Day 6: Maori Feast

After setting up camp, we ended the 2nd day of the tour at the Tamaki Maori Village. Other than what I learned from Moana (which surprisingly is a great deal – Did you know Heihei is actually the Maori word for chicken?!!), my knowledge of Maori culture was pretty limited. The night’s festivities put a good dent in that ignorance.

Our viewing spot was terrible, but my dragon boating-heart went pitter-patter when the men of the village paddled in in their waka (canoe). We were treated to an impressive and intimidating welcome ceremony (powhiri) that included a haka dance. Maori traditional culture isn’t exactly a model of gender equality, so a male representative of our shuttle bus-tribe accepted their invitation for us to enter the village where we moved around different demonstrations of the Maori traditions & customs. We saw wood carving, basket weaving, games and dance. My tribe’s “chief” chose me to participate in the stick game (he could sense my innate ability) where a group of us stood in a circle, each held a large staff in one hand, and tried to reach the next person’s staff before it fell after the caller directed us to move around the circle in a particular direction. I won’t say that I have a profession contract in my future, but negotiations are in the works. 😊 We capped off the fun and games with watching the men of the group learn and perform a traditional haka dance of their own.

The remainder of the evening was mostly about the food. We experienced a traditional hangi, which is not unlike a luau. The vegetables and meat are cooked underground with hot rocks. No whole pigs here, though. It’s mainly chicken and lamb. We also got to try the green-lipped mussels unique to NZ. I left full, especially after they brought the passion fruit-drenched pavlova dessert (dairy free!!).

Surprisingly, the bus ride back to camp was almost as entertaining as the entire village experience. Our linguistically-talented driver treated us to greetings in so many different languages and authentic accents that I quickly lost count. He had the whole bus rolling in the aisles, especially as he circled the roundabout by camp at least 5 times singing “Here we go round the ‘Maori’ bush”. Classic!!Read more