July 23
We got there pretty early, so we explored around the campus. Our tour started by our guide teaching us how to say a super long Maori word. Everyone that works, learns, or teaches at this “school” is of Maori decent. Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand that were originally Polynesian and left their home because of war. They crossed the ocean on double canoes and ended up in several different parts of the world. It’s amazing to think of how smart they must’ve been to follow the stars and follow the tides to find land. We went to the wood carving school and saw their current projects while learning about the tools they used to use for carving. We also saw the weaving studio and looked at students’ work with weaving and green-stone. Green-stone is a precious stone in New Zealand and is used in jewelry and art. They showed us a model of a war canoe made in battle that held 25 people and even more warriors. We went through a small model of a typical Maori village. There was a food storage building, a meeting house, a building for sleeping, and an earth oven called a “hangi.” There was a separate area for the chief and religious leader/healer because they had higher status. They showed us a silver fern which is a symbol for the Maori. It represents the birth, growth, death, and afterlife. We saw some mud pools and geysers at a lookout point. Then, we went into a nocturnal enclosure where we saw 2 Kiwi birds running around. They’re native to New Zealand but have decreased in numbers drastically in recent years due to new predators. We walked to the “hot seats” by the geysers waiting for “the indicator” to indicate that the “Prince of Whales” geyser would go off soon. The seats were hot because of the magma only 8km below us, but we didn’t get to see the geyser since it got dark. We ended at the gift shop and got some free mineral mud masks. Our next guide picked us up there and took us to see the “hangi” where our dinner was being prepared. Then, there was a welcoming ceremony where our chief had to accept the stick of friendship to show that we came in peace. After that, they did a song and dance to welcome us in. Once inside, they did more songs and dances. Some were love stories, some the women used ropes with a ball on the end, and some they used colorful sticks as instruments. Every song was in the Maori language. They invited the girls to come on stage to learn how to use the ropes with balls on one end. Kiley and I went up, and it was definitely a challenge to keep up with them. It takes way more coordination than you think. After that, they brought up the men to learn the warrior dance. They bulged their eyes and stuck out their tongues for intimidation, and of course my dad went up for that one. They showed us how they used their weapons, and then they did their closing songs. We went into another building for dinner and started off with some delicious seafood chowder. Man, that stuff was the best soup I’ve ever eaten and probably my favorite part of the meal. It was a huge buffet with seafood, meat, pasta, salad, and dessert. We all enjoyed our meals, and I ended mine with some vanilla ice cream mixed with chocolate mousse. After dinner, we left on a trolley to see the geyser erupt. They had hot chocolate with milk (is there any other way to drink it?), and we sat on the hot seats again to wait. We moved when it was about to erupt to we didn’t get soaked from the geyser. It went about 30meters high and was super loud. It was crazy to see how much pressure there was. It made me think that the whole volcano might erupt, but luckily, it didn’t (yay!). After we saw the geyser, the day at Te Puia was over.
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