It was only an hour's drive from Tampo to Roturua and we arrived here about 3:30 PM. We are staying in a small, nice clean, quiet hostel for our last two nights in New Zealand. We have a room to ourselves which has a kitchen area with a refrigerator, sink and table (but no cooking facilities). Lots of room to spread out our stuff.
We walked over to the shopping mall, went to the grocery store and went back to the room to start organizing our stuff into what we want to mail home and what we want to keep for Thailand and Nepal. We were going to mail some things to Kevin in London but we don't have much that we need in Nepal so I decided to keep them with me. We are staying 4 nights at the same place in Thailand, and we can store things in Nepal while we are off trekking, so it will not be a bother to carry some extra stuff on the plane.
4/13: I got up at midnight to call Susan (it was 8 AM back home), hoping to catch her before she went out to breakfast or started her Saturday morning errands and luckily I got her. It was great to talk with her and catch up on things from home and confirm some arrangemnets for England and Scotland. We talked for about half an hour and it was good to find out that everything is going well at home. We visited the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute today. It is sort of like a Sturbridge Village back home, except it deals with the Maori life and culture. The Maori were the first people in New Zealand and the exhibits included an early Maori village, a Maori Meeting House, their carvings and weaving techniques amd a Kiwi house (quite dark because they are nocturnal birds). We also saw lots of mudpools and gyseers. We didn't attend the Maori concert because we will see one tonight. After we got back from the art institute I called Jill. She and Paul are the couple we met at the start of the Hemp Ridge Track, who had invited us to stay with them when we got near Roturua. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and won't be able to visit with them, but I wanted to thank her for her kind invitation and to let her know that we would be leaving New Zealand tomorrow.
The bus picked us up at 6:15 PM for our trip to the Tamaki Maori Village. It was a great evening and lots of fun, starting with the bus ride. Everything is so well run in New Zealand and this Maori cultural experience was no exception. All the people from the Tamaki Maori Village are from Maori descent including our bus driver Dennis (he said we could call him Dennis the Menace as his mother does). He had explained all about the evening's events during our bus ride to the village, he sang songs and had us pretending we were rowing our Waka Cour canoe as if we were on our way to visit another Maori tribe.
Each bus had a "chief" who would participate in the Te Wero (the challange) when we arrived at the village. A warrior from the host tribe comes out from the gates of the village, carrying a spear-like weapon and performs some feirce-looking ritualistic movements in front of the chiefs and then places a peace offering on the ground. One chief picked it up and stepped back (maintaining eye contact at all times with the warrior) to indicate we came in peace not war.
We then all went into the Marae (the village) to watch the demonstrations at poi twirling, hand games and weaponry displays and reciting of chants. These are the activities performed by the original Maori tribes and the have been restored by the young people of today.
Next was the Wharenui (the Big House) for some welcome speeches, more explanation of the Maori customs and lots of singing and dancing (which are used to tell stories of the Maori people), then on to the Hangi (Earth Oven) for dinner. A hangi is cooked in the traditional Maori method by placing baskets of food on hot rocks, covering it with clothes and dirt and letting it bake for 3-4 hours in the earth. Everyone sits at long tables and the food is served buffet style.
The evening ends with a Poroporoaki (Closing Ceremony) - more songs and speeches and then a bus ride back to our hostel. Dennis entertained us again on the bus ride home. The Maori are a very proud pople and it is so nice to see their traditions and customs being kept alive by the young Maoris today. A great way to spend our last evening in New Zealand.
4/14: Shari was up early doing our laudnry and then we packed up, put our stuff in the car and came over to use the internet and to make a few calls before we head out to the airport. It's about a 2.5 hour drive to Auckland Airport and our plane doesn't leave until 7:45 PM, so we will probably leave Roturua about 2 PM.
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