Day 19 – Thu 14th Nov

This evening we went along to a Maori village just outside Rotorua. Te Pā Tū is a celebration of Maori culture presented in a way that Pakeha can relate to.

As we arrived at the village, we were met by a challenge from the warriors of the village.

Having offered our representative a peace token and our “chief” having accepted it, we were welcomed into the village.

Unfortunately, because of the weather, the cultural show had to be moved inside to the meeting house. Normally, most of the show is outside. As well as demonstrating various dances, they taught us how to do some.

After the cultural show, we had a “traditional” Maori meal. We were shown the traditional ways of cooking food, kai, in Maori. I may be misjudging. Still, I suspect that most of what we ate was cooked in a combi oven rather than a hangi. The food was OK but the food wasn’t the point of the evening as far as I was concerned. I enjoyed learning more about Maori culture. This on a day when a march to protest a proposal to weaken the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi (Aotearoa/New Zealand’s founding document reached Rotorua.

I have more videos that I would have liked to add, but I couldn’t get them to upload. I’ll have another look when I get home and have my desktop computer rather than my tablet