Invited to dinner: Maori brine meat?

The way to Rotorua led inland with a short coffee break in Matamata - no steep coast up and down again, but flat country roads and a lot of straight ahead - a welcome change for the driver. We stayed at the Copthorne Hotel Rotorua...like in Auckland: a bit old but OK.

Rotorua and the region are best known for their geothermal activity and rich Maori culture. Sights in Te Puia's Whakarewarewa Valley include bubbling mud pools and the 30m high Pohutu Geyser, which erupts several times a day. That's on the program tomorrow.

Because we were invited to dinner - by the Maori. Ok, with about another 200 other tourists...do you want to call that a tourist trap? Perhaps. Definitely worth seeing and you get the Maori culture and history well presented in a 1.5 hour guided tour and demonstration. Afterwards there is a Maori buffet, a local brine meat so to speak, as many dishes (potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken) are prepared in a hot hole in the ground. Why maybe trap? The three of us paid over 200 euros in advance...if I extrapolate that based on 200 visitors...holladiewaldfee! I'm actually of two minds about whether it was worth it and whether we could have experienced it in a more authentic and less touristy way elsewhere.

Child gave me a new name: Puku-Pitti, Puku is the Maori word for belly - funny little one!

Now Hobbiton is on the agenda: "A ring to enslave them, to find them all, to drive them into the darkness and to bind them forever", I'm looking forward to that... or another rip-off?

Windshield wiper instead of indicator counter: 59

Last but not least: Thank you Dirk and FRIZZ the magazine for organizing such a great meal for me here in Rotoura. When I come to the Frizz office, your faces look just as happy as those of the Maori at the Haka...the war dance of the Native.

coming soon

PIDISI