Day 5: Farming, Maunganui Beach, and Maori Village

The least intimidating bird ever

FUN FACT #6: Before the arrival of humans, New Zealand contained absolutely no mammals. There was wild plant life and birds. Thats it. The Kiwi bird, (for which New Zealanders are named after) is a flightless, nocturnal bird that has nostrils at the end of its beak to help it locate bugs underground because its eye sight sucks. It lays the largest egg in the world in proportion to its body. Essentially, the Kiwi bird is really weird and slightly stupid because of how defenseless it is. When mammals were brought to New Zealand, dogs ate almost all of them and they are now an endangered species. And for whatever reason, New Zealand decided to name themselves after it as well as put it on their money. No wonder no one ever tries to fight New Zealand. They are wimpy as hell. Maybe we should have done like Ben Franklin said and been a goddamn turkey and then no one would bother us. Anyways....

Lizzy and I... having soooo much fun...

So for our community service, my Global Links group was brought to an organic wild plant life farm. What we did was learn about indigenous plants of New Zealand. This farm's goal was to create a habitat that looked the same as it did before the arrival of humans and make a safe environment for New Zealand's original bird population. We sat in a Kiwi field (the fruit, not the bird) and repotted flax plants and learned about the cultivation of the kiwi fruit. We also walked around the farm and helped grown/almost adult flax plants by weeding around their bases. Truth be told, it was kind of dull, but supposedly we did enough work in one day that would have taken the 2 caretakers a couple weeks to do. Sweet-as Bro.

Emma and I in the Kiwi Vines

After the farming, we got to do something we had all been looking forward to for some time. DA BEACH!! About a half hour drive from the farm was Maunganui Beach. It got its name by the volcano that looms over it, called Mt. Maunganui. This was the first beach I had been to in New Zealand, and it certainly did not disappoint. It. was. phenomenal. My friend Amy and I ran straight into the water. At about three or four feet in, the water was already up to my neck. It was bright bright blue and absolutely gorgeous. We walked around  the beach and went on some very high cliffs overlooking the water. Many people jumped, but as I am not the most confident swimmer, I chose to sit that one out (you're welcome Mom). Also, sharks freak me out. Just sayin.

Upon our return to Rotorua, we quickly showered and changed and were off to the Tamaki Maori Village. Keep in mind, this was not an actual Maori village, but more of a re-creation of what today's Maori people have been told it looked like from prior generations. They dressed in traditional garb and spoke Maori to us, but everyone was still a Kiwi and obviously knew English. Essentially, they make money off of tourists like us while still preserving their culture and are able to share it with others. On the bus ride, they informed us that we would be watching a traditional exchange of peace offerings to allow us into the village. Our bus chose one of our Global Links kids to be a chief, and he stood before everyone in the village square with some other chiefs from other buses as some Maori "pleasantries" were exchanged. Those "pleasantries" consisted of a lot of yelling, screaming, scary faces, and some stick twirling. All was spoken in Maori, but it was very cool to watch.

Following the ceremony, we were led around the village and shown what life had been like prior to Europeans. We learned about their wood carvings, war preparations, games, and basket weaving (made with flax!!) We also learned another variation of the Haka and watched a full performance later. After the exploration time, we gathered to watch the unearthing of our dinner. 

FUN FACT #7: Traditional Maori dinner is called "Hangi". The food is wrapped in flax plants (again with the flax!) and buried underground with white hot stones to cook for three hours. It is a rather complicated process, but in the end, the food is delicious. 

We ate our Hangi in a giant hall and feasted for a long time. The food was awesome, definitely the best New Zealand food I had had since coming here. But lets face it, nothing comes close to a Debbie Rodolfy Sunday night dinner. 

Our bus ride home was incredibly entertaining. Our Maori old lady bus driver made someone from every country come to the front of the bus sing a song from their country. U.S.A sang Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" until we couldn't remember the words anymore. Amy and I were cheered to the front of the bus and were forced to do another rendition of Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" to the many horrified looks of ancient looking British people saying "Bloody 'Ell".

This was our last night in Rotorua, which we spent at the Lava Bar next to our hostel and we said goodbye to our fearless leader, Tyme.