Tamaki

    I admit that the idea of going to a recreated Maori village near Rotorua didn't thrill me at first. "Cultural experiences" such as that have, in my experience, been disappointing so when Elena said she had booked a night visit to Tamaki, which is just outside Rotorua, I sighed and told myself that I could get through it with a minimum of agita no matter how bad it was.

    Actually, it was great.

    The Maori culture is fascinating: Its art is distinctive, its language musical and its reverence for the land and for the history of the people who set sale across the Pacific so many generations ago is unusual in a world in which so many people know so very little about their ancestors. (Don't believe me? Ask a few friends what their great-grandfathers did for a living. A Maori can tell you while most Americans can't even name their great-grandfathers. Still don't believe me? Ask a few friends to name six of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. A Maori can, for example, tell you the names of the 13 great female chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which brought to an end a bloody war between them and the British but most Americans can't tell you who signed that famous declaration.)

    I'm not trying to lionize the Maori or their culture for, in truth, there are some unsavory episodes in their history, including the fact that they practiced cannibalism. Instead, I'm simply trying to point out that it is a distinctive culture, one that many Europeans and Americans would have a difficult time understanding. Spending one night at Tamaki certainly doesn't give you entry into that culture, but it does underline how Maori see the world and how very different that view is than mine.

    The Maori staff at Tamaki invited us to take part in the demonstrations. Josep's cousin Elena, for example, learned to do a dance in which women twirl balls at the end of long sticks and several men learned how to do the haka, the traditional Maori war dance. (If you've ever watched the All Blacks play rugby you will have seen the haka. They do it before every game as a means of intimidating the other team.)

    Later there was food - great food - cooked in the ground in the traditional Maori way and a lot of singing and more dancing.

    It was, much to my surprise - and delight- a night to remember.

Maori warrior issuing a challenge to the arriving guests: Do you come to make war or in peace?

The village chief welcoming guests for the night.

Two Maori women explaining how to do a dance using balls attached by cords to sticks.

Elenita and other  female guests doing the dance.

A Maori warrior explaining the use of various weapons.

There was a lot of singing and dancing throughout the night.