Maori Maketu

Trip Start Aug 14, 2008
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Trip End Sep 25, 2008


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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Day 197 - The weather is horrendous today - lucky we'll be spending most of it underground!  We drove to Waitomo caves where I opted for the dry (and least claustrophobic) adventure activity.  This involved being kitted out in overalls, wellies (or gum boots as they call them here), a helmet and a bright orange poncho, before abseiling through a narrow, deep crack into a limestone cave known as St Benedicts - and supposedly the most beautiful cave in the country.  The abseiling was really fun and once at the bottom we manouevered around stalagtites and stalagmites in a cave with absolutely no natural light, which was pretty cool.  We stopped at the bottom for some juice and the NZ indigenous chocolate bar; chocolate fish (they love marshmallow here), before taking a zipline through the cave and coming out the other side of the hill.  It was god fun and something I've never really done before.

From the caves we stopped at Thumpers Mums business (and hence how he got his nickname) - shearing enormous Angorra rabbits - which is a process that looks very cruel where the rabbit is stretched out to keep the skin taught!  Pretty interesting stop and something you would normally drive right by!

A few hours later we arrived in Maketu - our Maori cultural stop.  A lovely, yet dithering man known as Unkle Boy greeted us and immediately apologised that the show would not be up to full strength since a few members had some funeral business to attend to.  We had a traditional maori dinner, which was basically a yummy roast and the national dish of pavlova for pudding.  Then we had the cultural show we started by them accepting us into the family by touching noses and after a bit of a demonstration, it was up to the boys to learn the hakka and the girls to learn the poi (a ball on the end of a string).  We then performed it to each other - the boys hakka was really good!  A few pieces of the show were absent due tot he circumstance, and so in his attempt to make up for it, Unkle Boy talked to us for about an hour about Maori traditions, in a roundabout way.  Slept on mattresses on the floor in the communal hall.
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