Rotorua: Maori culture and Geothermal wonders – Copy

I arrived in Rotorua around 8:15 in the morning and within five minutes, the helpful people at the i site had me booked for a Tera (guided tour) and Haka (cultural performance) at the Te Puia cultural centre. There were quite a few tour groups that arrived at the same time so it wasn’t as intimate as I was hoping. However, our guide was a sweet young Maori man. You could see he was so proud to share the stories of his people, land, and culture. The tour shared information on the vegetation and medicinal plants that were throughout the forest. We walked through areas with active geysers ( largest in the southern hemisphere) and bubbling mud pools. There were places where the Maori cooked food in the geothermal earth.

I liked this place as they were involved in conservation and education, both of the environment and Maori arts and culture. One of the areas of conservation that they were involved in were efforts to preserve kiwi birds, which were much bigger birds than I had imagined. We could not take pictures there however did see a male, female and baby Kiwi.

They also had a Maori Arts and Culture Institute that was established in 1963 by an Act of Parliament. The purpose was to promote, preserve, and protect arts, crafts and culture of the Maori people. It’s a nonprofit and most of the income to support its work is generated through their tourism. They offer learning programs to enable Maori to be trained in traditional arts and crafts. Students could attain a three year scholarship to study under the guidance of tutors to create traditional art forms. They had wood carvers, weavers, stone carvers, performers, traditional weapons and tools, and architecture. It was a very inspiring place and had a youthful energy, like a university ! Everyone was so welcoming, helpful, and proud.

We were welcomed into the ceremonial building and given a description of how we would be greeted, depending on the purpose of our visit. If we came in peace, the chief and his family would enter first , whereas in battle , it would be the chief and the men first. Once we were in the building, we were given a performance which included a traditional welcoming, beautiful singing and music , dance with a poi, demonstrations of games played in their village and the performance of the powerful haka, which is used to help prepare warriors before battle and to show their tribe’s pride, strength and unity.

I spent the afternoon soaking in the thermal pools at the Polynesian spa. People have been drawn to these waters for many years. It became quite known in 1878 when a Catholic priest was cured of his crippling arthritis from bathing in these waters. I went to the public pools and they had five separate pools all with different temperatures ( all hot) and various alkaline and acidic water mixtures. It was so relaxing! I have to say it did wonders for my arthritis. I hated to leave. I was wishing I could bring my brother Mike here. It would be so healing for him. I met some interesting people in the pools from New Zealand, South Africa, Korea, Canada, and England. We had a lot of meditative time and also some interesting conversations sharing our travel stories and experiences from our homelands. As we parted ways, we all acknowledged how much younger we looked and how we had an amazing healthy glow about us. I sure slept well that night and my body literally had no aches and pains. However, I have been washing my body and clothes trying to get that hot spring smell of rotten eggs gone. After several washes in vinegar, it is smelling a little lighter and more like devilled eggs.

I really enjoyed Rotorua and hope to get back here someday. There were so many things to choose to do. Since I only had a day , I had to pick my faves in the moment. Many of the people I talked to had gone on treetop walks over red cedar, or visited Hell’s Gate for the healing mud baths. There were also dinners and evening performances and activities that would’ve been pretty special at night in traditional villages. The town itself was quite beautiful, with gardens, lakes, public parks and art centres.