Ui-te-Rangiora

thumb|Ice floes in the Southern Ocean Ui-te-Rangiora or Hui Te Rangiora is a legendary Polynesian navigator who sailed to the Southern Ocean and is sometimes claimed to have discovered Antarctica in the early seventh century on the vessel Te Ivi o Atea. The legend originates from the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands archipelago, but this island was not populated until the tenth century.

According to a 19th-century interpretation of Rarotongan legend by Stephenson Percy Smith, Ui-te-Rangiora and his crew on the vessel Te Ivi o Atea sailed south and encountered an area he called Tai-uka-a-pia (interpreted by Smith as a frozen sea), "a foggy, misty, and dark place not seen by the sun" where rocks grow out of the sea. Smith interpreted this as referring to the ice floes and icebergs in the Southern Ocean, due to the ice floes being similar to arrowroot powder (referring to Tacca leontopetaloides, Polynesian arrowroot). This has led others to conclude that Ui-te-Rangiora was the first person to discover Antarctica.