Our exciting adventure tonight took us on a bus trip (with seatbelts which impressed Jennifer and James) to the Mitai Maori village. 

We were greeted by Johnny from the Mitai family who was rather jovial and we knew we were in for a great night.  He greeted every country and said hello in their native tongue and there were 20 countries in attendance tonight, not bad attendance for a Sunday night dinner out. 

 

We were shown the hangi meal lifted from the pit and our taste buds were watering with excitement as it certainly looked great.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wandered through their home, being careful to stay on the paths hoping we would not come across any unfriendly warriors, although Johnny said if we were to come across any that we should ask to have our photo taken with them.  Our journey took us to the most beautiful clear stream with bubbling mud in the middle.  We were amazed that the entire stream was not muddy, it was so clear we could see the trout swimming around the mud.  As we continued our journey we came across the waka an ancient war canoe travelling down the Wai O Whiro stream.  The warriors on board sang a chant and we admired their traditional dress.

Our next stop was to see the cultural performance which was held on an outdoor stage with a traditional Maori village as the backdrop.  We learnt about their instruments, weapons, games, beautiful poi dances, the haka and heard tales about the Maori tribes’ past told through songs and dance.  The Maori people have tattoos on their skin and we learnt about the significance of the owl that is tattooed onto the women’s chin and how it represents wisdom and how this is significant as the women are considered the wise keepers of their family and this is very important to them.  The Mitai Maori chief has four birds tattooed onto his face, the bat on his forehead, the parrot on his nose, the Kiwis on his cheeks and the Owl on his chin.  Mr James was quite wriggly throughout yet enjoyed sifting dirt through his fingers and was no doubt was waiting for that famous hangi meal.

We certainly were not disappointed, the menu included New Zealand Lamb & Chicken, Potatoes (Rewai), Sweet Potato (Kumara) and stuffing (a combination of Bread, Mixed Herbs, Corn, Carrots & Peas).  The side dishes include scalloped potatoes baked with a cheese topping and freshly baked Garlic Bread plus a range of salads including Corn salad, Cauliflower with Sesame Seeds, Rice, Ranchslaw and Freshly Tossed Garden Salad, brown gravy and thick mint sauce.  The desserts were also sensational and included tropical Fruit Salad, chocolate Log, and Trifle with Cream.

We were all very impressed with the meal.  James loved everything, he even got to try the fruit salad and some trifle (“cake peese”) and Jennifer was particularly keen on the bread, rice and chocolate log.  Mummy loved the lamb, sweet potato, the cauliflower which was grated and in little mayonnaise dressing with sesame seeds and the trifle.  Daddy loved the meat and the smoky flavoured potatoes. 

 

After our delicious dinner we collected a torch, Jennifer was proud to use her own Disney Princess torch and we set off to see the glow worms in the the Mitai family village.  It was very special to see the tiny glows from the worms especially above the stream.  Of course James and Jennifer loved playing with the torches.  Unfortunately Jennifer’s batteries went flat and James somehow managed to take the head of his torch off in the dark and the batteries fell out so we then played a hide a seek game searching for the batteries.  Another guest must have felt sorry for us and came to our aid with a torch and we got sorted in no time.  Along the way we came across a Maori house that would sleep two.  We learnt that the door was narrow so it was hard for any unwanted guests to get in and that the roof was made from the trunk of trees that absorbed a high quantity of water.  They chose this particular timber because it was difficult to burn the house down due to the retention of water.  We also saw the famous NZ silver fern, their national emblem, when we shone our torches on the underneath it really was silver and quite impressive.

We caught the bus back to our holiday home at Atsala, singing the Wheels on the Bus and sharing stories of our special night.  And our little people were asleep within about 3 minutes!!