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Reglan to Maketu (via Waitomo) - Monday 28th November 2011
Today we're heading to Maketu for a cultural Maori night via Waitomo - a small rural town famous for caving. This was one of my top 5 must do activities in NZ, so without any hesitation I signed up for a half day cave abseiling.
After being kitted up in a wetsuit & harness, followed by a 20 minute run-through of our itinerary, we made our wave down to the cave entrance. Upon entering I was suddenly filled with a sense of claustrophobia. In front of me was a small dark wet hole which we had to walk sideways through with my nose touching the wall in front of me (this was NOT a place for anyone with a fear of confined spaces). About a meter in and I was then faced with abseiling down a 6 meter drop. However, from here my fear was replaced with excitement, along with memories of my scouting days flooding back.
Continuing down and through a maze of ice cold water filled tunnels and openings covered my amazing waterfalls, it was not long before I was thankful for the restricting wetsuit (you guys will understand where I'm coming from). Our guide took us down approximately thirty meters from the surface, and upon entering a small cavern we were asked to turn our head lamps out, and the caves suddenly came to life.
On looking up the roof was covered by a bed of glow worms, which cast a clam green shimmering light - absolutely awesome! We then made our way back up to the surface, climbing a number of rock faces, it was not long until daylight was flooding through a hole above my head.
Surfacing back into light I had a real sense of achievement and a reconnection to nature.
This really was amazing and so unspoilt by tourists. A must do for anyone travelling in the area.
With Waitomo out the way we continued our journey to Maketu for our cultural evening.
Driving along the coast line we entered a small dwelling which was situated about 20 meters from the coastline. Named 'Uncle Boys' we were greeted by non-other than uncle boy himself! Dressed very casual in a jeans and t-s*** uncle boy welcomed us to his home and gave us a run-down of the events that followed. I was expecting a native Maori to be dressed in some sort of tribal outfit, but although the western style was present he was by no means disconnected from the traditions of the Maori.
(Now this is where things really took a very unexpected turn!)
As part of the cultural evening the group needed to elect a tribal chief to participate in the evening role play performance with a fully kitted out Maori tribe. Unfortunately for me this was decided based on the oldest male in the group. With only two others peaking at 33 years I was therefore given the title as chief and a tribal name of 'Ngati Stray'.
My mission was to enter a Maori meeting house (the room next door) followed by my tribe and confront another Maori tribe, accepting or rejecting their offer of forming a coalition tribe. I was strictly told to accept their offer and not disrespect the Maori tradition.
In front of me was three Maori lads dressed wearing not much at all ;-) and holding hunting spears. Wide eyed they approached me shouting and screaming out in Maori tongue. My job was to keep my eyes wide open, staring them out, and take note of a offering in the form of a branch placed in front of me. I then had thirty seconds (or something like that) to bend down, pick up the offering and step back. Walking over the branch and not accepting would have resulted in a tribal war, and judging by the size of these lads I was not ready to accept any form of challenge.
I must admit that I did take nearly the full thirty seconds, but to be honest I could not take my eyes of the Maori lads abs!
Once the ritual was compete my tribe were accepted into group with a formal Maori welcome. This consisted of shaking hands, touching noses and greeting with the word "Kia ora" meaning hello or thank you.
If this was not enough embarrassment for one evening I then had to learn the words and movements to the Hakka with the other males of my tribe, then lead and perform back to the girls and the Maori tribe (see the Video on my blog).
The night was ended with a couple of drinks on the beach and a night sleep in the meeting house room with the rest of my tribe, with some of the tribe sleeping outside.
Looking back this was choice! ;-) Over the next few days I was known as Chief rather than Gavyn which I'd got rather attached to.
Phrase of the day from Uncle Boy - "I don't like wall flowers", meaning everyone was to take part, and there are to be no bystanders.
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