Tamaki Maori Village

To get to know the culture of New Zealand better, we booked a tour to the Tamaki Maori Village. As the name suggests, it is a village of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. The tour is expensive, but we were highly recommended to do it. So, despite the high price, we decided to go for it. And I must say, it was worth it!

From the office, we were taken to the Maori Village by bus. Each bus had a driver and a group leader who was Maori himself. There, we learned our first word or rather our first two Maori words: Kia Ora. It means 'may you be healthy' and is used as a greeting. Then a 'Chief' was chosen to represent the whole group. The group leader already told us a lot about Maori history during the bus ride.

When we arrived at the village, a welcoming ceremony was performed by the Maori from the village, which was really impressive! The Maori danced, shouted and sang. Everyone was dressed in traditional clothing. Then we were allowed to enter the village. In smaller groups, there were several stations where the Maori from the village told us various things about themselves, their history, and their traditions. For example, the Haka was performed and all the men were allowed to participate. Since the Haka is a war dance, women were not allowed to participate. Nevertheless, it was fun to see the men making a fool of themselves ;) In return, I was able to participate in a Maori game as a volunteer, which was also very entertaining!

Next up was the Hangi: the Maori food was cooked underground for several hours and we could see it being taken out of the ground. After that, the Haka and other traditional dances and songs were performed again. Quite impressive. The last item on the agenda was the food, the Hangi, which tasted great! There was meat, vegetables, salad, etc.

We were then taken back to the hostel by bus. On the way, we sang. The group leader was very humorous, just like the bus driver who did 6 rounds in the roundabout while we were singing 'The wheels on the bus go round and round...'. We had a lot of fun! #

One of the highlights so far in New Zealand!

See you soon :)