I still wasn't feeling so good, so I didn't do a whole lot. A couple things I forgot to mention in my previous posts. The drive from Waitomo to Rotorua was unbelievable! It was I think an hour and a half and I probably saw 10 cars the whole drive!!! And the landscape was just beautiful. Also, I could only get a few radio stations and to my surprise the Christian radio station was really good! I hardly even listen to Christian music these days and so it was very refreshing for me. So for the majority of my trip I listened to that one Christian radio station!
It was now Saturday and there was a local market so I checked that out. There are a bunch of geothermal places you can check out, and guess what, I went to none! I also wanted to go to church the next day so I drove around looking at a few places trying to figure out where I'd go. The main plan for today would be to go to a traditional Maori village. I signed up for one that looked pretty cool. And that evening I went to the starting place and my adventure began!
I was really confused at first. I thought I might have been a bit late, so I wasn't sure if my bus had left yet. When I got there, there was no one in the entrance. I talked to the people and they confused me even more cause I wasn't signed up...but I had the receipt from the place where I paid. I didn't know what was going on.
Then all these people showed up and they ushered us into this big room. They had this thing going telling the story of a Maori father and son. Halfway through it dawned on me, maybe they think I signed up for something else (cause there were two different options). So now I'm thinking for sure I missed my bus and this was all messed up. Haha, I get so worked up sometimes. Turns out I was in the right spot, after that presentation we got on our buses and headed to the village!
The bus driver was not what I expected!.The whole drive there he joked around with us and made us laugh. He started off by saying hello in probably 50 different languages. Then he explained "kia ora" to us. That is a Maori greeting that means "good health" or "be well". Whenever someone says "kia ora" to you, you reply it back to them. He would say it quite a bit and we would enthusiastically shout it back.
He chose someone from our bus to be the leader, because before you can get into the village, the locals have to accept you. Thanks to wikipedia:
The hui or meeting, usually on a marae. It begins with a pōwhiri or welcome. If a visitor is noteworthy, he or she may be welcomed with an aggressive challenge by a warrior armed with a taiaha (traditional fighting staff), who then offers a token of peace, such as a fern frond, to the visitor. Acceptance of the token in the face of such aggression is a demonstration of the courage and mana (charisma) of the visitor. The pōwhiri is highly structured, with speeches from both hosts and guests following a traditional format, their sequence dictated by the kawa (protocol) of that place, and followed by waiata, songs.
I took a bit of video from it:
Thanks again to wikipedia:
The haka - an action chant, often described as a "war dance", but more a chant with hand gestures and foot stamping, originally performed by warriors before a battle, proclaiming their strength and prowess and abusing the opposition. Now regularly performed by New Zealand representative rugby and rugby league teams before a game begins. There are many different haka though one, "Ka mate" by Te Rauparaha, is much more widely known than any other.
After being welcomed in, they had a traditional village setup. We could walk around and they would explain what life was like back in the day.
Then they moved us into a meeting hall where they performed for us. Wikipedia once again:
Kapa haka (haka groups) often come together to practice and perform cultural items such as waiata or songs, especially action songs, and haka for entertainment. Poi dances may also form part of the repertoire. Traditional instruments sometime accompany the group, though the guitar is also commonly used. Many New Zealand schools now have a kapa haka as part of the Māori studies curriculum. Today, national kapa haka competitions are held where groups are judged to find the best performers; these draw large crowds. (The common expression "kapa haka group" is strictly speaking, a tautology.)
I didn't take this video, but it's pretty much what I saw:
The final destination would be the hāngi. Guess where I got this info:
Although marae have modern cooking facilities, the hāngi, a traditional way of cooking food in Polynesia, is still used to provide meals for large groups because the food it produces is considered flavourful. The hāngi consists of a shallow hole dug in the ground. A fire is prepared in the hole and stones are placed on the top of it. When the stones are hot the hāngi is prepared for cooking by leaving the hot stones and some of the coals at the bottom of the hole. The food is placed on top of the stones, the meat first, with the vegetables, such as kumara and potatoes, on top of it. The hāngi is then covered with leaves or mats woven out of flax (or wet sacks) and left to cook. Finally, soil is heaped over the hāngi to keep the heat in.
They showed us how it's done, but I wonder if our food was really prepared this way. Regardless it was good. The people I sat at the table with were pretty nice. This one girl from England was absolutely hot, so of course I could hardly talk to her, haha. This couple from Australia were super friendly and this other guy from Germany was a little weird, but whatever. He invited me to join him at that world music festival, but I just wasn't feel good enough.
On the bus ride home the driver tried to get us singing. He got all the Americans to sing the national anthem. There were a few so it wasn't bad. Then he started singing O Canada. No one was singing with him and so he stopped. I just couldn't resist. I was sitting in the very back, all by myself, and I just started belting it at the top of my lungs! I was tired and I was singing worse than usual, but I didn't care, I sang the whole freaking song for 50 strangers!! Haha. Go Canada!!!
Here's my NZ haircut. I think I lost a bit of weight cause of the sickness. That night I got a little sleep...it was nice not driving to another city.
End of Day Sixteen.
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