Rotorua is in an area of hot springs and geysers and home to many Maori so I should be saying Kia ora meaning hallo and goodbye! We visited a village still inhabited by two Maori tribes to see their houses,
where they cook
about 20 seconds to boil an egg!
Unfortunately geysers not working so no pictures of steaming towers of water.
The hotel was in the centre of the town which is fairly touristy with hot springs all over the place. It was an old hotel but a very pretty room for me, all named after local dignatories, although not sure what the engineer whose name was on my door would have made of the girly décor inside!
In the evening we went out to a maori experience involving greeting the chief of our tribe (chosen on the bus) who musn't smile at their antics, tongue sticking out etc.
We then had a chance to walk round their village which is as it would have been when the Maori arrived 800 years ago and learn about their tattoos
fighting habits etc
before seeing our 'hangi' meal come out of the ground having been cooked over hot stones whilst buried.
They performed a musical concert for us showing their south sea island ancestry before a final 'haka'.
The meal was then served which was extremely tasty with meat so very tender. The drive home enlivened by a driver encouraging the child in all of us, including driving round a roundabout a number of times while we were singing 'the wheels on the bus go round and round'!! (and yes I'd had some wine!) 'tho even the sober ones enjoyed it, well that's my excuse and we could not of course be rude to our Maori hosts.
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