Monday 12 January 2009

Maori culture and glowworms:)

The Maori culture (the first inhabitants of New Zealand came by canoe from Polynesia) offers to the visitors some amazing wooden carvings. At the Watangi Threaty Ground (where in 1840 the treaty between local population and the British was signed) there are several impressive Maori works to admire: a huge wooden Maori waka (canoe) and the Maori Meeting House (built for the 100-anniversary of the treaty signature).

The first thing that stroke me was that all carvings have persons showing their tongue. I was then told that in dance performance this is used for intimidation of the enemies and in carvings is a symbol of the oral transmission of the Maori culture (as the Maori dont have a written language, so they expressed themselves only in this way).

In Waitangi we also went to a Maori dance and singing show. Nico had a crash-course in haka (the war dance that the Maoris used when then went to war, and that is still performed by the All Blacks (the national rugby team) before each game to make their opponents afraid of them.


On the way back to Auckland we stopped in a cave next to Waiomio, where we had a guided tour in a cave full with glowworms. The afternoon included a pleasant visit in Wharangei (around an hour south of Whatangi) and a delicious seafood-lunch. It is very confusing trying to pronounce and remember all the name of the towns and cities here as every 2 of 3 start with W or Wha, in Maori what means water (which here is almost everywhere). Tomorrow we go to Aukland to drop off the car and collect a camper and then head south. Raglan->Rotorua->Lake Taupo->Wellington is the itinerary for the next 10 days.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Waren die Maoris, die die Nico Haka beigebracht haben, so beeindrucken als die All Blacks? :)

Anonymous said...

mnogo e gotino milo. super snimmki i dosta interesno. dnes Ali B ima6e re4 za pozdravi za 2009, az samo hodih da ia 4uia. Ina4e vse edna i sa6ta, Monika e dosta pokrai mene, iavno e samotna ima si problemi. Tuka se postopli po 5 gradusa e. vseki den sam s David, pozdravi na Nico ot Ronan van Aubel. Dnes imah obiad s Ronan i Javor. Ina4e niama mnogo kliuki, kato doide6 6te ti razkazvam pove4ko ama ne ispuska6 mnogo - tupo e tuka. Iskaraite si super, mnogo e interesno i sleda bloga vseki den. Celuvki Tony

Greg said...

Nico a donc fait haka dans la culotte ?
désolé ...:-)

Robert said...

Bonjour les New Zélandais,
Après le Haka, il faut jouer aux All Blaks.
Ici le temps se réchauffe, il n'a fait que -3° cette nuit, mais avec une journée grise. Ces 15 dermiers jours le thermomètre n'a pas dépassé le 0, avec les nuits entre -9 et -16°. Mais les journées étaient belles et très bien ensoleillées.
A Colmen la charpente a été posée lundi et la toiture est prévue pour la semaine prochaine.
Je suis entrain de peindre les frises de la corniche avec beaucoup de mal a cause du gel.
J'ai remplacé l'appareil photo perdu de maman par un G10.
Elle va te faire de la concurrance!
Bon voyage et bisous à vous deux.
Robert