Friday, September 25, 2015

Te Puia

Tonight we visited the Te Puia Maori Culture Center and geothermal fields. Rotorua is located in a geothermal area with geysers, hot springs, and mud pools. They are sacred for the Maori people and considered a gift of the gods. 

The Maori people have lived in the area for generations. They made a carving of me!

And here is my little great-nephew in one of his moods!

Pohutu geyser is one of the top 4 geysers in the world and one of the most reliable. It can shoot up to 100 feet into the air and usually goes off 20 times per day.





There are hot springs with bubbling boiling water.


Mud pools have boiling water bubbling up from the bottom.



In our visit to the culture center we learned about traditional greetings, dance, song, and methods of cooking.

The meeting house 


They do various types of carvings and weavings.





The traditional way of cooking food was to dig a pit, put a fire in it and heat rocks, lay the food on the rocks and cover it to bake. Today the use a stainless steel container.


After our greeting and welcome to their village we enjoyed some song and dance before eating.










Tomorrow we travel to Auckland.

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