Have you ever considered that the lack of eeriness can be kind of eery? In a strange sort of way, it can. Kind of. Last week we were sitting out in the wilderness late at night, glowworms about, admiring the stars and revelling in the peacefulness. In a similar situation back home in Alberta, a part of you would always be on alert for bears and cougars and sasquatches. But in New Zealand there are no bears or cougars, or even indigenous mammals at all, and I was mainly just kidding about the sasquatches. All that lack of eeriness was eery. So this got me to thinking- is there a kiwi equivalent of the legend of the bigfoot? Some local monster like the Loch Ness or the chupacabra? A wraith like my sister's duendes? So I asked.
Turns out Maori legend is replete with all manner of monsters and beasts, and of these, the Taniwha is probably the best known and least loved. (In Maori spelling you pronounce the "wh"as an "f", so tanewha sounds like tanny-fa.) Taniwhas are like dragons, though they can also assume the form of a whale, shark or even a giant grub. Cool, hey? Primarily they were malevolent and enjoyed eating people, and most stories show how the Maoris either killed or tamed the beasts. Here is some more info.
Also there is the story of the ogress Ruruhi-kerepo. She looked like an old hag, and some little girls teased her, so she popped their heads off and swallowed the bodies. The girls' bones then protruded from Ruruhi-kerepo's body, becoming sort of like spines and quills. When Maori warriors found out what happened they went to avenge the girls, but their spears just became more spikes in Ruruhi-kerepo's flesh, and she decapitated and ate the warriors, too.
There are all kinds of other stories- about wicked faeiie-like Patupaiarehe, or Tipua which are like goblins, ogres, giants and demons. Pretty eery.