A visit to Maori Land

We spent two weekends while on the north island visiting an area filled with Maori culture - and where many of the Maori population live.  They do live all over - more on the north island, but often come back to their home tribal sites.  This is also an  area that has several active volcanoes and some that are no longer active.  Much of the land has been formed by volcanic action - you remember in a previous blog the black beach. 

We first went to Lake Taupo - a beautiful area that currently survives on the tourist industry and it is easy to see why.  Our first evening, we sat in a restaurant on the lake and watched the most beautiful sunset!!

The next day we went out on the Lake for a boat ride that took us to an area of Maori rock carvings.  They are not old, but a Maori artist was working on them and the National Park Service felt they should be protected. We traveled about an hour to get to this site. These carvings are quite large.  The first one may be 25 feet tall.

If you look closely above the lizard, you will see legs!!  Some young people had "boated" out and were having a picnic.  The carvings were pretty amazing. 

The boat was an old boat that had been renovated - Jay can probably tell you the story of it.  The captain was a very good tour guide with lots of stories!!  We had to rest with some very delicious gelato after the boat ride!!

We also visited an amazing waterfall -  Hutt Falls - it was in a very narrow gorge - not very high, but the water roared through it.  And, it was a gorgeous aquamarine color.  This was our first sight of water that feeds into a hydrothermal plant. 

The next day we traveled to Rotoroa, the heart of the Maori culture.  It is interesting, but not surprising, how much the architecture is influenced by the British Isles.   We visited a wonderful museum in the center of the city park (every city or town, no matter how small has a town center and a lovely park, and public toilets).  There was a great display on the 1800's volcanic eruption, complete with pictures, and the theater where we were viewing the pictures suddenly started to shake, the benches trembled, loud rumbling noises, and we experienced a re-enactment of what the eruption may have felt like when it really happened.  A bit scary even though a sign at the entrance to the theatre warned of loud noises and sudden movements.

We also saw a brief movie about the bravery of the Maori men who served in the military, in the second world war their casualties, both deaths and injuries, were terrible, highest percentage of any of the NZ units.  There were known for their ferocity and fearless approach to the enemy.

This was a large park with beautiful flowers and trees.  We were fascinated with the trees here.  We just "happened" upon a little concert in the park - old folks playing mostly American jazz and show tunes!!

The name of the band was "nostalgia", many had trouble getting up into the little gazebo bandstand.

You can see how large the tree is by the chair sitting at the base of it.  And, there were some much larger than this!!

There were lots of folks here - sitting on the ground as well as in their chairs.  Also note most of the folks here have on hats.  Most everyone here wears hats - even the children playing on the playgrounds and in the school yards.  NZ has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.  Lots of ads for lotions and skin protection as well. 

We mentioned in a previous post that we had stayed in an old Victorian hotel - this was in Rotoroa.  We had a lovely dinner on the front walk - not unusual to see sidewalk cafes. 

This area has a lot of thermal springs and mud baths.  There are some places where you can get into the mud baths.  We just were not quite into that!!   We visited one of the parks - reminded me a lot of Yellowstone Nat'l Park in the states.  There was only one geyser - we missed seeing it - it only goes off at 10:30 every morning.  Hmmmm.  But we did see and smell a number of the springs - strong sulfur smell.  A number of motels and B&B's in the Rotoroa area advertise that they are free of the sulphur smell.  It is kind of like Westpoint and the paper mills.  I guess you get used to it if you live there.

This one was mostly mud!! strong sulfuric fumes.

You can see the steam rising off of this water.

Minerals in the water determine what color it is.

We did have the opportunity to visit a Maori village.  We were introduced to a lot of their customs and even had a dinner they had prepared for us, chicken, rice, many types of squash, and some notably NOT MAORI items, like salad and dessert.   The tribal dress is made of flax, animal furs, beads, shark teeth, bird feathers and other things taken from  nature.  We found much of the history and culture of the Maori people to be like the Native Americans. 

One difference is they have progressed much further in the rights as citizens of the country.  And, there is much still to be done.  There is a high level of domestic violence and alcohol abuse.  This seems truer of those who have lost contact with their family tribe (iwi -often refers to the name of the canoe in which they arrived from Polynesia, there may have been as many as one hundred rowers in a single canoe. We saw some of them in museums, 50+ feet long, chiseled out of the trunk of a single huge tree ).  There is a lot of effort to re-connect with the family tribe and cultural history.  Those who have done so have extreme pride in their culture and history, and are strong in their attempts to be compensated for all their lands which were taken by the settlers, and for which they received a fraction of a penny per acre.  

We were on a bus tour and our group selected someone to represent us.  In the above picture, he is being approached to see if we come in peace.  The behavior is very threatening but in fact indicates that the host is powerful.  He then puts a frond at the feet of the visitor (or intruder) and if it is accepted and picked up (see the frond in the hands of the man at the right) the invitation is given to enter the village.  Otherwise, battle !  There is great tradition in this. The europeans mis-interpreted this ritual and accepted the challenge to fight, with terrible results for both sides.  They did a number of dances and songs for us. 

As you can tell, this trip was filled with adventures!!  There is one more thing I want to share with you that was interesting and fun for us.  We visited an Agrodome where we saw all the many sheep that are represented in NZ - I think there are 28.  We also saw one sheared and then saw the border collies herding the sheep.  Of course, it was set up to be intertaining, and it was also educational for us. 

Here they are all lined up, each having been introduced as to the type of sheep it is and whether it is primarily for wool or meat, or both.  The merino is prized as the best wool, and when it is mixed with possum fur it is a sensual delight, soft and smooth, similar to cashmere.  

It was amazing how quickly he sheared this sheep.  He also covered the ears of one sheep when he was telling it had the best meat. There are many sheep-shearing contests thruout sheep country, with men,  women, children competing.  I think the record is around 2-3 minutes to shear one.  Some folks make their living during shearing time by traveling from one farm to the next, and may shear as many as 200-300 sheep in a single day.  

Well, we still have lots more to share, and hopefully, while Jay is working in the clinic on the south island, I can catch up.   We need to get it all in before time to leave.