Hawke’s Bay to Rotorua (via Taupo)

Today I’m headed to Rotorua, the epicenter of NZ’s geothermal activity and a major center of NZ’s native Maori culture.  It’s also the North Island’s most popular tourist destination, sometimes referred to as Roto-Vegas.  Here I plan to get a good dose of Maori cultural immersion and about as much of the typical tourist bullshit as I can handle.  But before rolling into Rotorua, and after consulting my guide book, I've decided I want to make a detour on my way to Lake Taupo and Tongariro National Park.  The Tongariro Northern Circuit, one of NZ’s nine Great Walks, is located here, as well as NZ's best day hike, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  After several days of rain I'm starting to crave a good hike. It’s a long drive from Hawke’s Bay to Rotorua to begin with, and this park is out of my way by about an hour, so unfortunately I knew the visit may not be long.  It got even shorter when I learned that the portion of the hike I intended to do was closed due to the threat of volcanic activity.  The closer I got to the park, the more I could understand why.  Those aren’t clouds, those are gases coming from what appears to be the Emerald Lakes area: 

As a result I had to drive further around the park than I wanted to in order to get to the trail, so I only managed to get in about 2.5 km on Tongariro's Alpine Crossing before I had to turn around.  The scenery was fantastic, however, and I would have loved to do more. Unlike the walks we've had so far on this trip that have been primarily bush walks, this one is a volcanic landscape:

Unfortunately I had to leave in order to make it to Rotorua and the Maori cultural evening I'd already booked.  As it was I checked into my hotel with only 15 mins to spare before the bus from Tamaki Maori Village picked us up.  Here we were greeted with an enthusiastic “Kia Ora!” and learned briefly about the Maori migration to New Zealand.  Before entering the village, however, we first had to experience the traditional Te Wero (“the Challenge”).  No one is permitted to enter the Moari tribal grounds until the Powhiri, a formal welcome ceremony, has been performed.  Haka challenges are performed by a series of warriors from the village, each more intimidating than the last.  Eventually, a peace offering (teka) is laid at the feet of the chiefs of the visitors.  The visitors signal their peaceful intent by accepting this token.  The Karanga, or welcome call, then echoes across the forest as the women sing to announce the guests’ arrival to the villagers.  The powhiri (welcome dance) follows, and visitors are welcomed into the fold.  Here’s the video of the full Powhiri ceremony:

We were then shuffled around a makeshift Maori village and learned about Maori traditions and ways of life.  Next we visited the earth ovens where our evening feast (the “hangi”) was prepared and the lamb, chicken and potatoes unearthed and lifted from the sunken ovens.  Following that we entered the Wharenui (sacred meeting house) for some traditional song and dance, including the haka (a traditional war dance/challenge).  You might have seen the haka performed by the All Blacks, NZ’s national rugby team, before their matches, but here it is performed by Maori descendants:

We then enjoyed our buffet-style hangi, followed by the closing ceremony and bus ride back to our hotel.

Overall I had mixed reactions to this thing.  The cultural side of it was informative, and I was very interested to see certain parts, like the Powhiri and the song & dance performances.  But I generally despise these high-volume, impersonal tourist traps, and this was definitely one of them.  Our “visitor group” was around 130 people total by my calculations, and they had a second visitor group come through that same night, staggered about an hour after us.  That's at least 250 people they marshal through every night, and to me makes it all feel kinda staged and disingenuous.  I also got a pretty shitty draw for a table assignment at dinner.  With all the Kiwis, Aussies, Americans, English and Canadians in the room, I somehow got assigned to the table where no one spoke any English.  So that really sucked as a solo traveller.  I was pretty happy to get back on the bus and back to my hotel room at the end of the night.

Today was a long and exhausting day.  I’m looking forward to getting to The Coromandel tomorrow and relaxing.