New Zealand: Rotorua

From Tahiti, we flew to Auckland, spent one night and then drove to Rotorua and Lake Rotorua. This district of New Zealand is located in the huge caldera of an inactive volcano near the Bay of Plenty on the North Island. The area is known for its Maori history, its limestone caves, and its geothermal activity with numerous hot pools and steam vents across the Valley floor.

Driving on the "wrong" side of the road was not too much of an adjustment. But I had problems unlocking the car and getting in on the left side only to briefly wonder where the steering wheel went. The other problem was hitting the turn signal and watching the windshield wipers fly across the windshield. Other than that, no too many problems.

New Zealand is a beautiful country, with sheep farming, cattle farming, and agriculture all conducted under a beautiful sky with rolling landscape below.

We are in the caldera of the Rotorua district.

We thought that some parts of New Zealand resembled Tuscany.

Eventually we arrived in Rotorua, a medium sized resort town on the shores of Lake Rotorua. We found a great little B&B as our base for seeing the sights in the area.

The downtown area of Rotorua has largely been converted to specialty restaurants and bars, along with specialty shops catering to tourists.

Esplanade streets and many flower planters add to the charm of Rotorua.

Maori-style carvings decorate the town. We will learn more about this part of Rotorua's heritage tomorrow.

One block of the old downtown area nearest the lake has been converted to a covered pedestrian corridor with restaurants serving food from around the world.

The New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute

Our second day in Rotorua, we visited Te Puia (meaning "the geysers" in the Maori tongue) which is a large government funded institute for the preservation of Maori arts and crafts. The Institute is located on the former home grounds of a large Maori tribe in the Rotorua caldera.

One of the main attributes of the Maori culture institute is their dramatic and unique carving methods shown here at the entrance.

This is the official name of the Maori culture institute, which in English means "The Gathering Place for the War Parties of Wahiao."

The Maori people settled New Zealand in 1200-1350 AD, having emigrated from Polynesian islands in other parts of the South Pacific. Wahiao was an early Maori warrior who arrived by canoe in the Bay of Plenty area and set up residence on the land that is now the Maori Cultural Center. Wahiao is widely considered one of the founders of Maori culture among modern Maoris.

These twelve  touring totems at the entrance of the cultural center are decorated with masks depicting the various attributes of the Maori culture.

And here are the geysers. Te Puia. The larger Pohutu geyser on the right is the largest geyser in New Zealand. The smaller geyser to the left is the "Prince of Wales" geyser, supposedly named by a visiting Prince of Wales who thought the geyser resembled the feather plume on his royal standard. Bully for him!

These geysers, unlike Old Faithful in the US, erupt frequently but not regularly throughout the day, depending in large part on the amount of rainfall in the previous days and the ambient temperature. The first eruption of the cycle is the largest, with Pohutu often reaching a height of 30 meters.

And here is a photo of the geezers in front of the geysers!

Surrounding the geysers are crystallized formations containing sulfur and calcium ejected with the boiling water through the geysers. This entire area smells continually of sulfur. In addition, the area of the cultural institute is dotted with thermal pools of steaming water as well as pools of boiling mud where heated steam forces kaolin and clay-containing mud into bubbling, plopping pits of goo.

This is our guide Paul demonstrating how the Maori made ropes and clothing from local flax.

In a few easy steps, Paul had stripped the green part of the leaf and the residual wax to leave only the flax fibers, which he then quickly wove into a small rope using traditional Maori weaving methods and his hands.

Next we visited the carving and weaving schools of the cultural institute.

Training in the traditional and dramatic Maori carving techniques are taught at the school by Maori carving masters. Candidates must be of a young age, male, and of Maori ancestry. Wood carving is an art reserved by the Maori culture for the men only.

The 8 young men selected for each term of the school are taught by the masters, and they in turn go back to their villages and teach the carving techniques to their village men. In this way, the cultural institute is preserving this precious Maori art form.

This large totem isa carving work in progress.

A traditional massive Maori war canoe carved in the typical Maori style.

Likewise, the art of weaving is reserved for women only in the Maori culture. Young women are selected to attend the cultural institute's weaving school, and they, like the men, return to their villages to teach they traditional weaving techniques.

A beautiful traditional Maori war garment woven entirely from flax fibers with dyes from local soil and peat pits.

A young Maori woman weaving a garment.

Traditional Maori garment for women.

The next event in our evening of Maori culture was a reenactment of greeting and invitation into the tribal marae, the traditional tribal meeting house where the Maori conducted tribal meetings, training for battle, and performance of traditional dances and songs.

The gentleman in the blue shirt was selected as our visiting group's "chief." Here he is approached by the Maori chief who brandishes a weapon and performs a series of (at time, ferocious) dance maneuvers as a ritualistic invitation to enter the marae.

At the end of the chief's dance, he lays a palm leaf on the ground in front of the visiting chief, who then picks up the palm leaf as a signal that he is accepting the invitation to enter the marae--along with his personal commitment that we will behave ourselves inside!

The Maori chief in a series of final movements of greeting turns and leads the "visiting tribe" into his marae.

Once inside and seated, we were treated to a wonderful performance of Maori songs and traditional dances, as well as demonstrations of Maori weapons and games of skill and coordination designed to ready maori warriors to use those weapons in battle.

 Traditional Maori war garments.

 Demonstration of weapons of war.

This beautiful Maori woman is performing a traditional dance using the "poi," a woven white ball (seen at her waist level below her left arm) attached by a thin black rope to a read feathered hassle she holds in her right hand. The movements of the poi are integral to the telling of stories through song and dance.

Here women from our "visiting tribe" are given a dance lesson using the poi.

In the tradition of the Maori warrior, they tattoo their faces to resemble fierce masks, then when encountering an enemy, they perform the haka--a series of fiercely aggressive movements culminating in an angry face with protruded tongue, eyes rolled back and accompanied by a low guttural growl--all designed to scare the bejesus out of an enemy. Supposedly this worked surprisingly often, causing more timid tribes to flee and bypassing the need for direct physical engagement in battle.

After the women received their "poi" training, the men were invited onstage for a "haka" lesson, or as it turned out, more like a "haha" lesson! Guess who wound up on the front row!

Here we are demonstrating our fierce stance, gestures, and "haka face" to scare our enemies. I don't know about you, but I would die from laughter if I saw this motley group dancing and growling in front of me!

Following the entertainment, our group was treated to a buffet cooked in the traditional Maori "hangi" style.

Hangi is the traditional way of cooking food in a stone pit. First the pit is dug and lined with stones, then a fire is built in the pit. When the fire has burned down, and the stones are glowing hot, the ashes are removed and a box of stacked layers of meats and vegetables are lowered into the pit and covered. After 3-4 hours of cooking underground, the food is uncovered. Here the hangi pit is fitted with a modern stainless steel cover which the men are about to remove.

Under the cover is the steaming hot wrapped box of food.

Here the men have unwrapped the food and are removing the first layer--vegetables.

The next layer is cooked chickens and slabs of pork. Smelled delicious!

Fortunately, our beautiful hangi feast was served in a modern building with a lovely buffet laid out. We feasted on seafood, shrimp, pork, chicken, eel, and lamb--along with potatoes, tomatoes, rice, curried lentils, and kumara (a type of sweet potato). For dessert, we had pavlova, truffles, and chocolate mousse--not very authentic Maori cuisine I suspect! But delicious nonetheless.

As we departed Te Puia, night had fallen and the carved totems at the entrance with lighted to show off the intricacy of the carving as well as the fierceness of the traditional Maori face.

The Cultural Institute turned out to be an unexpected highlight of our visit to Rotorua, and one the we certainly were glad we attended in this land that is interwoven with the traditions of these proud people.