All hot and shivery at the restaurant last night so didn't sleep much and woke feeling pretty ill. Quiet day in prospect planning what to do. Liked the look of a Maori "experience evening" but found it only happened on weekends so decided to go tonight despite the rugby. Wandered off to the local shopping centre for essentials - wine beer and lemsip etc. And took a look at what was on offer at Hells Gate Spa and decided to return maybe on Monday. Got ourselves to i-site for bus pickup to the village and amazingly a bus arrived, with an ancient lady driving it. Arrived on site paid out fee and joined the group of 13 different nationalities attending. Introduction to the evening and choice of a chief - missed that by a whisker. Onwards to see the hangi (oven) where our food was being prepared - slightly more clinical than traditional, no soil covering it here. Down to the stream where the warriors approached in their war canoe, and backed out for another photo opportunity! Up to the auditorium where we were occupying only about 10% of the seats, so we were a very small group. Maori culture music and dancing, including the hakka of course, followed then back to the dining hall (tent!) for the buffet of various salads plus chicken or lamb. We both chose the lamb which was magnificent and ate more than we should. Deserts of chocolate log, fruit salad and trifle plus pavlova, if you were quick, were a little less inspiring though. Following coffee the group split between those going off for a night adventure in the forest, which we originaly thought we would do, and those going glow worm hunting. It was so cold we were glad we weren't walking much further into the woodlands. Spooky walk with torches found a number of bright glowworms then back to the centre and into a bus back to the i-site to pick up the van. Speedy drive home got us back to see the whole second half of the match where the wallabies were defeated quite comprehensively by the all blacks. Maori merlot wine is not recommended!
Photo uploads seem to crash the app on the tablet and the browser can't cope either, so not many photos make their way up to the blog
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