Maori hangi in Rotorua

---

After we met back at the hangar, we drove to downtown Tauranga for a quick café lunch before heading to Rotorua. Along the way we made an obligatory stop in Te Puke to take a couple of pictures at the World’s Largest Kiwifruit, then made the couple-hour drive over green bush-clad hills to Rotorua. We got there with an hour to spare before our Maori hangi (feast), so we checked in to our hotel and enjoyed the sulphuric smells of Rotorua until the bus arrived to take us to dinner.
We went to the Mitai hangi, which is billed as the most authentic hangi in town. First we (about a hundred of us) all gathered in one room and our MC for the night told us about what to expect. He then asked for a volunteer to act as our chief for the night; one older British gentleman volunteered. We were dubbed the “Tribe of Twenty Nations”/”Tribe of the Four Winds” as we had 20 nations in our ranks. That done, we were ready to meet the tribe. We filed into the performance space (stopping along the way to view our nearly-cooked dinner in its underground oven), in which a replica of a Maori village had been built. Soon enough a tribe member emerged to exchange the traditional challenge/peace offering with our chief, followed by the exchange of songs, and then the performance of a haka (war dance). We then were treated to a performance of several songs, dances and stories.
The performance was fun and interesting, but the dinner was somewhat disappointing. The only traditional food served was kumara (a sweet potato that the Maori brought with them when they migrated to NZ from Tahiti); no seafood was served and the remaining items (lamb, chicken, stuffing, potatoes au gratin, trifle) seemed somewhat British rather than Maori, and some certainly weren’t cooked in the underground oven. It felt somewhat like a wedding buffet rather than a tribal feast.
After dinner, we were led on a forest walk where we got to see some glowworms, a silver fern and a beautiful freshwater pool in which an eel swam and various springs bubbled up;. That done, we piled back onto our bus for the ride back to our hotel and bed for the night.

---

Photos

Show of strength
Tribal performance at the Mitai village