Ruawai Maaka

**Sergeant Ruawai Maaka** is the leader of Wellington Police Force and its Paranormal Unit. He appears in *Wellington Paranormal*.

## Biography

### Early life

Maaka is of Māori origin and gained a belief in the paranormal when his koro told him spooky stories. As a child, Maaka received a teddy bear named Officer Fuzzypants dressed in police uniform as a Christmas gift. Maaka was so fond of the bear that it inspired him to join the police force as an adult. When Maaka lost the bear, he set up a case file to investigate. Upon becoming the leader of the Wellington Central Police Force he began to collect evidence of paranormal activity and kept them in a secret (but insecure) room at the police station.

### *Wellington Paranormal* Series 1

When officers Minogue and O’Leary took in a violent, projectile vomiting teenage girl claiming to be Bazu'aal of the Unholy Realm, Maaka suspected she was possessed by a demon and invited the cops to join the newly-established Wellington Police Paranormal Unit that no-one else was interested in joining, using the secret room as their headquarters. The officers interrogated the girl, but she became normal when Maaka entered the room. She used the distraction to push him out of the way and escape the station. The officers pursued her and encountered several other possessed people and a dog. Upon returning to the station, Maaka realised the possessions were from the same demon and that the night’s incidents occurred in a pentagram shape on the map. Fearing that Bazua’al will perform a human sacrifice, the Paranormal Unit, with the assistance of Constable Parker, headed to the Bucket Fountain, a sculpture Maaka knew to be a gateway to Hell. There, they found Bazua’al possessing a tramp, who grabbed Minogue and prepared to sacrifice him to the fountain, now pouring blood into an open fiery portal. The Paranormal Unit defeated the demon using an exorcism, saving Minogue.

After receiving a second report of a cow stuck up a tree, Maaka asked the Paranormal Unit to investigate Bazza's farm where the incidents occurred, suspecting alien activity. They returned with a strange, moving pod that Maaka considered to be evidence of aliens using fields to grow extraterrestrial floras. As the officers to returned to the farm, the pod attacked Maaka. He went to assist the officers armed with weed killer and found the officers battling fully grown floras. The aliens resisted the weed killer and fought back with tentacles and spraying acid. Realising that the aliens mimicked human emotions, the Unit displayed fearful body language and lured them into a shed, locking them in. The next morning, when the Paranormal Unit weren't looking, the three aliens locked in the shed escaped, taking the forms of the cops and escaping in a UFO.

O’Leary and Minogue investigated a noise complaint from a party at 23 Tukariri Street, but all the guests suddenly disappeared when the police arrived. Maaka suspected the house was full of poltergeists as the noise complaints had been reported for over forty years, despite no-one having lived there since the 1970s. He sent the officers back with a medium, Chloe Patterson, and stayed at the station to carry out more research. Maaka discovered that the house belonged to Raymond St John, who threw numerous legendary parties, but one in 1977 ended in tragedy with multiple guests were killed in a series of accidents. Maaka went to the house to find Chloe missing and the officers reporting several disturbing encounters with ghosts. The Unit entered the hot tub room, where Chloe was enjoying the tub with a ghost couple, Rochelle and Peter. Raymond St John suddenly possessed Chloe, taunting the officers and demanding that the party continue. He floated off and led them back into the living room, where the party started again. The police informed the partygoers that they were all dead and the guests agreed to leave the party for the afterlife. Raymond was arrested, but when the officers weren’t looking, he phased out of the police car to freedom.

O’Leary and Minogue were called to investigate several violent incidents occurring in one night, including a “dog wearing jeans” attacking a pizza delivery man. The officers eventually brought a confused, scratched and drunk woman, Sheena, into the station after suspecting she was a werewolf. She could only recall that her torn shorts used to be jeans and seeing huge claws in front of her face. Maaka concluded that because her scratches were obviously caused by twigs and many dogs have been photographed wearing jeans on the internet, she was not a werewolf and should be taken home. However as O’Leary and Minogue drove Sheena home, Maaka called them claiming that she really was a werewolf whose transformations were brief due to periodic cloud cover over the moon. He realised she left behind a dog smell in the interrogation room and that the huge claws she saw were her own. Sheena began to transform in the car and the officers fled. They managed to lure her back with a sausage roll while she was in human form, leaving the officers unharmed as they returned Sheena to her house.

Maaka sent Minogue and O’Leary to the Lower Hutt region to investigate reports of ghost sightings, but they turned out to be from a floating plastic bag. The officers were then sent to Wellington Central Hospital to investigate nineteen blood bags disappearing at once. Back at the station, Maaka suspected the plastic bag could be a yōkai and kept it in his filing cabinet for safekeeping. Maaka correctly assumed that Nick, the blood bag officer the officers interviewed, was actually a vampire who used mind control to make them think he was innocent. Maaka asked them to interview Nick again. Nick was eventually apprehended, admitting he stole the bags for a party, but hypnotised the officers into letting him go and forgetting all the events of that night. Meanwhile at the station, Maaka was attacked by the plastic bag. He stuffed the bag into a bin and realised it really was a yōkai.

Maaka had the Paranormal Unit observe a zombie businessman that officers Donovan and Laupepe had arrested and were in the process of interrogating. When the Unit weren’t looking, the zombie attacked Donovan. He later became a zombie himself and turned Laupepe whilst in their police car. The zombie officers radioed Minogue and O’Leary, demanding their brains, which the officers assumed was a joke. Back at the station, Maaka demanded the officers immediately find the two zombies to prevent an outbreak. Parker reported that the zombie businessman had become “bitey” and started attacking the other prisoners it had been locked up with, turning them into zombies as well. Parker and Maaka joined O’Leary and Minogue at Courtenay Place, where the zombie officers were hunting for brains. The four set up a plan involving Parker being used as bait for the zombies. O’Leary and Minogue lured the zombie cops to Parker, who pretended to assault Maaka in plain clothes. The zombies attacked Maaka instead and he tried to lead them into the police car, only to accidentally get locked in with them. O’Leary used the radio to control the zombie cops and they immediately left the car, leaving Maaka unharmed. Realising the zombies obeyed radio commands; the Paranormal Unit and Parker made the two zombies dance and took selfies with them before arresting them and taking them back to the station. Still able to follow basic commands, Maaka assigned Donovan and Laupepe with desk jobs to remain in service to Wellington Police.

### *Wellington Paranormal* Series 2

The Paranormal Unit headed to Wellington Harbour to investigate the disappearances of ten anglers. Maaka suspected this was caused by a taniwha, and his fears were confirmed when the unit saw a huge taniwha on their boat sonar after he had been sharing a story about the legendary taniwha Ngake and Whātaitai. They sailed back to the shore, where Constable Parker was camping, but found his tent empty. O’Leary spotted huge footprints and they followed them to a cave, where they found all the missing anglers alive and stuck to the cave wall to be used as food for the taniwha. As they all left the cave, a huge taniwha appeared and ate one of the captive fisherman. The unit followed the taniwha and drove to Oriental Bay. As they took the time to pay respects to Parker, he suddenly appeared, admitting that he left the tent to meet his mother living nearby. Two taniwha then surfaced from the water and started mating, leading Maaka to conclude that the beasts were unlikely to cause any future harm.

After Minogue and O’Leary witnessed a bag of potato chips levitate out of a store, the Paranormal Unit inspected the CCTV footage and briefly saw three teenage girls wearing uniform tracing them to St. Carrietta’s Girls High School. The two officers investigated the school and discovered that an explosion had recently happened in the library and that the three girls, the Briannas, were using magical powers to get revenge on students who previously bullied them. Back at the station, Maaka figured out that the explosion occurred in the witchcraft and folklore section of the library and he asks them to return there in the hope of finding the spell book that gave the girls powers. That night, the officers went to the school and eventually apprehended the girls by tasing them through their spellbook. The Briannas were sentenced to community service.

Acting upon complaints from locals about the constant horn tooting in Mount Victoria Tunnel, O’Leary and Minogue put up a sign at the tunnel entrance stating “PLEASE DO NOT USE YOUR HORN UNNECESSARILY”. As the sign went up, the officers were surprised to see the ghost of a police officer in old-fashioned uniform suddenly appear. Maaka speculated that the horn tooting in the tunnel may have deterred supernatural entities and received a report of a commotion in a pub in Mount Cook involving the same policeman. The officer, later found by Maaka to be a policeman from the 1930s named Bill Miller, went on a rampage across Wellington, arresting students for wearing inappropriate clothing and trying to shut down pubs for being open after 6pm. Maaka eventually lured Miller back to the tunnel with malicious bell ringing. There, O’Leary informed Miller that he was no longer a police officer, leaving him upset. To keep his sense of purpose, Maaka put Miller on duty to patrol the tunnel, on the condition that he remain invisible and not use his whistle. Miller accepted and vanished upon being driven into by a car. Minogue covered the “DO NOT” on the sign, thus resuming the tooting and keeping all spirits at bay.

The Paranormal Unit were shocked to see a distorted body brought into the station morgue that looked exactly like Minogue, apart from having green genitalia. O’Leary and Minogue headed to Hemahema, where the body was found, and were directed to a nearby motel. There, the officers found multiple hostile copies of themselves, some more plant-like than others. Maaka eventually arrived for backup and was locked in a cold pantry by the clones. A copy of Maaka lured the officers to a room with several Minogue and O’Leary so they could be studied and eaten. The officers were locked in the pantry with Maaka, who revealed that all the clones were extraterrestrial floras by showing them the documentary footage that was filmed of them last year while investigating Bazza’s farm. He pointed out that the footage revealed the aliens they had locked in a shed escaped while assuming the cops’ appearances. O’Leary was able to open the pantry door to freedom. Maaka fought against his clone, who was defeated when O’Leary handed Maaka a slug from Minogue’s salad and Maaka stuffed it in the clone’s mouth. The clone violently vomited and fled. The Paranormal Unit armed themselves with slugs and chased all the floras outside, where they were all collected by a UFO.

After an extended period of little paranormal activity occurring, Maaka grew frustrated with the Paranormal Unit, especially after they lost their police car and Minogue’s shirt during a raid on a zombie-themed hen party. He announced that he could no longer afford both members of the unit because he spent a large amount of money on a drone. He sent them both to investigate a 1985 Nissan 300ZX - Z31 that may have been stolen by a ghost. This turned out to be correct, as the officers managed to stop the car as it was being driven by the ghost of its previous owner, Shane Thompson. They towed it back to its new owner, Trent, but as they researched the car’s history at the station, Maaka received a report that it had been stolen again. The officers traced the car back to Shane’s home, now occupied by his ex-girlfriend Sharon. When Sharon got in the car and told Shane’s ghost that she could not commit to a relationship with a dead man, Shane suddenly drove the Nissan away with her trapped inside. The officers chased after it and attempted to free her from the car but got locked in with her as it heads to the bank it previously drove off from. They requested backup from Maaka, who pursued the car using the drone, but Shane finally stopped just short of the bank when Sharon persuaded Shane to stop. Maaka’s drone bounced off the car and broke. While Sharon and Shane reconciled in the car, Maaka told the officers that he decided he will keep both officers in the team, but only for three days a week if he can get a refund on the drone. Sharon and the Paranormal Unit watched as Shane drove a ghost version of the car into the afterlife.

Sergeant Maaka informed the Paranormal Unit that hundreds of thefts of outdated technology occurred around Mount Victoria over the last two nights. All the disappearances occurred in two concentric circles, with the potential third area covering O'Leary’s childhood home and its nearby radio communications tower in the centre. O’Leary headed to her former home with Minogue and they meet her mother, who recalled fond memories of O’Leary playing with her first mobile phone, which she had kept in a draw. That night, the officers witnessed hundreds of gadgets becoming active and merging into small robots. As Maaka arrived, the officers struggled to apprehend the robots as they dispersed across the area. Maaka brought Ben, a member of the technological crimes division of the police force, to help investigate. They suspected the tower may be the cause of the robots and set up plans to hack the tower’s mainframe from a nearby van, while the officers followed the robots to the base of the tower. There, they witnessed all the robots gathering to make up one large humanoid ‘mobot’. The mobot spoke to the officers, explaining that it was primarily run from the cell phone O’Leary had not used since 2004. It expressed dismay at being made of parts that have been resigned to draws, insisting that it is just as capable as new technology. Feeling sorry for it, O'Leary agreed to "update" the mobot, and it declared itself free – to erase the human race and replace it with super-intelligent robots. It started to climb the tower so it could transmit to all available technology while Maaka and Ben raced to send a virus that would shut it down. The mobot stalled halfway and fell to pieces before Ben could upload the virus; it was speculated by Ben that the mobot was unable to handle the new updates.

On Christmas Eve, Maaka sent the officers to investigate a number of incidents. They found Satan terrorising children while working as a mall Santa and persuaded him to move on. They then went to address a report of stolen meat at a barbeque party, Minogue found the meat in a vortex in the host’s garden, entering a void where missing objects go. That evening, they neutralised a possessed doll that had started attacking a family it was gifted to. They then investigated a report of an office worker named Jeff going missing at his work party, it turned out he had been sucked into another vortex while trying to photocopy his bottom. Minogue entered the void again and found Jeff at the barbeque party. That night, after the Paranormal Unit reflected on the events of the day, they exchanged their Secret Santa gifts: O’Leary received soap from Maaka, Minogue received a toy robot from O’Leary and Maaka received Officer Fuzzypants, which Minogue had found in the void. Maaka was delighted, but after the officers left, the bear started to move by itself, indicating that it may have been possessed by the same entity that took the doll.

### *Wellington Paranormal* Series 3

In 2021, O'Leary and Minogue arrested an invisible force that was wrecking a family home and took it to the station. The police night-vision goggles revealed the being to be a large monster with tentacles. The monster escaped from the station and Maaka sent the two officers back to the house to file a witness report. There, they realised the being was 'Daisy', the imaginary friend of Megan, the young girl who lived there, and concluded she was not a threat.

The Paranormal Unit went to Remutaka Forest to try and find a vlogger who went missing while camping. After their food was stolen on the first night, the Unit accidentally ate Psilocybin mushrooms found in the forest. While intoxicated, they handcuffed themselves together and came across a female Maero who admitted to eating the vlogger. The Unit were unable to catch her as she fled.

O'Leary and Minogue arrested several employees of the haunted house attraction Fear Factory after reports of members of the public being terrified and hurt by strange beings. In the interrogation room, Fear Factory manager Joe Blakes terrified Maaka by transforming into a giant spider. As Maaka tried to recover, Blakes used his shapeshifting powers to escape the station. Maaka realised Blakes was a shapeshifter that changed his form to his victims’ worst phobias in order to feed on their fears. The Paranormal Unit pursued him back to Fear Factory, where he overwhelmed the officers by turning into their worst fears. Constable Parker came in for backup and had so many fears that Blakes overwhelmed himself trying to transform into all of them, and collapsed into a pool of buttons.

O’Leary and Minogue arrested two ghosts dressed as Where's Wally who had been trying to abduct young men in Wellington who were dressed in a similar fashion. At the station, Maaka concluded that the ghosts were part of a group of six rugby fans who had died in a vehicle accident whilst on their way to a 2001 Wellington Sevens match. Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, the ghosts realised what they had become and escaped. The two officers drove back to Wellington and found the ghost of their van embedded in an office block. Minogue went into the van and was abducted by all six ghosts. Maaka suspected that the ghosts were trying to find their surviving friend Wiremu and sent O'Leary to his home. Once there, she radioed Minogue, leading the van to Wiremu’s house. He reunited with his friends before they set off without him to head for the (cancelled) Hamilton Sevens game.

Shortly after a meteorite crashed in Naenae, the police force had to follow up on several reports of petty criminals being apprehended by a vigilante group with superpowers. When the Unit investigated the meteorite in the station lab, Parker accidentally touched it and became magnetic, leading O'Leary to realize that the meteorite's radiation was giving people superpowers. The officers eventually encountered the vigilante group who introduced themselves as The Revengers, a trio of Neighbourhood Watch members who became superhumans from the meteorite. Maaka sent Parker to apprehend the group, but he was unable to direct his magnetism towards anyone but himself. The Revengers were defeated when another superhuman, George, blasted Revenger Bill with water from his hands, and he fought back with his electrical powers. This caused a shockwave that knocked out all the superheroes and depleted their powers.

O’Leary and Minogue were called to investigate several passengers disappearing in a car wash. The officers entered the wash and found their car surrounded by a pink blob containing several people. The blob slipped away into the drain, but Maaka recovered a small sample left on Minogue at the station. After investigation in the station lab, he confirmed that the blob was a fatberg that became sentient. While the officers’ search for the fatberg led them to a takeway shop, Maaka discovered that it could be destroyed by fire and joined O’Leary and Minogue to the takeaway shop the fatberg had resurfaced in with fireworks the latter had previously confiscated. Parker and Maaka used the fireworks to blow up the fatberg, but all its human inhabitants survived.

## Other Appearances

### *Important COVID-19 messages from Wellington Paranormal*

Maaka makes an appearance in *Important COVID-19 messages from Wellington Paranormal* when the Paranormal Unit hold a meeting remotely. Maaka takes the opportunity to address the citizens of New Zealand.

### *Wellington Paranormal's COVID 2: The return*

Maaka makes an appearance in this follow-up PSA, where his mother video calls him and complains about not having seen him in a while.

## Trivia

* Maaka’s expertise on zombies comes from him having watched *The Walking Dead*.
* Maaka manages the Wellington Police social media pages and will often post images of pets wearing uniform to gain more followers.
* He has a phobia of spiders, which stemmed from a childhood incident when a spider landed on and bit him in the shower.
* While trying to scare Constable Parker, shapeshifter Joe Blakes briefly took the form of Maaka, thus revealing Parker’s fear of him.

## Appearances

* *Wellington Paranormal*
	+ "Demon Girl"
	+ "Cop Circles"
	+ "Things That Do the Bump in the Night"
	+ "The She Wolf of Kurimarama Street"
	+ "A Normal Night"
	+ "Zombie Cops"
	+ "Taniwha"
	+ "Fear the Briannas"
	+ "Mt. Vic Hooters"
	+ "Copy Cops"
	+ "Haunted Nissan"
	+ "Mobots"
	+ "Christmas Special"
	+ "Invisible Fiend"
	+ "Te Maero"
	+ "Fear Factory"
	+ "The Sevens Ghosts"
	+ "Revengers"
	+ "Fatberg"
* *Breaking News*
* *Police Summer Safety*
* *Important COVID-19 messages from Wellington Paranormal*
* *Wellington Paranormal's COVID 2: The return*

## References

1. ↑ "Meet Wellington Police’s first Paranormal Unit" - TVNZ
Yates, Paul (writer) & Hewison, Dean (director) (19 December 2019). "Christmas Special". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 13. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (writer & director) (11 July 2018). "Demon Girl". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 1. TVNZ 2.
Bracewell, Melanie (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (18 July 2018). "Cop Circles". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 2. TVNZ 2.
Ward, Nick (writer) & van Beek, Jackie (director) (25 July 2018). "Things That Do the Bump in the Night". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 3. TVNZ 2.
Hansell, Jessica Coco (writer) & van Beek, Jackie (director) (1 August 2018). "The She Wolf of Kurimarama Street". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 4. TVNZ 2.
Smith, Sam (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (8 August 2018). "A Normal Night". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 5. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (writer & director) (15 August 2018). "Zombie Cops". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 6. TVNZ 2.
Ward, Nick (writer) & Hewison, Dean (director) (16 October 2019). "Taniwha". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 7. TVNZ 2.
Alison, Amanda (writer) & van Beek, Jackie (director) (23 October 2019). "Fear the Briannas". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 8. TVNZ 2.
Bracewell, Melanie (writer) & van Dammen, Tim (director) (30 October 2019). "Mt. Vic Hooters". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 9. TVNZ 2.
Gonzalez-Macuer, Cori (writer) & van Dammen, Tim (director) (6 November 2019). "Copy Cops". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 10. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & van Beek, Jackie (director) (13 November 2019). "Haunted Nissan". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 11. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (20 November 2019). "Mobots". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 12. TVNZ 2.
Ward, Nick (writer) & van Dammen, Tim (director) (24 February 2021). "Invisible Fiend". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 14. TVNZ 2.
Clement, Jemaine (writer & director) (3 March 2021). "Te Maero". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 15. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (10 March 2021). "Fear Factory". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 16. TVNZ 2.
Gonzalez-Macuer, Cori (writer) & van Dammen, Tim (director) (17 March 2021). "The Sevens Ghosts". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 17. TVNZ 2.
Alison, Amanda (writer) & van Dammen, Tim (director) (24 March 2021). "Revengers". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 18. TVNZ 2.
Bracewell, Melanie (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (31 March 2021). "Fatberg". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 19. TVNZ 2.
21. ↑  "Important COVID-19 messages from Wellington Paranormal: Ep 10: Paranormal Briefing" - New Zealand Police
22. ↑  "Wellington Paranormal's COVID 2: The return - Ep 2: Been here before" - New Zealand Police
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (writer & director) (15 August 2018). "Zombie Cops". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 6. TVNZ 2.
Hansell, Jessica Coco (writer) & van Beek, Jackie (director) (1 August 2018). "The She Wolf of Kurimarama Street". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 4. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (10 March 2021). "Fear Factory". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 16. TVNZ 2.
Yates, Paul (writer) & Clement, Jemaine (director) (10 March 2021). "Fear Factory". *Wellington Paranormal*. Episode 16. TVNZ 2.