After leaving Hot Water Beach we headed centrally to a place called Rotorua! Here we stayed in a lovely place called Blue Lake and yes before you ask there was a lake and it was blue. Unfortunately we only had one night at the campsite so didn't get to explore the area too much.
Anyway before we arrived in New Zealand I booked some activities to do whilst we travelled our way round and one of those was a dinner and show which explained about the Maori people and their way of life. Now for all my uneducated friends (no insult intended as I didn't know about them) the Maori people are the original inhabitants of New Zealand. That is of course before the white people came along and did what the whites did everywhere - took over and decided the country was their own.
When we arrived at the location of the show we were treated to a display of the Haka which anyone who has watched rugby will know is dance which represents pride, strength and unity. We were asked not to laugh as some bits can be quite funny but in all honestly it was pretty damn threatening. Very cool to watch though!
Next we were led around to different areas each one explaining to us about the different aspects of the Maori lifestyle. These included games they would play, the clothing they wore and the resources they used.
After finishing at each section we headed off to do one of my most favourite things - eat! There was so much food I was in heaven (and so was my Dad who went up more than once for cakes, shock horror). The food had been cooked in a traditional Maori way which involved a giant pit of steam and the food being lowered into it. I am sure it is more technical than that but that's about as good an explanation as I can give you.
All in all the evening was really good fun and for once I actually learned something rather than just going out and getting drunk (that the parents influence for you).
So goodbye Rotorua, it has been short but sweet however we must continue on with our travels.
Until next time...
-x-
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