A Maori evening in Rotorua

Saturday 1st December

I had heard that the "Maori evening" in Rotorua was uninspiring and commercialized but I decided to go anyway because I really wanted to see some traditional Maori singing and dancing before leaving New Zealand. And I was glad I did. The fake Maori village was obviously designed to receive visitors but it was not overly tacky. On the bus to the village, about twenty minutes out of town, we had to choose a chief, who would then greet the chief of the village! The elected chief was prepped on how he should conduct himself before entering the village. When we arrived he stood alongside three other guys (from three other buses). The purpose of the ritual that followed was to establish whether they had to come to the village in peace or not. As an observer, it was hilarious to watch the genuine intimidation of these four men, as four other, beefier, stronger Maori men appeared, dancing, gesturing, hissing, shouting and getting up in their faces with spears. I think I´d feel pretty intimidated too.
We entered the village and walked around for a bit, listening to the explanations of how life used to be lived (food prepartion, housing etc.) Then we watched some singing and dancing which was very energetic, entertaining and worth the visit.
Then we moved on to the all-you-can-eat buffet, which consisted of mountains of delicious food. Inevitably we consumed more-than-you-can-eat (or should eat) and consequently I could barely move to walk back to the bus. We got our money´s worth!
The bus driver had already threathened to make us sing songs in groups on the way back. It wouldn´t have been so cringe-worthy if he hadn´t insisted on it being a nationalist affair. Everyone was to sing with their fellow countrymen. No-one was enthused with the task so to encourage us he kept repeating that we should be proud of our own countries and told us about two Americans on another bus who, to demonstrate their pride, had requested a two-minute silence "for all those servicemen and women who had lost their lives serving their country in the Iraq war". So in protest, when it came to England´s turn to sing, I joined in with "God save the Queen" but with some alternative lyrics. If I didn´t feel sick enough already, the driver then thought it would be fun to drive round and round in circles singing "She´ll be coming round the mountain". My extremely full stomach was NOT a happy bunny after that. But other than this, the evening was really enjoyable!