Day Three - January 4 - Rotorua

We hopped on the bus around 10 am Wednesday morning to head to Rotorua. Stopped off for a 30 min hike through the Ruakuri, and then back onto the bus. For lunch we stopped at Better Quality Pies in Rotorua. So delicious! Kiwis are crazy about their pies, and this place has some of the best pies in the whole country.  I feel like I will be heavily addicted to these by the end of my trip.

We spent the afternoon luging down the side of a mountain in Rotorua. We took a gondola to the top, and rented luge carts - little 3 wheeled cars that look similar to a go-cart but don't have an engine and steer like a bike. Apparently luging was invented in NZ. There is a few paved tracks set up on the way down the mountain - pretty cool to race down the mountain to the bottom.

That night we had the pleasure of going to Tamaki Maori Village for a tour to learn about Maori culture, and then to enjoy a traditional Hangi meal - which is meat and vegetables cooked in an oven in the ground.  We were picked up at our hostel by Mark, our crazy yet entertaining Maori bus driver. He taught us the proper way to say Kia Ora, and then proceeded to say hello to us in almost every language. Extremely impressive.

When we got to the Maori village, we picked a chief from our bus to represent us, and he took part in the greeting ceremony.  The greeting ceremony started off with Maori warriors coming out of their village chanting challenges in Maori language, as well as making themselves look frightening to us - protruding their eyes and tongues out and making intimidating moves. Eventually they offered a gift of peace to one of the chiefs, and we were all allowed to go into the village. The village was set up so we could walk around and learn about different things that the Maoris did to train their youngsters, as well as other war traditions.

They performed the haka for us several times throughout the night - you should go to YouTube and look it up. The Haka is an intimidating war chant/dance done to scare the opponent, and it is badass! The New Zealand All Blacks perform the Haka before every game.
The Hangi supper that night was incredible. Fish, mussels, chicken and lamb cooked in the earth oven had a delicious smoky flavor, and it was accompanied by salads, kumera, potatoes and other vegetables. Dessert was cake, custard, fruit and pavlova. Overall a delicious meal, and a great night at Tamaki!

After we got back to the hostel, we headed to the Lava Bar right across the street for a few drinks and some dancing with other Kiwi Ex's. Piles of fun!