Kia Ora.  We were welcomed to TEWHAKAREWAREWATANGAOTEOPETAUAAWAHIO otherwise known as Whakarewarewa or Whaka for short -  much easier to say.  This was one of our must do activities at is is literally behind our accommodation and we have been watching the steam rising every day from our kitchen window. 

Our journey commenced with a tour of the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao Maori family’s home.  We were so impressed that they have not succumbed to the modern conveniences of today and actually use the geothermal resources in their back yard for cooking, bathing and playing.  Our tour guide showed us how simply they cook their food.  We really liked the Maori microwave, a steam box where they cook their meat, puddings and root vegetables.  The food was wrapped in foil and placed into trays that are put inside the box.  The green vegetables, seafood and corn were wrapped in a muslin cloth and placed into a thermal pool.  The corn takes 10 minutes to cook, the green veges and seafood only required 5 swishes across the water and presto it’s done.

 

The maori’s have communal bathing in purpose built baths – several baths and a mini swimming pool in the open space – can’t say we’d be so keen on this one.  We actually found the water very smooth to touch but still too hot for us to bath in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the village including their meeting house and performance venue where we were treated to a superb cultural performance.  James was fascinated by the singing and loved to imitate the hand actions – it was very cute to watch.  Jennifer loved the costumes, poi pois, singing, actions, participating in the songs, everything except the men, she was rather shy of them.

The Maoris' taught us the hungi which was a handshake and 2 nose to nose presses with a partner (they definitely stipulated not rubs like the Eskimos do).  This greeting symbolises a bond of friendship and our little man has quite taken to greeting each of us in the family in this traditional Maori method.

 

 

We tried Hangi pies – corned beef, chicken, potato, kumara, carrot wrapped in pastry.  Needless to say they were absolutely delicious, we would have been tempted to go back for more for our dinner if only they were open.

 

We came home for James’ rest then Jennifer and Kathy went back to see another cultural performance.  We were so glad that we did because they performed the Maori Hokey Pokey.  Jennifer was a Maori expert at this one, they used the Maori name for all the body parts although the chorus was in English.  Jennifer decided she would like a photo with one of the maori ladies, when we had our turn for a photo one of the men snuck across and hopped into the photo.  Afterwards Jennifer said, “Did one of the Maori men jump into my photo” and of course the answer was yes.  Jennifer said, “Well that’s OK he’s a handsome one he hasn’t got a beard!”

 

 

 

The girls walked home and collected the boys and we went back to have a closer look at the Pohuta Geyser.  It is just so amazing watching the steam suddenly shoot up into the air.  We then set off for the freedom walks and walked along the paths and boardwalks to the green and hot lakes.  The colours from the minerals are very pretty.

 

We watched the Maori children play a game called penny diving where they dive into the water to collect gold coins that we threw into the water.  Both Jennifer and James reaped as much enjoyment as the Maori children watching them dive for the coins and our super thrower James set them a challenge to retrieve his coins.