We were lucky enough to spend a night in a traditional Maori lodge. We were given a delicious hangi when we arrived, a traditional feast cooked in the ground. We were greeted by Chief Boy who owns the meeting house, and he explained the ritual of welcome we were to experience upon meeting his tribe. The oldest man in the group was our "chief" and in the meeting house, he was responsible for accepting a token of acceptance. Two young maori warriors performed a very threatening dance to show their dominance and then placed a branch on the floor before our "chief". He then had to pick it up and take 2 steps backwards whilst facing the warriors. When they turned their backs on him whilst slapping their thighs, it meant we were welcome to stay. Thankfully they did this! We then walked around the room, greeting each member of the tribe by touching noses: the hongi.

After we had all been greeted, the Maoris performed some traditional dances. They sang while the women danced with pois, small balls attached to wool and swung in circular patterns (much harder than it looked, we were soon to discover!). The men then performed the haka, the dance of war. Despite only being a small group, the noise they made and the force and passion with which they performed was incredible. And really quite scary!

Following the performance, we were split into men and women. The women were dressed in traditional cloaks and we learnt some simple manouevers with the pois, trying hard not to thwack each other with them at speed! Very amusing. The boys performed the haka, with fantastic vocal chanting from one of my fellow travelers leading the group. I was impressed they took it so seriously and they did a brilliant rendition after just 10 minutes practice. Our performance with the pois was surprisingly nerve-racking but it also went very well.

We spent the evening sitting with Chief Boy and listening to his many fascinating stories. Not only was he keen to share his Maori culture but he has been welcoming backpackers into his lodge for several years and had plenty of interesting tales from them too. We all slept in the meeting house that night and were treated to breakfast the following day. It was an extremely interesting experience and a wonderful chance to learn more about the Maori culture.