According to the oldest New Zealand Maori tohunga and Hawaiian tahuna legends, this map is inaccurate. Hawai'i is located at the northernmost tip of Havai'i-ti-Havai'i, or Ta Rua O Rani. The Cook Islands' northern islands are the tips of the motherland. Hawai'ians, Cook Islanders, Samoans, Easter Islanders, New Zealand Maori and others, had travelled to the west just before the destruction of Hawaiki, 12,000 years ago. On their return they found that Hawaiki was not where it should have been.

An argument divided the group. The Hawai'ian ancestors, believing Hawai'ki was in the north, travelled immediately north. As for the Maori, their argument was that they should keep travelling due east, and they landed on Papeete.

Arguments have arisen over the years, mainly fuelled by archeologists, anthropologists and others, whose main intention is to place Maori in the middle of Asia, the Middle East or in South America. All of the native people of the three areas (Asia, Middle East and South America) vehemently deny these arguments.