Meanwhile, we bimbled about town, avoiding the worst of the wet weather, before finally ending up at the Polynesian Spa café, where we were joined by our friends, beaming from their recent spills through the countryside.
We sat soaking in the hot water baths as the rain pattered onto our heads, and steam rose from the hottest pools into the cooler air. We had a choice between slightly acidic and sulfurous pools - whose water was yellow like the Devil's bath at Wai-O-Tapu - fed from the Priest springs, and cloudy, alkaline waters from the Rachel springs, which soften the skin.
Post soak, we returned to the campsite to be picked up for a Maori cultural evening at the nearby Tamaki village. En route, we were faced with the decision of electing a 'chief' from among the bus passengers to represent us at the village. Three such buses, hence three chiefs, would arrive at the village and be greeted in the traditional manner by the men there, who aim to ascertain whether the visitors come in peace. Such traditional introductions are still performed today and end when the visitor picks up the proffered silver fern leaf from the ground. Greetings are then made by touching the noses twice together before entering the village.
We were taken on a whirlwind tour of Maori crafts and activities, demonstrated at successive huts within the village complex. Poi tossing (a small beanbag on a string) and manipulation of sticks are traditional pastimes designed to improve hand-eye coordination, joint suppleness, speed and agility. For men, martial training is the next step up from such games, repetitively drilling the footwork and weapons handling required for battle, and includes the haka dance, intended to incite fear into the enemy and which is ably demonstrated by the NZ All Blacks rugby team.
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| Terrifying |
Each activity was demonstrated outside of one of the ornately decorated wooden houses. Carvings have significance and may indicate the skills of the person that lives there. Originally fashioned using greenstone tools, the intricacy of the wooden carvings increased significantly after Cook and the European settlers introduced precision metal tools. The Maori welcomed the different materials and tools and adapted them to their needs. Similarly, when Christian missionaries came, some of the spiritual leaders saw more similarities than differences and folded many of the tenets into their own belief system rather than rejecting the newcomers outright.
Unlike the metal chisels used for woodworking, it seems that the tools used for similar decoration of the body have not advanced in the same way. Tattoos on the face and body indicate the skills of the wearer - markings on the legs and waist for physical strength and speed, arms for manual labour, and above the eyes for spiritual attributes - but seem to be applied by breaking open the skin to apply the ink using a tapping motion. Repeated breaking of the skin forms a raised pattern to complement the design but must be a painful process.
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| Maori design |
Having learned about - and in some cases attempted - the Maori activities, we were treated to a professional display of song and dance, both modern and traditional.
The entertainment was followed by the hangi, or feast, prepared in the traditional manner by placing the ingredients in baskets into a fire pit dug into the ground. In this feast, there was chicken, lamb, carrots, potatoes, and kumara, all of which were rendered meltingly tender and smoky from the lengthy underground cooking time.
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| Hangi feast |
Served buffet style, there was plenty of food for the feast, but vegetarians were given a tasty but frankly unnecessary - given the volume of other food - pumpkin lasagne. Fortunately, I still found room to sample the steamed sponge pudding and custard, as well as the enormous pavlova and peaches presented for dessert.
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