MAORI HANGI EVENING IN ROTORURA:

We were in two minds as to whether to do this trip or not but as our time in New Zealand was limited and this seemed to be the only opportunity to learn about the Maori culture and experience a real hangi we decided that we would pay the price and take the trip. To see what we could learn about the Maori people.
I had eaten hangi meals in Australia when I lived there and really enjoyed the experience of food cooked in fire pits. So I persuaded my other half to come on the trip despite the fact tha we usually avoid forced ‘meet the native’ experiences.

THE COLLECTION:

The bus with a Maori lady driver collected us at 7pm from our hotel. She insisted that we called the bus a waka which is Maori for any form of transport. The guide /driver was a total nutter and spent half the time gesturing with one hand and holding the microphone with the other while she told us he story of Maori people arriving in New Zealand. On our bus were Russians, Scots, English and American tourists and our driver taught us some Maori words and explained a bit about the evening. And what was going to happen and how we were to behave eg We were not to smile at all in the welcome ceremony.

THE WELCOME:

We had to choose someone from our group to be our chief and poor Steve who was selected to be our chief had to go and have a welcoming ceremony performed in front of him and 5 other chiefs (from the five other bus loads!!) Our chief and other nominated chiefs had to respond to the ceremony participants in the way they were instructed and then we were invited in to the village. It was quite a dramatic ceremony with a lot of tongue wagging, shouting and weapon waving.

THE VILLAGE:

The village which was obviously not a real Maori village but a specially constructed one for tourists was built in woodland. It was dark and lit subtly and looked very atmospheric but unfortunately with five bus loads of people it was impossible to get near enough to see anything. The Maori people were lovely, very friendly and wanted you to ask questions but you had to be extremely pushy to get anywhere near enough to talk to anyone as I couldn’t even see some of the things they were showing us. We spent about ten to fifteen minutes in the village being shown different traditions and being told about specific methods of fighting, ceremony and food preparation. There were just too many people in the groups and so it was very difficult to see or hear anything, much less feel like a guest in an authentic Maori village.

We then went into the huge meeting house building and sat and watched a bit of a story/show. We were right at the back but you could at least see the performance and hear everything clearly. The story was the Maori story of their arrival in New Zealand and the tribal rivalry then the arrival of the Europeans and how the Maori reacted to this new problem. The performance ended with singing and dancing and the Haka.

THE HANGI:

The next part was the part we were really looking forward to -the hangi dinner – we sat in a big hall with buffet tables in the middle. Bear in mind there were five coach loads of people to be fed and there were only a couple of buffet tables so we were very interested to see how they were going to feed us. We had the meal explained to us as to what was on offer and how they were going to ensure that we all got our food. We were also informed that we would have to pay extra for drinks which could be bought at the bar – there was no waiter service so you had to go and join the long queue for drinks if you wanted one. We had a Maori blessing then we were invited up table by table.

The nicest part of the meal was the sweet potato which tasted as though they had been done on a BBQ or fire pit. The green lipped mussels and the fish were also delicious but it would be hard to spoil boiled mussels. The lamb was a quite tough and I didn’t try the chicken, which was on the bone and besides chicken is always a meat I am very careful about eating when I’m not sure how well it is cooked. Apart from this there were boiled carrots and potatoes (really exciting) and a sort of stuffing mix and some salads.

I have to say I was VERY disappointed with the meal, it was quite boring and bland and I don’t believe for one minute that anything was cooked in a real hangi firepit.

The deserts on offer included a lovely fresh fruit salad steamed pudding and custard and a Pavlova which I enjoyed.

The Russians from our bus REALLY enjoyed the deserts and went up about five times to collect huge piles of food. I honestly have never seen a group of six people eat so much in such a short time. They were so anxious to get their extra portions before some people had managed to get one normal portion.

MAORI TRADITIONAL COOKING:

After the meal we went out to see the hangi pit and have the method of cooking explained to us . This was a real embarrassment, the Maori explained how food was wrapped and buried in a pit just like this one – which had a light and mock nylon flame inside it. Surely they should at least had a real firepit for the demonstration even if the rest of the food that we had been offered had been patently cooked in electric ovens.

MAORI ENTERTAINMENT:

We heard some singing had started in the dining hall. Some of it was Maori but a lot was not. The singers had lovely and very powerful voices but unfortunately they wanted audience participation and we had to clap along and sway whilst they were performing. The ‘chiefs’ were then presented with a little token and had a Maori blessing and they we had to stand and sway and hold hands to a Maori song Pokare kare ana.

We were now pretty fed up and quite pleased to be getting back into our bus ready for the return to our hotel.

THE RETURN BUS TRIP TO THE HOTEL

If we thought the crowds in the village, the food and then the forced audience participation was bad then there was worse to follow.

As we got back on the bus ready to relax and close our eyes for the drive back the guide told us that she had entertained us now we had to entertain her and she wanted us to sing to her. She said that we were to gather in our tribes, English, Russian, American and Australian and each tribe was to sing a song! Some brave English people did ‘Rule Britannia’ and we half heartedly helped, then she asked the Americans who refused, the Scots did ‘Flower of Scotland’ and the Russians obviously really enjoyed singing and gave a rousing performance. She was still not satisfied and asked for more – a pathetic ‘land of Hope and Glory’ from a few Brits then the Russians stormed in with another loud one then the guide started ‘The wheels on the bus’ which was awful as she wanted us all to join in too. This was followed by ‘She’ll be coming round the Mountain’ which ended with her driving round the roundabout about 12 times!! I was quite horrified and wonder what would happen if we had had an accident! Our normal driver told us sometimes they have four buses going round together so I’m glad we didn’t have that.

From the Website :

"Show Times

Tamaki Village Maori performance and feasting run every night of the year except for Christmas day.

5.00pm – 5.30pm Pickup from Rotorua accommodations and transfer to Booking Office for Ticketing/Table Numbers

6.00pm Board your “waka” (Coach) and depart for Tamaki Maori Village, with full commentary en route

6.30pm Traditional Powhiri (Welcome) and start of “Journey of Ages” experience

6.40pm Interactive tour of Pre-European Village activity, set within 200 year old Native Tawa Forest

7.00pm Powerful Kapa Haka Performance in our Wharenui

7.30pm Authentic Hangi Buffet dinner in our purpose built Wharekai, followed by Dessert Buffet.

Hangi cooking demonstration in Tribal Marketplace

8.50pm Poroporoaki (Closing Ceremony – speeches and songs of farewell)

9.00pm Depart Tamaki Maori Village for your safe return to town

9.30pm Latest drop off time back at your Rotorua accommodation

**Please note, as seasonal demand requires, alternative shows at 7.30pm or 5.30pm will be opened. "

SUMMARY:

I’m not sure that I would recommend the evening because of the audience participation part and the sheer numbers of people there which made it hard to see anything. If you like being entertained and joining in singing then this is the evening for you. If you want to learn about Maori culture then I suggest a museum or indeed the Maori culture centre at Rotorua is a far better place to find about Maori history and cultural traditions. If you want a real hangi meal then I’ve had these in cooked by Maoris in Australia so I am sure there must be places in New Zealand where they cook an authentic hangi.

We did not enjoy the experience as we felt it was all a bit too touristy, not authentic at all. I commend the Maori family who started this as a commercial enterprise but feel that most tourists would prefer smaller groups and a more personal experience but without the forced audience participation.

We paid $100 NZ each for the pleasure - total rip off in my view.

This review may be on these sites under my same user name Dooyoo, Ciao and Igougo

©Catsholiday