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Wow! It really does smell of rotton eggs here! Something to do with Sulphur and Hot Springs!
Have been to the Ta Maki Tribe Cultural Experience this evening, got picked up from the hostel on a bus. the driver was called John , he was HORRIBLY annoying, reminded me very much of Bruce Forsyth! He kept blabbering on and repeating everything about a billion times! He had a really annoying way of talking so that even though he was speaking in English it was pretty tricky to understand what he was on about! He blabbered on for the whole journey - about 20 minutes - we had to have a "Mauri Language Lesson" then we had to "choose" a tribe name - someone made a bout 3 suggestions which the driver said no to and then told us we would be called "Tribe Kea" because that was the name of the bus - so basically there was no point him asking for suggestions in the first place! Then we had to "choose" a chief - A VERY cocky English guy volunteered - I didn't get good vibes from him, he was wearing stubid sunglasses - it was night! Our driver kept repeating that the first part of the evening was VERY traditional and culturally important to the people of the tribe so we had to respect them so we had to respect them and not imitate or laugh at anything they were doing because they could not be held responsible for how the "village people" might react if we were to show any kind of disrespect - Apprently one visitor took the mickey and a member of the tribe head butted him and broke his nose.....
Then it started- there was chanting coming from far away gradually getting closer one at a time about 4 different men came out and did "defense dances" which involved some very strange bird/horse walking around in circles. wooden weapon twirling and sticking out their toungues, bulging their eyes and grunting. They presented a peace offereing - a stick and we had been welcomed to the tribe and were allowed to enter the village. We got some time to look around the "village" and then got called to the ancestal meeting hall. Here they showed us some traditional dances and songs the women did some pretty impressive twirling of balls attatched to string and threw sticks around in big roups - All very skillful stuff! At the end they showed traditional mens + womens Haka - this was pretty awesome. Then we went to the dinning hall for "Hangi" food cooked under ground. There was LOTS of it! Carrots, Potato, Sweet Potato. Stuffing. Chicken. Lamb, Fish, Salad and hot bread. For desert there was Pavlova, Steamed pudding AND custard!!!!!
On the way back on the bus "Bruce Forsyth" had us all sing our national anthems, there was about 10 countries represented on the bus + to drag the ourney out so that everyone got a chance we went around one round about 6 or 7 times!
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