The native people of New Zealand, the Maori, are still a strong influence here. Most place names outside the bit cities have Maori names, and many of the places with names given by European colonialists, e.g. Milford Sound, also have their Maori names on signage. Today we learned a bit more about culture by visiting an actual Maori village.
It’s called Whakarewarewa. The pronunciation is FAH-kah-ray-wah-ray-wah. You trill the r’s, as in Spanish. The village is not far from the Rotorua CBD, and it’s located on land filled with thermal hot spots and geysers.
We learned the tribal history and how they live today. And as with the other Maori cultural tours you can take, you get to see a performance that includes the Haka, the warrior dance.
This shot is from another dance they did, with men and women passing the tossing sticks. Very intricate.
After the show, we had a lunch of chicken, beef and vegetables cooked in one of the thermal hot spots.
In the afternoon, we took a long walk along the Lake Rotorua lakefront. We dined for the third and final time on Eat Street, which is only a few steps farther from our hotel than the Arogeti house is from the Yellin house on 9th street. Tonight, it was the Craft Brew and Kitchen, where Roslyn took the highly unusual step of ordering and drinking a beer.
Today marks the 30th day of our trip. We have seven full days left. The weather looks iffy at best for most of that time, thanks to a cyclone hundreds of miles north of here. So we may get some rain. But probably nothing like what Atlanta is getting this week. I’ll keep you posted.