A little bit of Maori culture

The Stray group is always looking for new and worthwhile things to add to their travel itineraries to expose visitors to New Zealand culture. Rob was quite excited on our way into Rotorua – he had just found out that Slim, the person who offers Stray travellers a night of Maori culture in the form of dinner and a show, had arranged for us to see a Maori weapons demonstration before our dinner on the night we arrived in Rotorua.

Rob had never seen a performance like this, so he was thrilled that it worked out for us. On this particular night, the group of 5 students met for their regular training. Watching them practice was along the lines of watching a karate demonstration, or any other martial art for that matter. We got to handle some of the traditional weapons ourselves (including ones that were once used to rip off the scalps of enemies – ugh, don’t want to think too much about that). A few people even got up to learn a couple of moves themselves.

After this, we went for dinner and the men in the group learned to do the haka (the traditional Maori dance that most of us have seen before thanks to the popularity of New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, who perform the haka before the start of each rugby match). On the way to the dinner, most of the guys had said they were shy about getting up in front of everyone to learn this. Once called up, however, they were eager and seemed to take learning the haka very seriously.

Later that evening, we got to see a play about a Maori legend. It was a good way for us to have an introduction to some Maori history (in an entertaining format). I must admit that the style of the play wasn’t entirely up my alley, but the actors really got the audience involved (and didn’t embarass me personally – others were pulled onto the stage to take part, and I was just relieved that it wasn’t me!).

This was my last stop on this trip with the Stray bus and I went to meet up with Julie and Raf at the sure to be lovely Crash Palace hostel in Rotorua.