In the beginning was the void,

yet which was not nothing
Te Kore - the void
TeKore-te-Whiwhia - the void that endured
Te Kore-te-Rawea - the void without feeling
and further voids
voids filled with power and energy.

On these the first components of the universe combined and created
Te Po - the everlasting darkness
Te Po-Nui - the great night
Te Po-Roa - the endless night
Te Po-Kitea - the unfathomable night
Te Po-Uriuri - the night of deep intensity
Te Po-Tiwhatiwha - the great darkness
Te Po-Tangotango - the eternal darkness
and so forth tenfold, hundredfold, thousandfold.

From Te Po this Ultimate Darkness, so intense that it was palpable there came a severing, a shift, a movement and awareness within the darkness. From that void arose sky and earth,  which were still one.

Rangi-nui (Skyfather) and Papa-tu-a-nuku (Earth Mother) laid in deep darkness closely intertwined with their children between them. The children of Heaven and Earth felt trapped in the darkness, unsatisfied with their existence. They longed for the light they sensed outside the confines created by their parents. They tried to separate them but to no avail. Then Tane-Mahuta (later, the God of the Forest) made his attempt. With his head and shoulders he pressed against his mother, the Earth, and with his legs and feet against his father, and little by little he was able to push his father upwards. The connecting veins of Papa-tu-a-nuku and Rangi-nui were suddenly torn apart and as their blood poured out they cried out in pain. Tane-Mahuta didn't give up until Heaven was far above and Earth far below. Te Ao Marama (the World of Light) was given in this manner to all the creatures. The third stage of life began and the children became the protectors and keepers of Nature.