A day at Rotorua

Hi! It has been a lovely day today, sunny and warm- as far as I am concerned!!!
I got to Te Puia today and though I only intended spending the morning there I was there all day! It's basically the touristy bit of Whakarewarewa (pronounced Faka re-wa-re-wa) a Maori village. I'm sure I saw the geyser - guiser to the Kiwis - Pohutu before, but don't recall the Te Puia entrance! I can visualise the entrance to Whaka last time and it was pretty basic. Going that way it took us into the village itself where there were shops and souvenirs galore. This time there was a guided introductory tour at first and then we were treated to a Maori concert, which included stick chucking and poi swinging songs! The poi is a lightweight ball made of flax - everything is made of flax - on a string (made of flax). Of course there were also variations on the Haka! You've seen the All Blacks rugby team before a game? Well that is a Haka, a sort of a dance that gets the players psyched up for battle! It is also used as a challenge as in the one we had, as visitors to the meeting house. There is a protocol to be aware of when coming to a meeting house. First the visitors gather at the entrance with their leader - in our case a German fellow in our group. A warrior from the meeting house comes leaping down the path towards the visitors and basically tries to scare them with a Haka, making the most awful faces, and waving a long stick weapon about rather skillfully, all the while making loud Ooh and Wah sounds - very scary looking. His intention is to see whether the visitors come in peace and friendship or to do battle. The warrior lays down a leaf and retreats a bit, weatching to see what the leader of the visitors ill do. Our "chief" picked up the leaf, showing that we came as friends. Then the warrior turns and leaps along the path towards the meeting house, turning every now and then, for another little haka probably to check that the visitors are genuine!!! We all followed the chief and the Maori lady who introduced us. A woman from the hosting meeting house chants a call which was replied to by our lady. We all filed into the meeting house - shoes off at the door - and found seats. Next come the speeches of welcome, and if we were from another Maori iwi (tribe) then our iwi chief would reply. These seem to be very long-winded! Our chief just had to bump noses (hongi) with their chief, the traditional way of greeting someone.

Anyway, then the concert began, with another Haka, followed by songs as described above! It was very good. I suddenly realised that my camera does video as well so I took a small series of films as well as photos. The group posed for photos afterwards and all the Chinese visitors had their pictures taken "with a Maori"!



After that we were free to wander so I retraced our steps of the guided tour, calling in at the Kiwi House, where a kiwi bird had been digging a hole, chucking earth up into the air, to make a burrow. This time the kiwis were wandering about searching with their long beaks for food! They were in a darkened enclosure, to persuade these nocturnal creatures to come out and forage. At night they get a dose of daylight, when they sleep!

Then I carried on down to the thermal area where there are boiling mud pools and steam emerging from various vents in the rock. Pohutu was shooting water and steam up skywards - see the pic I put in at the end of yesterday's blog - accompanied by the other geyser named the Prince of Wales feathers - supposedly the shape they make when at their height! I can't see it myself! It erupts like this several times a day and lasts for quite a while. There are paths all through the thermal area and big notices warning folk not to climb over fences or step off the marked paths! Who would want to, with the threat of falling into a big hole full of boiling water!

I revisited the meeting house, no concert this time - one is your lot - and had a closer look at the carvings on he front. The characters mean nothing to a Pakeha (European) like myself, but our guide, Shane, had explained things very well earlier saying that if he was to show us a carving of a small girl wearing a hooded cloak and carrying a basket, a wolf at her shoulder, what would it tell us? Red Riding Hood! So what was it that made us know that this was Red Riding Hood? The girl? The wolf? Before all that, replied Shane. The story! Yes, the story. You have to know the story before you can say that the carving was of Red Riding Hood, and that is how it is for the Maori. The stories were passed down and down orally - there was no written Maori till the 19th century - and the carvings are recognised as the characters. The reason the characters are so ugly is that only the gods are able to bestow good looks on a carving. To appear as humble as possible, the uglier the characters are portrayed. All very fascinating.

I visted the Kiwi house yet again, as the second time it was inundated with a crowd of Chinese, and this time was able to watch in peace as the Kiwis foraged back and forth - albeit at the back of the enclosure! They have their nostrils at the ends of their beaks unlike other birds and are said to be able to smell a worm 3 inches below the surface of the earth!

Another look to see if Pohuto was blowing again, and a chance to sit on the "hot seats" without all the Chinese visitors hogging them all! This is a terrace of rock that is heated by the boiling water and it's wonderful to sit or even lie on for a while!

Finally I took a look at the School of Carving where young men can learn the craft of carving the characters in the posts and decorations of the meeting house and other Maori buildings, and then across to the school of Weaving, where women learn how to weave flax! Flax grows everywhere - long pointy leaves that are pulpy with fibrous centres. The women cut the leaves across with a knife and scrape away the pulpy green part to leave strands of fibres. Small sections or the whole leaf can be stripped away and the fibres used to make strings of varying thicknesses, depending on how many fibres are used. I watched while Taini ( Tiny) rolled the fibres across her leg - wouldn't want hairy knees in this job! - to form a rope-like string. She would be dying some of the threads to weave a design for a band at the foot of a cloak she is making, She showed me a picture of the cloak so far. 13 months she has worked on it so far! It looks exquisite! Her companion that they all seemed to call Auntie, was Noeline, who was brought up in the Maori village here, and grew up with the stories, the songs and the action games and songs. She said they were all used to performing right from being small children. If you saw the way they swung those poi in intricate patterns with a flick of the wrist......!
I talked with Taine and Noeline for ages reluctant to leave. The weaving is done completely by hand with no looms. They weave baskets from flax leaves, they weave cloth from the fibre strings of the flax leaves. They make the traditional "grass skirts" they wear for performances out of flax leaves.....

Finally after sharing a cup of tea with the two of them I did leave. It was nearly closing time and I had been there for hours! Shane, our guide, and one of the Maori warriors, recognised me as I browsed the gift shop just before I left and commented that I must have enjoyed my day. Too right!

Back in town I decided just to drive around to see if I could get my bearings! I can't really say I have, but I found the museum which I may look at tomorrow, and also the Blue Pool, an outdoor swimming pool in an old colonial style buiding, that has been given a new lease of life after lying empty and neglected for several years. It sounded very appealing and I was able to swim all by myself in a warm pool under the stars, with the moon shining down, and the odd aeroplane flying over. The steam rose from the water - it was warmer than the air outside and what an experience! I had actually planned to visit the Polynesian pools - actual thermal pools - but didn't find them till later.

Tomorrow I head back to Auckland. It should take me the afternoon, so I will have a look round the centre of Rotorua in daylight in the morning. It seems I have no-one sharing the dorm tonight! Fine by me! ot that it's a hassle sharing, but it IS nice to have a room to oneself!!!
Time is running away with me again. I thought I'd have not much to write about.... but that's what thought did! I haven't enough time left to add pics tonight and as the office is now closed I can't buy another session!
Mike and Chris's computers up in Auckland aren't internetted yet, so it will be from Oz that I talk to you next - probably Adelaide! Sally's wedding is on Saturday. Did I say that already? She has asked me to do a reading for them at the ceremony! What an honour to be asked! I said I would do it! It's from the Bible but is all good advice for a bride and a groom and their life together.
So, must get going! Time only to upload this and read it through quickly!
Talk again soon!