"...Tane, under his name of Tane-te-waiora, is the personified form of sunlight, and the waiora a Tane is merely an esoteric and emblematic term for sunligth.

The word waiora carries the sense of health, welfare, soundness. In eastern Polynesia the words vai and vaiora mean 'to be, to exist'. Warmth, sayeth the Maori, is necessary to all forms of life, and the warmth emitted by Tane the Fertilizer is the waiora or welfare of all things."

(Best)

A straightforward translation of vai, though, is (sweet) water and ora means life, i.e. living-water of Tane. Spelling conventions makes Tane into Kane in Hawaii

"Centuries ago there lived in Hawaii-of-the-green-hills a chieftain whose name has been forgotten. He is known only by the place from which he came, Hawaii-loa, Far-away Hawaii. His home was on the coast of Kahiki-ku, Border-of-the-rising-Sun, which lay eastward of the region where mankind was first created, the Land-of-the-living-water of the god Kane."

(Makemson)