Maori Mahem in Maketu

Having been so caffeine fuelled from the previous night, I wasn’t really in a state to be able to sleep, so was grateful when it came round to an appropriate time to get out of bed! I got my bits together and then a little while later at 8am, when everyone else was ready, we all hopped onto the bus after saying goodbye to Nickolai, who was staying in Raglan for a bit to surf.

We left Raglan and headed to Waitomo. It didn’t take too long to get there, we dropped off the people who were going caving and then Daisy dropped the rest of us in the town. He showed us where to buy coffee and said we had four hours to do whatever we wanted until we had to be back at the bus. The girls and I walked up to the coffee shop, only to find it was closed; opening in one hour. Now Waitomo itself is absolutely tiny – the coffee shop, an information centre, two souvenir shops, a mini market, a pub. And that’s it. So we were indeed rather disheartened to realise that we couldn’t get a coffee and there was literally nothing to do. Whilst stood outside the coffee shop, wondering how we could waste an hour waiting for the cafe to open, Daisy came over and was also horrified to see it was closed. He then made us a great offer – to take us somewhere else! He needed a coffee too and so volunteered to drive us to the next town along which had more going on! We jumped at the chance.

The drive to Otorohanga did not take very long at all. It turned out to be Daisy’s home town. The six of us went straight to the coffee shop, whilst Daisy went off to meet his dad. The coffee was much needed and we sat and chilled for a bit, chatting about Raglan and Hahei. Rebecca, Catherine and I then went for a wander, whilst the others went to the library.

The town was much bigger than Waitomo, but not massive. We just enjoyed walking along, window shopping and then found Woolies, so popped in there for some supplies. Back in town, we found a little display of all things Kiwi, so we had a look at that – I learned that NZ claims the pavlova as its own invention (Australia also claims that it is the inventor of that dessert!). Back in the high street, we noticed that hanging from the lamp posts were large Kiwi ‘icons’ – eg kiwi fruit, kiwi bird, pavolva, Anzac hat, jandles (NZ word for flip flops), sheep, pie. We then headed to the library, where I was delighted to discover their free wifi service!

We met Daisy back at the bus and made our way to Waitomo once again, to where we needed to pick up the cavers. Rebecca, Daisy and I went into the woods, following the path which is a one hour looped walk around the area – but we had an ulterior motive; we were collecting wood for tonight’s fire on the beach. We managed to gather a fair bit and then scurried with it back to the bus and chucked it in the back – Daisy hasn’t yet worked out if you’re actually allowed to take fallen wood, so was just being cautious (or sneaky!). We didn’t get arrested, so figured it had been a successful mission! Not long after we finished, the cavers came back so we were able to head off to the other pick-up point, where a couple of the others would be waiting.

This particular pick up point was actually a place called ‘The Shearing Shed’ and turned out to be something different to what we expected. We were taken inside and there was not a sheep in sight, instead the woman brought out a rabbit – a huge, white, fluffy, German angora rabbit. Then she brought out another huge, white, but-not-as-fluffy rabbit and proceeded to strap it to a very odd contraption which looked like a medieval instrument of torture and within a moment the rabbit was stretched out by its feet on a metal table, half shorn from where she had done the show earlier on. Next she took out the shears and started removing huge, thick strips of white fluff, then spinning the rabbit around on the rotisserie thing and carrying on. It looked rather pathetic! She assured us that the rabbit was not in any pain, which I do believe, but I had to walk away after a bit as from where I was standing at the end of the table, I could feel the blood red eyes of the rabbit boring into mine – it was way too freaky!

Once we were back on the bus, we continued to Maketu, chilling and chatting along the way. Daisy told us some Maori stories about the hills and how they believed the world started. We arrived at Maketu and first dropped off the wood at the beach, finding an appropriately discrete location for it, so that it was still there when we came back later. Then we went to ‘Uncle Boy’s Place’ where we would be spending the night learning about Maori culture. He jumped on the bus when we arrived and shouted ‘Kia Ora’ (no, he wasn’t offering us a 1980s carton drink, it’s a traditional welcome!), to which we shouted back the same (Daisy had forewarned us that Uncle Boy likes it when people sound enthusiastic and if we didn’t want to have to sit on the bus all night shouting ‘Kia Ora’ until it reached an acceptable volume, we should just yell it as loud as possible from the off!) – thankfully this was loud enough and Uncle Boy let us off the bus!

We went into the dining room and had a cup of tea, then Uncle Boy explained to us a bit about the background of the place and what would happen while we were there. We had to nominate a chief for our tribe- it had to be Barry as he was the oldest male (I think Paul was really incredibly pleased he was just a couple of months younger!). Then Uncle Boy invited us to partake in the hangi dinner (mixture of traditional Maori foods) which was very tasty indeed.

Next it was Barry’s big moment. We went and stood outside the marae (the name for a Maori meeting place) where we would be staying – as it is a special place, we had to take our shoes off to go inside. When we went through the door, there were a group of people in traditional Maori clothes standing at the other end of the hall. This was the ‘formal’ point of the evening, where this tribe had to ascertain whether we were friend or foe; they sent forth a warrior (a 15 year old who was way too ripped than was natural!) who had the task of trying to intimidate our chief, whilst we all had to stand, being serious. The warrior placed a token on the floor in front of Barry and he had to pick it up, without losing eye contact – to show he was a friend. The warrior rejoined his group and they sang a song welcoming us into their family – the Stray tribe had been accepted! Hurrah! That was better than being chased with sticks!

The Maori group stood in a line and we went along greeting one another in the true Maori way – shaking hands, saying ‘Kia Ora’, touching noses/foreheads whilst keeping eye contact! When we’d gone along the line, we joined the end; this meant that we greeted everyone – even our own tribe. Then it was time for the show – we sat down and were entertained by the group, who sang Maori songs and did some traditional dances for us. The group was made up of children and young people, aged 7-15, along with their group leaders.

Then it was over to us. The guys from the Maketu Cultural Group took Barry and Paul off into the dining room to teach them the Haka, whilst all the girls stayed in the hall to learn the Poi. This is a dance that Maori women traditionally do, using a ball on a string called a poi (it used to be a weapon but then became redundant). We only had about fifteen minutes to learn it – it wasn’t easy! We were given some Maori cloaks to wear and then began our lesson. The girls teaching us were only young, probably 12-15 and there were a few too many cooks, shall we say! We’d been learning by chanting ‘Catch, catch, swing, swing, catch’, in time with the swinging or catching of the poi and then suddenly we were told it was time to perform! Arrrgggghhh! We weren’t ready

The boys came in, us girls nearly fell over laughing – Barry and Paul had been put into the traditional Maori skirt things (I can’t remember their actual name), over their boxers. In contrast to the Maori teenagers, Barry and Paul looked rather pasty and incredibly scrawny! Daisy had joined them, as moral support – to try and make them feel more at ease and less self conscious, although he was just as scrawny and pasty as they were! They stood in line and then Barry started the ball rolling – we watched as they performed the Haka – they put their all into it, although it was quite funny as Paul didn’t look like he knew what he was doing and was trying to blend in with the background which is not really possible when you’re standing three feet away from your audience! Barry looked a little more confident than Paul, although it was still really funny watching and Daisy knew exactly what to do (I guess he has done this many, many times with the Stray tour!). Their performance was great, considering they’d only had a short time to learn it! We gave big cheers and then they did it again! The second time they seemed a little less terrified!

Then it was over to us – I sneakily put myself in the back row; terrified that I wouldn’t get it right, as we wouldn’t be chanting ‘Catch, catch, swing, swing, catch’ and instead would have music playing, plus I had been having trouble catching the poi – a fundamental part of the dance. Arrrgggghhh! The music started up and somehow I managed to get the hang of it, in fact having the music actually helped. We did the dance and it all went ok! Hurrah! Then we had to do it again, only this time I had to stand on the front row – right in front of Daisy, Barry and Paul (now I knew how they felt!). The second dance went just as well as the first, in fact they even sped up the music! At last it was over and I felt elated that I had done it!

The group performed some more songs and then it was time for them to go – we said goodbye to them and thanked them for the entertainment. We went to the bus, grabbed our things (again, I took a little bag with some bits in, rather than dragging my whole bag about!) and took them into the marae. We laid out lots of mattresses all over the marae and covered them with sheets and duvets.

When we were all done, we collected our drinks from the fridge and all headed down to the beach. We were pleased to find or wood still there, so Daisy and I built the fire and then everyone sat around it. We spent the evening chatting around the fire with a few bevvies. Wayne – the cook from Uncle Boy’s came down – a proper old, NZ, hippy-dude who said very little but was very interesting when he did speak. It was really good fun. Gradually people started going back to the marae – it’s surprising how some people really can’t handle a tiny bit of smoke! I was one of the die hard who stayed til the end, then Wayne gave us a lift back to the marae in his clapped out old car (which he had to drive with the window down, looking out of that because the windscreen was impossible to de-mist – thankfully the drive was literally only a couple of minutes though!). A really different evening, like none other!