Day 100

Our coach was booked for 0830 and luckily enough we were able to board on time. The journey was pretty uneventful as we slept through most of it.

Once in Rotorua we checked into our hostel and then went exploring. Firstly we headed to Kuirau Park to see the hot springs and boiling mud. The smell of sulphur was putrid and the amount of steam was unbelieveable; it was even coming out of the side of the road.

We then walked to Ohinemutu to go and visit the Anglican Church and also Lake Rotorua. The Church was designed with Maori carvings and even the frame around Jesus was a Maori design. Opposite the church was a meeting house which was the most decorative Maori designed building we had ever seen. It was very beautiful! It was on an estate known for Maori heritage and also for the thermal springs that were in people's back gardens. This would've been the way Maori's cooked their food.

We had a real taste for the Maori culture so decided to book a Maori concert which included the Hangi (this is how Maori's cooked their food). The tribe we stayed with was Mitai. Our evening at the Mitai began by watching the tribe canoe down a freshwater river on a war canoe whilst chanting. We then were entertained with a traditional concert of Maori songs, dances, games and stories, which included the Haka and Poi. The Haka was unique to their tribe and is slightly different to the one seen on TV, as there are 70 different Haka's in New Zealand. The Poi is a dance performed by women and is their sacred dance.

We then enjoyed a Hangi feast, which was prepared by cooking the food for 3 hours on the thermal steam from the ground. The water we drank was from their natural spring. We tried our first New Zealand lamb; prior to this Lorna did not like lamb, but it was delicious.

After dinner we had a nature walk where we saw traditional huts which were tiny and used to host 4 adults, glow worms and an eel in the bubbling spring water.