Whakarewarewa Maori Village

Enjoyed a fun and funny tour of Whakarewarewa (pronounced: fa•ka-re•wa-re•wa) or Waka (for short) or te-fa•ka-re•wa-re•wa-tan•ga-o•te-o•pe-ta•ua-a'wa•hiao (full name) Maori living village with Michael, one of its 60-odd current residents. In addition to teaching us a tiny bit about the Maori language, we learned about cooking in the village microwaves and natural boiling pools, communal very warm water (basically hottub-style) bathing practices, ancestral respect and modern culture.

He also told a fascinating (as yet unverified) tale about a big eruption of Mount Etna in Italy a few years ago. Apparently, at the precise moment of the eruption, the geothermic liquid pools in Whakarewarewa were also impacted. The waterline dropped instantly by some 2-3m. One of the main cooking pools took about 3-4 weeks to recover back to its prior level, whereas a second one has not even yet fully recovered.Read more