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Published: August 11th 2013
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The north island of New Zealand is home to 80% of the Mauri population, so we thought that we should go and see what the culture was all about. And where better to see the culture than a geological wonder? The Whakanenewerewa Living Thermal Village is built on top of cracks and fissures in the earth’s crust, some of which are bottomless. The temperature on the surface of the water in these cracks is about 60°C on the surface, and up to 275°C 100m down.
For over 200 years a Mauri tribe have lived in the village, using the thermal vents to cook, bathe and heat their houses. I guess you just get used to the smell of sulphur permanently. As a money making enterprise, the villagers had opened the place us to tours to show tourists not only the geothermal vents, but also aspects of the Mauri way of life and culture, as much as you can see in 3 hours at least. In that way I much prefer the native New Zealander culture to the native Australians. Aboriginals are very precious about their culture, shunning the outside world, and refusing to tell anyone about it. The
Mauri people on the other hand, want people to come in and see what it’s all about and are generally a great bunch of guys. Mauri people have not only integrated into society, but are firmly pressing their stamp on it, rather than passively sit back in isolation and complain as Aboriginal culture disappears and is maligned by the press.
Our guide was a Mauri lady from out of town, who had grandparents in the village, and was called Girly. Around the village are several low concrete boxes, with wooden lids. These are the ovens, as the boxes are built around different steam vents and heated by lava. Open the box and you are likely to find someone’s dinner cooking in foil. The houses are all just small wooden ones around 100 years old and for the previous reason, don’t have ovens. Baths are at the bottom corner of the village. They don’t just don’t just dive into a thermal pool, but have made channels that can be made to divert the hot water into several concrete pools. So no-one has a bath or shower in their house. It’s all open air, so people spend hours in the baths,
I assume because they are reluctant to re—emerge into the cold. Sitting down on the concrete listening to Girly, we were all surprised to find how hot the ground was. The temperature was around 7°C that day, so lying on the warm concrete was a pleasant surprise
Their attitude to religion is also interesting. Prior to contact with Europeans, Mauri people believed (and some still do) in the Earth Mother, who owned and looked after every living thing on earth. This made treat ever plant and tree with great respect and reverence. Post contact, many converted to Christianity, for ease of getting on with the British, but in their own way. There is one church in the village. Most Sundays, the church is Protestant, and one Sunday in four, it is Catholic, but still has the exact same congregation. Not something I believe would happen in Northern Ireland…
After the tour, we had a Hangi, which is a traditional Mauri meal. Lots of beef, lamb, chicken and vegetables, in a similar fashion to a Sunday roast. The difference with this particular one was that it was cooked in one of those geothermal ovens we had seen earlier. Lava
power is definitely the way forward, as the meat was deliciously tender, and the vegetables were edible (those who don’t know, I am a carnivore. Vegetables are a necessity brought on by the onset of scurvy), and not a hint of sulphur!
Next door to the village, on land that used to belong to the Mauri people, but now belongs to the government is a rival tourist attraction. Three geysers spout hot water and steam into the air. The largest, called the “Prince of Wales Feathers” and two smaller ones. Feathers blows every 3 hours for around 45 minutes. And apparently it is preceded by a rumble and a shudder from the earth, and triggers the two smaller ones. Sadly we missed old feathers, but the others were spectacular.
After the tour we went in search of more of the “Jumping Mud”, where there is a thermal vent below a mud pool. The rising hot air and steam make the mud bubble unevenly and “jump”. To this end we ended up in the car park of leisure centre trying to peer through a hedge to see more of it. However, the best is in the marshes
around the thermal village, so don’t bother.
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