Kia ora: Visit in New Zealand

My lovely dining companions

Kia ora (hello in Maori)! The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. The people and traditions of the Maori are a major part of the New Zealand culture. So while in New Zealand we had to make a visit to a Maori reserve and learn about their culture.We enjoyed watching their traditional dances, learning songs and observed attentively as they preformed the haka. The haka is a traditional war cry/dance used to mentally prepare various war parties for battle. It has become more widely known as the All Blacks, a famous rugby team in New Zealand, perform the haka before a match to intimidate the other team. Believe me I was shaking in my boots from the front row, as the Maori performed the haka on stage.

The food that we had was amazing, which is traditionally cooked in a hangi, aka an earth oven (see process here). I am not sure if it was because I was starving from not eating anything before our whitewater rafting adventure (blogged about here), or because it was really that good (I am sure it was the latter) but this meal was scrumptious. This was a great evening surrounded by people from all over the world who came to learn about the Maori people, enjoying a delicious meal together and ending the night on a lovely glow worm tour. Well that is your short history class for the day, now scroll below and enjoy the pictures.

Before

Delicious meal after it was cooked

{pics by moi}

Ka kite ano (see you again)

xo Andrea