Taniwha

The amazing Gavin Bishop brings us a monster-sized book about the mythical monsters of Aotearoa!

Award-winning weaver of stories Gavin Bishop retells a variety of tales about the taniwha of Aotearoa, from the guardians who accompanied waka voyages to present-day inhabitants of the whenua and moana.

Storylines Notable Non-fiction Book 2025

Taniwha are all around us.

They are good at hiding or changing their shape.

They can be very tricky.

If you want to meet one,

you have to know what to look for

and where to look.

Describing how the landscape was shaped, and exploring relations between Maori and the sometimes friendly, but more often terrifying, supernatural creatures, these traditional stories are taken to a new level of spooky visual splendour.