Maori Culture and Wai O Tapu #HogsAbroad in New Zealand

Maori Culture

The Maori welcomed us into a sneak peak of their culture with a powhiri, a traditional welcoming. The show was centered around the Hangi, which is a meal prepared in an underground oven. It was a fantastic feast with lamb, chicken, and many more New Zealand foods. However, only the sweet potatoes are a food that the Maori would have eaten at a Hangi. It’s also good not to confuse Hangi with Hongi, which is a form of greeting where the noses of two people are touched together as well as their foreheads. Thankfully I was well aware of that before I had to do a Hongi with the chief of the Maori. He was worried I might bump him in the head! The Maori performed many cultural dances and games including the famous Haka War dance. I think one of the most important points the chief made was that the Maori people are very much a part of modern society, but they have kept much of their culture alive and they cherish it. The Maori make up about 14% of the New Zealand population. We, as pakeha (white people/outsiders), tend to believe indigenous populations are either living completely in their old ways or finally joining real society but the truth is they are dynamic people with a very dynamic culture.

Chief Naseer

Our last stop in Rotorua was a Maori cultural experience. The Maori people were the first inhabitants of New Zealand, and continue to hold a strong cultural presence. For this experience, the Maori people showed us many of the historical traditions of their culture, including sacred springs, the ways in which the warriors traveled, customary greetings, songs and dances, and of course food. It is also customary for the Maori tribes to have a male figurehead, or chief. Our “tribe” (meaning our group and the other guests partaking in the experience), consisting of nearly 100 people from 14 different nations including Germany, China, Japan, Sweden, Romania, and others, chose Naseer to be the Chief of our tribe. He had several responsibilities throughout the experience, some of which included leading the tribe on walks, greeting the Maori Chief with two nose touches (pictured above), and giving a speech not only in front of our tribe, but in front of another “tribe” of one-hundred people during the greeting ceremony. Naseer did a great job representing the University of Arkansas and the United States and is now being referred to as Chief Naseer for the rest of the trip. In a quote from Naseer in regards to the experience, he stated, “The honor of Chief is great. It will be my stepping stone to becoming the Hegemon of the world. I will always remember the Maori for this.”

Wai O Tapu: Thermal Wonderland

A notable consequence of the vast volcanic caldera region of northern New Zealand is the 18 sq. kilometer underground geothermal system. Massive amounts of heat generated beneath the earth’s crust is released through natural springs and mud pools. In New Zealand, this natural phenomenon is personified at Wai O Tapu, an area just south of Rotorua. Meaning “sacred waters” in Maori, these pools previously served as a homebase for the Ngati Whaoa tribe before European colonization.

In person, these pools are an awesome site. The Lady Knox Geyser shoots a water stream 4-5 meters tall at 10:15am every morning. The Champagne Pool, Artist’s Palette, Devil’s Bath, and other geothermal formations are brightly colored green, yellow, orange, and red due to the presence of various metal oxides. Overall, Wai O Tapu was a super cool spectacle and just another example something completely unique to the beautiful landscape of New Zealand.

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