A Maori evening

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In the evening, the people we were staying with suggested we go to a Maori traditional ceremony event. They had buses laid on to pick us up and we set off. The bus driver was Maori and was completely crazy (he reminded us of Mr P.). He greeted us in Maori "Kia-Ora" and got us all to practice saying it. Then he proceeded to explain what it meant in about 50 languages. He then went on to explain that the All Blacks were the best rugby team of all time, and forever will be.

When we got to the place, we had to go through a traditional Maori greeting with much stick waving, tongue sticking out and gutural noises. Quite intimidating! The bus driver had picked a chief from among the men on the bus, and he had to accept the peace offering and we were then allowed into the village, and could chat with some of the Maori doing various tasks.
Then we were summoned to a large staged hall where they did a number of dances and songs for us.
After that we went to a big restaurant area where they served us heaps of food cooked in traditional Maori ways. Lamp, chicken, mussels, potatoes, carrots and various other things.
This was followed by some huge pavlovas, steamed pudding and custard, and fruit salad and cream.
After that the bus driver lead some more songs and dances and then it was time to go home. The bus driver was even more crazy, getting people to sing their national anthems and he seemed to know them all! It ended with a traditional Maroi song called "The wheels on the bus" - and if we didn't go up and down appropriately he wouldn't let us off!

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