In the evening, while Laurent and Pablo had a boy's night in with hot tub soaking and pizza (from Hell's Pizza, phone number 800-666-1111, and tag line "Where the hell are you eating?!"), the girls went out for an evening at the Maori Village. The event included explanations of the history and culture of the Maori people, who arrived in New Zealand from Tahiti over a thousand years ago. They are a native culture that is very predominant in New Zealand - their language is everywhere in the names of towns and there are Maori references in language and customs. At the village, we all gathered in five tribes (each a different bus-load) for the Haka greeting challenge dance from the Maori people.
Once it had been established that we came in peace (by the action of our chiefs - adult males only need apply - accepting the nature offering), we toured the village, talked with the people about their crafts of wood carving and weaving, and then watched a dancing and singing performance in The Big House. Some of the songs sounded rhythmically tribal and some sounded very lilting, like 1950's croons. The dances also included motions of dexterity with sticks and balls, which represented training for battle. Much applause and many calls of "Kia Ora" later (Kia Ora is the greeting that means hello, be well, go in health, take care, thanks, cheers, farewell - pretty much everything) the five tribes went into the dining hall for a New Zealand feast (cooked in the ground with hot rocks) of lamb, chicken, fish, potatoes, carrots and salad, with stewed pudding and custard (like English school lunches!), Pavlova (a meringue cake) and fruit for dessert. Some time in the gift shop or warming hands by the fire and we were sent with a song back to our canoes (wokka) (disguised as big coach buses) for our journey back to the hotel. Along the way we sang songs to pass the time, led by our driver Merv - from "Waltzing Matilda" to "Row Row Row Your Boat" to "She?ll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain", the refrain of which he kept us singing as he went around the final roundabout SIX times (to progressively more laughter) to, as he put it, "round out our evening's experience". =)
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