Over the weekend Aleah, Mom, Dad, and I, plus Busia and Tee, left Auckland to see a bit more of New Zealand. The first activity we did together was to experience a Māori village. The Māori are the native people of New Zealand, although technically they arrived fairly recently, as recent as just 800 years ago. Obviously, nowadays they do not live like they did back then, but there are many experiences to show some idea of what it would have been like to visit a Māori village during their much more tribalistic times.
It was a fairly short drive to the village from our rental house, although it was a three hour drive from Auckland. We parked in a large parking lot just a couple steps above a large dining hall. It was obviously a very popular experience, because the entire room was full. Once everyone had been directed to their assigned seats, a woman in traditional garb came out and began speaking in Māori. None of us understood a lick of what she was saying, so we were very glad when she switched over to English and explained she had given us a traditional greeting, before giving us a quick rundown of what to expect.
First we would go out and see how they were cooking the food we would be eating later in the evening. After that we would head down and see a traditional waka tua, or war canoe rowed up and down a small creek. Once that was completed, the group would go back the way we came, having the chance to take some pictures of a really cool sacred spring on the way to another building, where we would see some traditional activities and dances. Then we would come back to the hall, eat dinner and have a Q&A, before seeing a fortified village and some glow worms.
The cooking method was very interesting, and although they had supplemented it with modern materials in some cases, the basic method of heating up the food had remained the same. First they would dig a pit to heat stones, which were then placed with the food and all covered by soaked cloth and the dirt from digging the pit. The steam from the cloth would help heat the food, and it only took a day or so to get ready.
The war canoe was super awesome! Busia and Tee were unable to join us, as the walk was very unsteady, but they were still able to watch from a tall platform. It took a while for everyone to come down and Aleah, Mom, and I could see fire flickering through the trees. Initially we assumed it was from a campfire, until the canoe came around the corner and we saw it had several torches on it. The guys paddling gave us a fun show, they were definitely quite intimidating.
The war canoe demonstration was relatively short, especially when compared to the next event. Something I neglected to mention was that when all of us were in the hall, our host on the podium asked for someone to volunteer as our honorary chief. People were rather reluctant, until one man from Thailand volunteered. At the beginning of the evening, our chief had to show that we came in peace, and give a short speech thanking the other chief for allowing us to stay with them. Our family thought that our chief had a great speech, and we all loved the various dances, songs, weapon demonstrations, and cultural lore that we saw and learned.
When we left it was beginning to get dark, and thus, time for dinner. We were all instructed to stay at our tables until called, presumably to prevent a stampede for the buffet. There was a huge variety of food available, with chicken, pork, and lamb as the main meats, and too many side dishes to name, like stuffing, mussels, and sweet potatoes. After everyone got their food, our host had a Q&A session on Māori culture. Did you know that the Māori facial tattoos each represent a different bird? The owl is on the chin, the kiwi on the cheeks, the parrot on the nose/upper lip, and apparently in Māori culture the bat is considered a bird, and is on the forehead.
Once everyone had finished eating, and all questions had been answered, it was time for the final part of the tour, the walk through the fortified village and to see the glow worms, which, fun fact, are not actually worms. The fortified village was interesting, but not particularly amazing. It was basically a bunch of logs surrounding a couple of lean-tos. The glow worms however were fascinating. The insects themselves were too small to see, but the glowing string they made was immediately obvious to everything except my phone’s camera. Fortunately, I’m the only one in the family with “an old and busted” phone.
I absolutely loved seeing this Māori village. Some might have called it silly, and with some merit, but I thought it was super cool seeing all of these things that used to be staples of Māori culture, and are currently becoming that again. I certainly wouldn’t mind if a couple of the food items I had became more popular in the States!