Whakarewarewa – The Living Maori Village

There are several attractions here for tourists to experience Maori culture, some of them outside of town where people pour in by the busload. Two of them are in town, within walking distance of my listing, and both centered around an active geothermal area.

As described in the first comment of this TripAdvisor post that helped me decide where to go, Te Puia is supported by the New Zealand government and operates in conjunction with local Maori tribes. They have a kiwi house, which my InterCity bus driver yesterday got me interested in seeing (they are nocturnal, so in order to see them, night is simulated in an enclosed space). Whakarewarewa Living Village is an actual Maori village, with about 25 families or 60 people calling it their home. There is no kiwi house, but the tour includes a performance of the haka, a traditional Maori war dance that I have wanted to see in person for years, so this made for an easy choice (also, Te Puia’s website is pretty slick and Whakarewarewa had a more authentic feel for me, also echoed in the TripAdvisor post).

I walked about 20 minutes to Whakarewarewa and arrived early enough to sit front and center for the 30-minute cultural performance. I was so close to the performers that it was difficult to capture the experience via photos and video, which was simultaneously a relief because I wanted to be immersed in it and disappointing because OF COURSE I wanted to savor it forever.

An audience participation section got us on our feet and singing, a song about forbidden love between two ancestors of the performers brought me to tears, and the haka came and went too quickly. My friend Kristina attended a haka about 10 years ago and said the performers went through the motions perfunctorily, as if they’d done it for a million tourists, because they had, and I was so happy that this troupe committed. And then they generously posed for photos with every audience member.

Following the performance I went on a guided tour of the village, learning about the hot pools and seeing food cooked and how the villagers bathe.

Lunch was a traditional hangi meal, meaning it was prepared in a geothermal oven. Apparently, meat cooked this way just slides off the bones, making it ultra tender, but of course I’d asked to exclude the meat, leaving plenty of vegetables: corn, carrots, and sweet potato, some salad greens, stuffing (sans gravy), and bread pudding for dessert.

I considered following one of the nature walk paths around the village, but at this point, I’d already walked 8,000 steps and I’m being mindful not to push my back too far on any given day since I still have a long trip ahead of me!

Redwoods Treewalk

My next stop was seemingly nearby, but the map is deceiving as the most direct route is not actually accessible to the public by car or on foot. I was looking at a 50-minute walk on the main roads, so I asked the staff at Whakarewarewa to call me a taxi.

The treewalk is a loop of 23 platforms surrounding redwood trees and connected by suspension bridges. They offer daytime entry, a “Nightlights” experience, and a combo ticket in between at dusk. The in-between ticket costs $10 NZD more than either of the other two, which makes sense because optimal viewing is when the lanterns are illuminated and there is still enough daylight to see the trees around them.

I’d looked up today’s sunset and found it was at 5:30pm, so I was aiming for a 4:00 or 4:15 start, figuring I’d walk the platforms and bridges slowly (the whole thing only takes about 40 minutes at a normal pace). However, by foregoing the walks around Whakarewarewa and from Whakarewarewa to the redwoods, I’d arrived a bit too early, at 3:30pm.

I went in to get a ticket anyway and made the mistake of asking when the lights would come on without specifying that I wanted the dusk experience. The folks at the desk said the lights wouldn’t be coming on until 6:30 or 7:00. What?! One said I could view the lights at 5:30 but it wouldn’t be the same experience. I only realized just now upon writing this out that, due to my miscommunication, they were telling me when optimal viewing for the night experience would begin.

This led to me thinking I had, like, 3 hours to kill. I postponed buying the ticket to figure out what I wanted to do. I think perhaps most people (?) would have foregone the lights and just taken the day walk through the trees.

However:

1. Even those who don’t care to know and/or know very little about astrology (myself included) can probably tell you the defining characteristic of a Taurus: they’re goddamn stubborn (bull-headed).
2. I really love pretty lights at night. It’s my favorite part of Christmas. I always hang string lights in my home.
3. A thing I am particularly skilled at is passing time. Generally speaking, the pace at which I move through life is pretty slow. When I was a kid, my mom used to say I had two speeds: Slow and Stop. This hasn’t changed a lot in my adulting.

There are several forest paths surrounding the treewalk, and at 4:00, I headed out on the 30-minute loop. I hit my 10,000 steps not so far in; given that I was in the opposite of a hurry and being mindful of my back, I walked reallllly slowly. When I came to a crossroads where I could head back to the starting point or continue on the 1-hour loop, I decided to continue on to pass some more time. I enjoyed the fresh forest air and crossing paths with locals on their afternoon runs.

I managed to turn a 60-minute loop into 90 minutes, arriving back at the ticket office at 5:30. The lights around the trees had started to come on, and I thought the desk staff had really gotten things wrong! It seemed like a good time to start the walk, so I bought my ticket and walked up the spiral ramp to the first platform. The first few platforms were perfect dusk light. And then, dusk was gone and night fell. The lanterns were really beautiful. And… the scene would have been much prettier with the trees in view around them. I’d passed too much time! Alas.

Once I completed the treewalk, I wished for the second or third time today that they operated a shuttle for non-driving people like myself. I walked about 15 minutes to a nearby Turkish joint. As I went to place my order, I realized how completely knackered I was. The sun and the walking had done me in. I ordered a takeaway falafel kebab (like a Mediterranean or Middle East burrito) and asked them to call me a cab.

And I’ve just spent way too much time writing this post. It’s after midnight and I have an early morning. To bed, to bed…