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Published: December 21st 2005
Maori greeting
Hi Roy.. Hi Jeremy..!Arriving in Roturua, we decided to leave the group at the Base hostel and go to Hot Rocks hostel instead. The hot pools here were not so attractive as they sounded due to the rotten egg smell, so we avoided these, but the Lava Bar next door proved good fun.
Rotorua was also our first real insight into the Maori culture.
Stray had organised a visit to 'Slim's Cultural Evening', which actually wasn't hosted by Slim, but a huge Maori guy called Roy. He greeted us in the traditional Maori fashion by touching foreheads. So hard to keep a straight face!
We had a talk from him about the history of the Maori's then before dinner then girls learned how to swing 'Poi's', and the guys were taught the Haka. After dinner we also learnt how to count to ten in Maori with actions to match!
Then we were treated to a little play, with much audience participation which was great fun, and included the line... 'How u doin'?!'.
Later that evening I witnessed an unusual activity in the Lava Bar. Raft wrestling with shaving foam!! This involved a white water raft on the floor of the bar, and two
Haka
Bring on the all blacks!.. I'm ready! contestants covered in shaving foam trying to get their opponent out of the raft. Typically the greek guy Dimitri from our Stray bus managed to get caught up in the action and gave a good fight before getting ditched from the raft..very funny!
The following day when I turned up for my rafting trip on the Kaituna river, the guy and girl victors from the raft wrestling turned out to be our guides.. talk about a fix!
Decked out in fleece, wetsuit, helmet etc we drove to the launch site. I was originally put in a group with Nikki and Stella from the Stray bus but then switched to even up the numbers in another raft... this would turm out to be a wise move!
Our raft guide Steve was a big Maori bloke and we felt good knowing he was in charge. Ant was the second guy and he was the cheerleader! Steve lead us in a Maori prayer blessing 'the brave souls on this raft', then we crossed paddles and set off downstream. In only a couple of minutes we faced the first test which was a three metre waterfall, then round a couple of corners to
Maori Play.
Once were warriors.. a four metre waterfall.
We stopped after a succession of rapids for another quick prayer, then it was on to the famous
7 metre waterfall. Out of the four rafts only one flipped and had crew fall out. Of course this was the one that i'd been switched from at the start, a lucky escape! We picked up the floaters who turned out to be Stella and Nicki. Nicki had been caught under the raft and was winded by another rafters paddle, so she was abit shaken.
We messed about for abit in the water then we returned to base. No hot showers though.. boo! Back in Rotorua, S & N and I treated ourselves to 'Fush & Chups' to help warm up!
After lunch we rejoined the gang for the drive to Taupo.
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Chris Houston
non-member comment
Are you a month behind in New Zealand?
Hi Jeremy and Lin, Looks like you are having a fab time over in NZ. Is your blog a month behind as it's nearly Christmas and your latest blog was dated Nov 25th! Melanie and I are off Skiing next week, Paris for 2 days and then Switzerland until the following Monday :-) Can't wait :) Have a great Christmas and New Years! Chris