North Island Day Seven
I woke up to a curtain darkened room with 9 other travelers and the sound of rain outside. All the things we had planned to do in Rotorua involved being outdoors, so we decided to have a lazy day, well for me anyways. Hira had a few books to read before her exam on November 8th, and she'd barely made a dent in the first. So lazy day for me and productive reading day for her. I surfed Facebook, Pinterest, uploaded some photos and even uploaded a few blog posts. As lazy as it was, it was kind of nice to just lay around.
Evening came around and along came what I consider to be a highlight of this North Island trip thus far. I don't know if you all know this, but at the University of Otago, one of the classes I took during the semester was Maori Society. I got to learn a lot about the native people of New Zealand, which was really fascinating. I figured it would be a good way to really appreciate the culture I would be residing in for the next four months. Near us in Rotorua was a Maori village called Tamaki that we could visit. Included would be transportation to and from the marae, a tour of the village, rituals and performances, as well as a full three course meal. Yeah, it was government run, clearly, but it was about as close to the real thing as we could get. You could say I was pretty excited to actually experience something I had been learning about for the past 15 weeks or so.
We arrived at the place in Rotorua that would then transport us to the actual marae, about 30 minutes away. We checked in, got our tickets, and our waka assignment. A waka is Maori for canoe, or more generally a means of transportation. We were assigned Waka Ruru. This was to ensure we were going to the correct location, and will be brought back to the same place afterwards. We all piled up on our waka and departed. The people on the bus along with us came from all over the world. It was such a colorful mix of people, cultures and languages. On our way, our bus driver, Wallace, taught us some Maori words and laid out how the night was going to go. It was kind of a cool feeling knowing most of the words he was teaching us. He also introduced to us our chief. There would be one on each of the buses traveling to the marae that night. Our chief's name was Tim, who happened to be from the US too. He would be the one partaking in the more interactive parts of the tour. Here's a little insert from our information sheet:
The Waka (Coach Trip)
Enroute to Tamaki Maori Village, the guide will instruct you on the rules and protocol of entering a marae. When entering these sacred places it is customary for the welcoming tribe to send out a challenge of peace. The warrior will go through movements and recite chants until the peace offering is placed in front of the visiting tribe. The visiting tribe must have a chief to accept the peace offering. It is the guide's job to select a chief to represent those on the coach (representation of those on your coach is considered an honorable task in Maoridom).
When we arrived, we all circled up around the front of the village. Of course I was in the front (short people problems). Before anything was to begin, a man came up and spoke to us about what was going to happen and most importantly, how to show respect. For those of you unaware of the Maori culture, if you have seen any rugby team do, what they call, a haka, we were about to experience something similar. Lots of yelling, lots of intensity, and yes, lots of tongues sticking out. Out of respect for their culture, we were told not to smile, not to laugh, not to make any sudden movements, but take all the pictures we wanted. After the brief introduction was finished, the crowd remained silent as voices were heard in the distance. We were about to experience a traditional Maori greeting ritual, called the Powhiri. (Remember the "wh" makes a "f" sound, and the "r" makes more of a "d" sound). And boy it was sure cool! It was intense for sure, but so intriguing! I had no idea what they were shouting, but the point of the Powhiri was to intimidate visitors. And from personal experience now, I would say that would definitely do the trick! Intricate foot work, hand motions, and body language was all part of the process. And finally, to show visitors came in peace, a branch was placed in front of the four chiefs (who were four of the cutest old men!). The visiting chiefs would then have to pick it up in order to show to the Maori that they meant no harm. It was the chief from our bus, Tim, that got to pick up the branch. Hira and I watched the entire process in awe. Here's some info from the sheet we were given:
Te Wero (The Challenge)
On arrival at the village, nobody must enter the fortified village until the Powhiri (formal welcome) has been performed. When entering these sacred places, it is customary for the host tribe to send out a challenge of peace. The warrior will go through some intimidating gestures and display certain movements with his Taiaha (spear-like weapon), until the Teka (peace offering) is placed and received by one of the visiting chiefs. While this part of the ceremony can look quite humorous, we are told to respect their culture by not laughing, smiling or poking fun of the culture in anyway.
I woke up to a curtain darkened room with 9 other travelers and the sound of rain outside. All the things we had planned to do in Rotorua involved being outdoors, so we decided to have a lazy day, well for me anyways. Hira had a few books to read before her exam on November 8th, and she'd barely made a dent in the first. So lazy day for me and productive reading day for her. I surfed Facebook, Pinterest, uploaded some photos and even uploaded a few blog posts. As lazy as it was, it was kind of nice to just lay around.
Evening came around and along came what I consider to be a highlight of this North Island trip thus far. I don't know if you all know this, but at the University of Otago, one of the classes I took during the semester was Maori Society. I got to learn a lot about the native people of New Zealand, which was really fascinating. I figured it would be a good way to really appreciate the culture I would be residing in for the next four months. Near us in Rotorua was a Maori village called Tamaki that we could visit. Included would be transportation to and from the marae, a tour of the village, rituals and performances, as well as a full three course meal. Yeah, it was government run, clearly, but it was about as close to the real thing as we could get. You could say I was pretty excited to actually experience something I had been learning about for the past 15 weeks or so.
We arrived at the place in Rotorua that would then transport us to the actual marae, about 30 minutes away. We checked in, got our tickets, and our waka assignment. A waka is Maori for canoe, or more generally a means of transportation. We were assigned Waka Ruru. This was to ensure we were going to the correct location, and will be brought back to the same place afterwards. We all piled up on our waka and departed. The people on the bus along with us came from all over the world. It was such a colorful mix of people, cultures and languages. On our way, our bus driver, Wallace, taught us some Maori words and laid out how the night was going to go. It was kind of a cool feeling knowing most of the words he was teaching us. He also introduced to us our chief. There would be one on each of the buses traveling to the marae that night. Our chief's name was Tim, who happened to be from the US too. He would be the one partaking in the more interactive parts of the tour. Here's a little insert from our information sheet:
The Waka (Coach Trip)
Enroute to Tamaki Maori Village, the guide will instruct you on the rules and protocol of entering a marae. When entering these sacred places it is customary for the welcoming tribe to send out a challenge of peace. The warrior will go through movements and recite chants until the peace offering is placed in front of the visiting tribe. The visiting tribe must have a chief to accept the peace offering. It is the guide's job to select a chief to represent those on the coach (representation of those on your coach is considered an honorable task in Maoridom).
When we arrived, we all circled up around the front of the village. Of course I was in the front (short people problems). Before anything was to begin, a man came up and spoke to us about what was going to happen and most importantly, how to show respect. For those of you unaware of the Maori culture, if you have seen any rugby team do, what they call, a haka, we were about to experience something similar. Lots of yelling, lots of intensity, and yes, lots of tongues sticking out. Out of respect for their culture, we were told not to smile, not to laugh, not to make any sudden movements, but take all the pictures we wanted. After the brief introduction was finished, the crowd remained silent as voices were heard in the distance. We were about to experience a traditional Maori greeting ritual, called the Powhiri. (Remember the "wh" makes a "f" sound, and the "r" makes more of a "d" sound). And boy it was sure cool! It was intense for sure, but so intriguing! I had no idea what they were shouting, but the point of the Powhiri was to intimidate visitors. And from personal experience now, I would say that would definitely do the trick! Intricate foot work, hand motions, and body language was all part of the process. And finally, to show visitors came in peace, a branch was placed in front of the four chiefs (who were four of the cutest old men!). The visiting chiefs would then have to pick it up in order to show to the Maori that they meant no harm. It was the chief from our bus, Tim, that got to pick up the branch. Hira and I watched the entire process in awe. Here's some info from the sheet we were given:
Te Wero (The Challenge)
On arrival at the village, nobody must enter the fortified village until the Powhiri (formal welcome) has been performed. When entering these sacred places, it is customary for the host tribe to send out a challenge of peace. The warrior will go through some intimidating gestures and display certain movements with his Taiaha (spear-like weapon), until the Teka (peace offering) is placed and received by one of the visiting chiefs. While this part of the ceremony can look quite humorous, we are told to respect their culture by not laughing, smiling or poking fun of the culture in anyway.
We were then given a wonderful tour of the marae, the village. Granted this is not how Maori people live now, but it was incredibly similar to how the village would have looked for their ancestors. We learned about the haka, which the four tourist chiefs for the night got to perform in front of us. They were the cutest old men not having a clue what they were doing! Although I don't think I would have looked any better, but women cannot partake in the haka so I was safe.
In another house were two women who showed our group how they used poi. Poi is basically a white ball tied onto a string. Apparently it used to be a rock tied onto a piece of rope, but now it is a softer material. They use it as an art and dance form, twirling it around and having it slap their arms or hands to a rhythm. So thank goodness it is no longer a rock. That would hurt so bad! They looked so graceful and made it all look so effortless. Then they pulled a few women from our group and had them try. They did not make it look so effortless...but they were all smiles the whole time!
Another stop in our village tour was hand games. Being simple people back then, they created games to improve hand-eye coordination with just sticks. There were shorter sticks, which were twirled and tossed and even thrown from person to person. Awesome. They also showed us a game that involved four long sticks. You would place them vertically and in a square. When a certain Maori word was called (I can't recall the exact word) to move left, all players holding their stick would have to let go and move to the left to catch that stick before it fell to the ground. Same for when right was called. Whoever let the stick fall was out of the game. It was pretty intense actually. Out of the four volunteers that did it, the really tall woman won. Sooooo probably not my sport?
Another woman taught us how they use the fibers from flax to make ropes, baskets and even clothing. It was pretty cool! I had no idea what flax even was to be honest. I mean I had heard of it, but I didn't know it would be this huge blade of grass-like plant.
If you haven't noticed from the previous photos, a lot of Maori have tattoos. I guess the more tattoos you had, the better back then. But these tattoos were not placed on like they are today. They were basically scarred into the skin from animal bone. The bone was sharpened enough to pierce the skin. Once it had done so, a black, ink-like substance was placed into the wound. It would then heal with a black tint. Painful right?! I think I cringed a little, too when I heard that one.
And our final station was a little demonstration of an intimidating weapons display. With a spear on the end, the sticks were twirled about their bodies as to scare off anyone trying to fight with them. As intimidating as it looked to me, that wasn't always the case apparently back in the day. In fact it usually made the attackers more angry. Whoops. But hey, looked pretty cool!
Marae (The Village)
The Karanga (welcome call) will echo across the courtyard, followed by the Powhiri. You will then be able to enter onto the village grounds where the Tangata Whenua (people of the land) will be demonstrating different activities such as poi twirling, hand games and weaponry displays, as well as reciting chants.
In another house were two women who showed our group how they used poi. Poi is basically a white ball tied onto a string. Apparently it used to be a rock tied onto a piece of rope, but now it is a softer material. They use it as an art and dance form, twirling it around and having it slap their arms or hands to a rhythm. So thank goodness it is no longer a rock. That would hurt so bad! They looked so graceful and made it all look so effortless. Then they pulled a few women from our group and had them try. They did not make it look so effortless...but they were all smiles the whole time!
Another stop in our village tour was hand games. Being simple people back then, they created games to improve hand-eye coordination with just sticks. There were shorter sticks, which were twirled and tossed and even thrown from person to person. Awesome. They also showed us a game that involved four long sticks. You would place them vertically and in a square. When a certain Maori word was called (I can't recall the exact word) to move left, all players holding their stick would have to let go and move to the left to catch that stick before it fell to the ground. Same for when right was called. Whoever let the stick fall was out of the game. It was pretty intense actually. Out of the four volunteers that did it, the really tall woman won. Sooooo probably not my sport?
Another woman taught us how they use the fibers from flax to make ropes, baskets and even clothing. It was pretty cool! I had no idea what flax even was to be honest. I mean I had heard of it, but I didn't know it would be this huge blade of grass-like plant.
If you haven't noticed from the previous photos, a lot of Maori have tattoos. I guess the more tattoos you had, the better back then. But these tattoos were not placed on like they are today. They were basically scarred into the skin from animal bone. The bone was sharpened enough to pierce the skin. Once it had done so, a black, ink-like substance was placed into the wound. It would then heal with a black tint. Painful right?! I think I cringed a little, too when I heard that one.
And our final station was a little demonstration of an intimidating weapons display. With a spear on the end, the sticks were twirled about their bodies as to scare off anyone trying to fight with them. As intimidating as it looked to me, that wasn't always the case apparently back in the day. In fact it usually made the attackers more angry. Whoops. But hey, looked pretty cool!
Marae (The Village)
The Karanga (welcome call) will echo across the courtyard, followed by the Powhiri. You will then be able to enter onto the village grounds where the Tangata Whenua (people of the land) will be demonstrating different activities such as poi twirling, hand games and weaponry displays, as well as reciting chants.
From there, we were gathered into a large seating area. Hira weaved through the crowd as I tried to keep up with her. We sat down facing a stage (and I was not in the front row for this one because it was against their cultural beliefs) and of course, Dad I bet you know what is coming...an incredibly tall man sits right in front of me. ALWAYS. So if most of my pictures contain a large head in them, you know the reason. But it was still really awesome to just listen to them. They performed a lot of singing that incorporated poi twirling and weaponry displays, which was really cool! They are such music people it's incredible. Hira leaned to me at one point during the night and questioned, "What if you were Maori but born tone deaf or not musically inclined?" I responded with a head shake. "I don't know. I guess you would have to teach yourself somehow." Music is such a huge part of their culture, it would be so hard to struggle in that area if you were Maori.
Wharenui (The Big House)
From the village you will enter the meeting house. This building represents an ancestor of the past. Their custom in the houses are: women must not be seated in the front row. This is because if fighting were to occur between the home people and the visitors, the men would be the protectors. The men make all the welcome speeches. All visitors must remain seated during the Whaikorero (speeches), then the hongi (pressing of the noses as a greeting) is performed by the chiefs and the Tangata Whenua. This seals the bond of friendship between the different cultures. From there were a variety of waiata (songs), Haka, and dances which tell stories of a proud race - Te Maori.
Outside the Wharenui was where our incredible meal was being prepared. It is custom to prepare food underground. Yes, underground. Rocks are heated and placed into the ground. The food is then placed over the rocks in cages and then covered to keep the heat in. No dirt is directly placed onto the food obviously but once the hole is sealed, it is covered in a layer of soil to lock the flavors and heat in. We got a preview of our food being removed from the oven and it looked incredible. I couldn't wait to chow down!
Hangi (Earth Oven)
Dinner time brings around the tradition hangi. The food being prepared has been under the earth on hot rocks for three to four hours. This is the age old traditional cooking method of the Maori. The rocks are heated to a white hot state with some of the native timber. They are then put into a pit dug in the earth. The baskets of meat (chicken and lamb in our case) are put directly on the hot stones, then the vegetable baskets and then the pudding basket on top of that. A wet cloth is placed over the food, followed by wet hessian. Earth is then piled quickly over everything to keep the heat inside the earth oven. Nothing is seasoned (and is still incredibly delicious!)
Wharenui (The Big House)
From the village you will enter the meeting house. This building represents an ancestor of the past. Their custom in the houses are: women must not be seated in the front row. This is because if fighting were to occur between the home people and the visitors, the men would be the protectors. The men make all the welcome speeches. All visitors must remain seated during the Whaikorero (speeches), then the hongi (pressing of the noses as a greeting) is performed by the chiefs and the Tangata Whenua. This seals the bond of friendship between the different cultures. From there were a variety of waiata (songs), Haka, and dances which tell stories of a proud race - Te Maori.
Outside the Wharenui was where our incredible meal was being prepared. It is custom to prepare food underground. Yes, underground. Rocks are heated and placed into the ground. The food is then placed over the rocks in cages and then covered to keep the heat in. No dirt is directly placed onto the food obviously but once the hole is sealed, it is covered in a layer of soil to lock the flavors and heat in. We got a preview of our food being removed from the oven and it looked incredible. I couldn't wait to chow down!
Hangi (Earth Oven)
Dinner time brings around the tradition hangi. The food being prepared has been under the earth on hot rocks for three to four hours. This is the age old traditional cooking method of the Maori. The rocks are heated to a white hot state with some of the native timber. They are then put into a pit dug in the earth. The baskets of meat (chicken and lamb in our case) are put directly on the hot stones, then the vegetable baskets and then the pudding basket on top of that. A wet cloth is placed over the food, followed by wet hessian. Earth is then piled quickly over everything to keep the heat inside the earth oven. Nothing is seasoned (and is still incredibly delicious!)
We were then directed towards the food house. All of us were assigned a table number. We spread out throughout the room and chit chatted while the delicious display of food was being prepared buffet style. When our table was finally called, I used up every inch of my plate. Now those of you who know me know that I don't like to take pictures of my food, I like to just eat it. BUT, I figured this was kind of a special occasion, so I went for it. Peas accompanied golden potatoes and kumara, followed by stuffing, chicken, lamb with a mint jelly, and a few slices of Maori bread. And I ate just about every bit. By the time dessert came around, I was not in the picture taking mood, so I just dove in. I enjoyed a steam pudding with vanilla custard, cream and warm peaches. There was also Pavlova, but I was just too full!
Wharekai (The Food House)
Inside the dining room, the food will be set up buffet style. It is customary for Maori to bless the food with a Karakia (prayer). The menu included peas, stuffing, chicken, lamb, white potato, kumara, salad, fish, and pudding, along with an assortment of sauces. For dessert, we had the choice of steam pudding with custard, cream, and peaches as well as Pavlova.
Wharekai (The Food House)
Inside the dining room, the food will be set up buffet style. It is customary for Maori to bless the food with a Karakia (prayer). The menu included peas, stuffing, chicken, lamb, white potato, kumara, salad, fish, and pudding, along with an assortment of sauces. For dessert, we had the choice of steam pudding with custard, cream, and peaches as well as Pavlova.
After we enjoyed our dessert, about a half hour remained before our waka would depart. Hira and I browsed the souvenir shop of course, and listened to some songs that were being performed. The waka drivers were head of this ceremony. It was pretty good. At some point, I am pretty sure I recognized a song that a guest lecture taught us in the Maori class. I couldn't repeat it back to you right now, but it was the one and only Maori song that had a familiar ring to it.
Poroporoaki (The Closing Ceremony)
The evening ends with the Poroporoaki, which is the official closing ceremony. There will be a waiata and whaikorero before we will all depart on our assigned waka.
After that amazing cultural experience, we ended our journey singing songs in our waka. It was certainly one of the weirdest bus rides I've even been on. Now of course singing songs on a school bus is totally normal. But for a bus full of adults (HIra and I were certainly the youngest of the bunch) all from different countries to be singing on a school bus, that was a whole other story. Here's what went down: Wallace told Tim to do roll call to make sure we all made it on the waka. But there was a twist. Tim would call a country at random from our list of people. Whoever was from that country would then have to sing a song...any ol song. Since Tim was from the States too, we figured we'd be last or possibly not even called at all. Turns out, we were just last. Hira and I had planned to sing "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. Fitting, is it not? We figured a catchy popular tune might get us off the hook of singing it by ourselves. We were mistaken. "Well, the only one that's left is the U.S." Hira and I look at each other and go for it. "So I put my hands up, playing my song, butterflies fly away!" No other voices but ours. "Noddin' my head like yeah! Movin' my hips like yeah!" We kinda giggled and thought that was sufficient but Wallace encouraged us. "Keep going girls!" We were a little caught off guard and Hira took it solo. "Yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah! It's a party in the USA!" I guess it wasn't satisfactory because Wallace then began to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". DUH I SANG ALONG! I also yelled following "for it's root, root, root for the..." I took a deep breath hoping to overpower some people "ROCKIES!!" No more than 3 people would know who the Rockies were, but hey, what can I say? I'm a diehard fan! Clearly they need me back after this season though whew...just saying ;)
We spent the night with our other 8 bunk mates before heading off in the morning. Definitely the highlight of my trip!
Thanks for reading! I will write more soon!
Poroporoaki (The Closing Ceremony)
The evening ends with the Poroporoaki, which is the official closing ceremony. There will be a waiata and whaikorero before we will all depart on our assigned waka.
After that amazing cultural experience, we ended our journey singing songs in our waka. It was certainly one of the weirdest bus rides I've even been on. Now of course singing songs on a school bus is totally normal. But for a bus full of adults (HIra and I were certainly the youngest of the bunch) all from different countries to be singing on a school bus, that was a whole other story. Here's what went down: Wallace told Tim to do roll call to make sure we all made it on the waka. But there was a twist. Tim would call a country at random from our list of people. Whoever was from that country would then have to sing a song...any ol song. Since Tim was from the States too, we figured we'd be last or possibly not even called at all. Turns out, we were just last. Hira and I had planned to sing "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. Fitting, is it not? We figured a catchy popular tune might get us off the hook of singing it by ourselves. We were mistaken. "Well, the only one that's left is the U.S." Hira and I look at each other and go for it. "So I put my hands up, playing my song, butterflies fly away!" No other voices but ours. "Noddin' my head like yeah! Movin' my hips like yeah!" We kinda giggled and thought that was sufficient but Wallace encouraged us. "Keep going girls!" We were a little caught off guard and Hira took it solo. "Yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah-e-yeah! It's a party in the USA!" I guess it wasn't satisfactory because Wallace then began to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". DUH I SANG ALONG! I also yelled following "for it's root, root, root for the..." I took a deep breath hoping to overpower some people "ROCKIES!!" No more than 3 people would know who the Rockies were, but hey, what can I say? I'm a diehard fan! Clearly they need me back after this season though whew...just saying ;)
We spent the night with our other 8 bunk mates before heading off in the morning. Definitely the highlight of my trip!
Thanks for reading! I will write more soon!