Sunday Jan 18, 2025 Tauranga

Deb here. I’d made plans today through Viator to have a guided tour to learn more about Maori culture. Stacy and Bob joined us as well. We met Les in the morning and all loaded into his van. Les was an interesting guy; his mom was Maori and his dad non-Maori and he’s held lots of jobs during his lifetime. He was probably in his 60’s/70’s and is doing all he can to educate people about Maori history and culture.

He first took us to a site where a small group of Maoris smartly outwitted a group of well-armed British soldiers in 1864. There were all kinds of carved Maori poles telling the stories.

Les pointed out a few other Maori sites, then we stopped for pies (and doughnuts!) at Patrick’s Pies, reputed to have the best meat pies around. From there we drove on toward Rotorua and the Maori Living Village. There’s all kinds of geothermal activity in the area, and walking around the historic village there were bubbling pots of sulfur smelling liquids oozing everywhere. We attended a half hour performance of Maori dancing, music and traditional game playing. My favorite was watching the group perform a haka, an intimidating dance to scare off their enemies. 

After spending time at the village we were off again for a scenic tour, going by a large volcanic lake, passing through Te Puke (what an unfortunate name for the “Kiwi Fruit Capital of the World”) and by kiwi orchards. We learned that kiwi fruit now grows with green, gold and red fruit. Who knew?

On the drive and when walking Les schooled us on pronunciation of various Maori words and filled us in with lots of stories. 

Back closer to Tauranga, he took us to a sacred spot that we likened to a community center of sorts for his people. It was a simple building with Maori designs, and we had to be careful where we stepped. He filled us in on a variety of medicinal plants and spoke at length during the day about manuka honey. 

Before getting back in the van he quizzed us about correct pronunciation of a few Maori words, then broke out a bottle of manuka honey infused bubbly water, now in production by one of his nephews. All in all a good day spent learning more about the local culture and history.

Once back at the dock the sun finally came out in earnest, and we treated ourselves to hokey pokey ice cream cones on the dock. We’re not sure exactly what Hokey Pokey is, but we remembered it as a New Zealand thing from our other trip to NZ, and you find it in ice cream and chocolate. It’s kind of a crunchy cookie add in.

Back on the ship for dinner with Stacy and Bob, followed by another great show by the entertainers. Tonight it was “Imagine”, with songs from the 60’s and 70’s.