Oh my god, had the best night ever on Sunday!! Went on the Tamaki cultural experience tour which was an evening of Mauri culture and song followed by what can only be described as heaven on a plate! Fantastic. Arrived at the mauri village (has been artificially built in teh forest) and a chief was chosen from our bus...a young guy called Tom. He had to be involved in the arrival ceremony which involved standing there whilst warriors poked spears towards him and poked their tongues with bulging eyes, pretty scary looking!
Went through and wandered round an old stlye village while the mauris explained bits of equipment and traditions of pre-european Mauri life. Went through into the meeting house and there a group performed song, dance and the almighty haka for us the audience. it was really something, me and lauren felt quite emotional about it...and it had nothing to do with the hot mauri guy poking his tongue in front of us...hehe. On a serious note it waas def worth the money, felt i learnt something about theeir beautiful culture and will hold it with me for a long time. As the final mauri words of wisdom hit through the audience there was silence...we have nothing without hope, without faith, without love. true words indeed.
So then we had dinner which consisted of perfectly cooked lamb, chicken, fish, kumara and other stuff all from the hangi (underground ovens). We resorted to seeing how much food we could physically fit in our bodies as we knew this was the best meal we were going to have in a long time!! It was delicious! And was followed by....steamed pudding, custard, fruit salad and meringue pie...girl heaven. spent the rest of the night trying not to be sick as we all overate ridiculously!! So our trip to roturua was closed and onwards to Taupo!!
