Finally left Auckland for the last time and dont think i'll ever be rushing back for a visit if am honest! However before we left we did go to the top of Mount Eden so we could see across the whole city. Its the only time i've ever thought that Auckland looked vaguely nice! Its pretty cool cause from up there u get a 360 degree view across the city. Mount Eden is also a dead volcano, dunno if thats the right way to describe it! But at the top u can look down in the crater that was the top of the volcano, pretty cool considering its now just covered in grass and not throwing out hot lava!

So we then set off on our way to Rotorua. On the way we stopped off at Matamata, also now known as Hobbiton!! Got my pic taken with Golumn and the Hobbiton sign which was the extent of my Lord of the Rings experience! When we finally got to Rotorua, rather than just dropping us off at our hostels they took us to a Redwood Forest for a walk. It was quite a nice walk but didnt really see the point in them taking us there as we could just have done it ourselves later.

Eventually got to our hostels, I'm staying at the YHA which seems nice enough. I have 2 18 year old girls in my room who are travelling by themselves which is so brave! I could never have travelled half way across the world by myself at that age! One of them had spent 3 months working on a horse farm which sounded really good fun, but she had managed to end up in hospital 3 times through the job!!

At night i went to a Maori Hangi and Concert at the Tamaki Village. What an experience!! I cant even begin to explain how amazing it was, certainly think it has to be the best thing i've done so far on my trip! Even on the way there and back our bus driver was really good banter! The Maori say Kia Ora as a greeting and our driver then preceeded to tell us what this was in 42 other languages, pretty awesome!! On the way back we all had to sing our national anthums which was cool. We sang Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses as we went round the round-about numerous times. We also sang the wheels on the bus and when it got to the part where all the people stand up the driver did it as well, bit scary but hillarious!!

So the back ground of our night is it is set during the 1800s at the village of the Ngati Tama people and we join them in the celebration to farwell the mighty warrior Uitara as he prepares to join the rebel warrior Te Ao Huri on their journey to the South Island in search of teh sacred axe of leadership. Te Ao Huri has formed a band of musket warriors to retrieve the axe but the chief Tu Te Whare Marie believes his son Uitara is teh warrior who has been chosen by the ancient prophecy, spoken hundreds of years ago, to posses the axe. Te Ao Hari recently visited and left gifts to persude the chief to release his son to join his army. Ngati Tama have been trained in ancient ways of warfare and survival but the introduction of the musket means the Maori can gain much power far easier than before.

On our coach trip, the waka, there we had to choose a chief to represent our bus and accept a peace offering if chosen. Unfortunately this has to be a man so i couldnt do it :( So when we arrive at the village the warriors perform the challenge, Te Wero. Once the peace offering has been accepter the Karanga or welcome call echos across the courtyard followed by the Powhiri or welcome dance. We are then allowed to enter the Marae (village). Once there the Tangata Whenua or people of the land showed us their village. After looking about the village we went to the Wharenui (the Big House). This is the meeting house and the building represents an Ancestor of their past. In here we were entertained by singing and dancing. It was incredible and we even got to see a Huka!

After this we entered the Wharekai or the food house to have our dinner. It is cooked in a Hangi (earth oven). This means is has been cooked under the earth on hot rocks for 3 to 4 hours and is the age old traditional cooking method of the Maori. The food was amazing, it was like a roast dinner with vegies, potatos, chicken, lamb and such like! We even had Pavalova for desert, I've not had desert since leaving Scotland so i was in heaven!! The evening ended with the Poroporoaki, the official closing ceremony. There was waiata (song) and whaikoreno (speeches) before the drivers and dining room staff performed us a haka. Brilliant night and i would definately recommend it to anyone visiting New Zealand!