Meeting the chief

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After lunch we drove down to Rotorua, where we would be meeting the Maori tribe chief of Ohinemutu and be given a tour before having some traditional food called hangi back at the hostel. We got into Rotorua about 4 pm, with Simon still dressed as tigger. We persuaded him to go up to the bride (a wedding party was taking photos near the lake where we parked up) and get a photo taken with her.

As we were waiting, a car pulled up with a man who had Maori tattoos covering his face asking who we were waiting for. We later found out this was one of the chief's cousins or brothers (can't remember which). We moved to the toilets to wait for Chief. He turned about 10 minutes later. We introduced ourselves to each other as well as where we were from.

We started heading towards the meeting house, when the church emptied (a wedding had been taking place) and the wedding party filtered past us to take take pictures at the meeting house. So we turned around, and went into the church instead. The church is called St Faith's Church. The church looks like it is a Tudor style building on the outside, but it's got Maori art work inside such as woven wood panels. Also inside is a window from the floor to the roof, which looks over the lake just beyond, and has a full size etching of Jesus in the window so when you look out it looks like he is walking on water.

The Chief told us we could ask him anything we wanted, that he has been asked all sorts in the past. We asked questions regarding religion (how Christianity was incorporated with the Maori way of life) and what the Maoris believed in, the stories of cannibalism, what he thought (and the Maori point of view) about homosexuality. He told us stories he had learnt about the area we were looking out, why places were named as they were and who the names belonged to in the Maori legends. Before Christianity, all the history was learnt orally; since then they have written much of it down. The chiefs are all required to learn the last 100 generations of his ancestors so that if he were to go to another tribe, he would be able to prove his genealogy by explaining who his ancestors were and introduce himself.

He also talked to us about why the hot pools (and thermal area of Rotorua) were so important, for revitalizing health with the minerals that are in the pools as well as for family and community time. They are not as conservative as other families might be so everyone will bathe together naked and no one is bothered by this. He showed us his hot pool which is also his bath. One end of the path has the naturally hot water piped into the bath, and the other end there is cold water running, so while the water is still hot, it's not burn you skin off.

We also discussed tattoos, particularly why he didn't have tattoos himself, why other members of his family did and what they meant and how he felt about non-Maori getting tattoos. His brother who we briefly met had his face tattooed but also from the waist to his knees, back and front and everything in between was tattooed.

After all of this, we then walked towards the meeting house where the wedding party had left by then. This is where the Chief would welcome us, sing a song to us and we then had our own chief say a few words kind of introducing us and then we had to sing a song back to him. We were lucky that we were warned we would have to sing a song, we bumped into another group who were invited to our welcome ceremony and they had two minutes to organize themselves to sing a song. Simon elected Dave to be our chief for our group and the other group of tourists elected a guy named Roger. Before we were allowed in to the balcony (we weren't allowed inside the meeting house), we were asked to pause in silence for 20 seconds to think about what inspired you to be here and who we'd loved and maybe lost. When we were filing in to sit down, we were told only men were allowed to sit on the benches in front of The Chief. The women could sit to the side or on the floor. This was traditional, so who were we to argue about this?

The Chief welcomed us in Maori and then sang a traditional song to us. Dave then said a few words, then we got up and sang a couple of verses of 'We will rock you' by Queen. We had practiced most of the way down from the caves. Roger then stood up, said some words and then his group of people sang a mish mash of a song I have no idea what it was. The Chief then said a prayer to close the welcome ceremony Maori. After all of this, we each went up to The Chief (chiefs, then men and then women) to give him a Maori hello. This is where you both close your eyes, press your foreheads and nose tips together, move your head back then press heads and noses together and this time hold longer and breathe the air in. Once this was all completed The Chief stated we were now part of his family.

This was the end of our tour around Ohinemutu. We slowly all piled back into the van, went to the supermarket to gather food for the next day, and alcohol for that night. Then we arrived at our hostel the Four Canoes, where our food was waiting for us. We were eating a traditional Maori dish called hangi, which was pretty good. We quickly sorted out who would be in which room, then went for dinner. Because it was Simon's birthday, Michelle bought Simon a chocolate cake. Turns out, because it was his birthday, he bought two cakes and ice cream, so we had plenty of cake. Some of the girls tried using the hot tub ... it was cold or maybe lukewarm, not warm enough to be outside in water. Used the internet briefly, then I went to sleep as we had to get up early the next day to drive and do the Tongariro Crossing.

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