealand, they found plenty of wildlife, including birds now extinct: the moa, a species of swan, and the giant Haast's eagle.There is a lot of evidence that Polynesian people first arrived in New Zealand around 1250–1300 CE, coming from East Polynesia in canoes
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