We left Taupo and drove to Rotarua today. On the way we stopped off at a Maori cultural center. After watching a dvd on the history of the culture, sampling some tradtional Maori food and learning about some of their plants we were tested on what we learnt. Both Nick and I won a bone carved necklace as we got questions right!!!

We checked into our hostel, Base Hot Rocks before going for a walk around the town.

At 7pm we were picked up from the hostel and taken to the Tamaki Maori village in our "waka". When we arrived they did a ceremony of dance and song, alot like a haka - pretty scary. They all had huge tattoos and face paint on etc! We were asked not to laugh as it is a serious ceremony to the Maori people and they find it offensive if others don't take it as seriously as they do!

Once the ceremony was complete we entered the village and saw all of the houses before going into a theatre and seeing tradtional song and dance, including battle dances.

From here we went to have a huge meal that had all been cooked in the traditional maori way, in underground ovens - a hangi. They also showed us how to make our own hangi too!! We sat by the fire outside looking at the stars, completely stuffed after a big meal, really not used to eating so much grub these days!

They ended the evening by doing the All Blacks Haka - it was amazing, so much power and pride into it. They then drove us back to our hostel, singing all the national anthems of people on the bus on our way back. Of course Englands was the loudest!