Te Puia and the Maori's

Catching up with my blog entries from my trip to New Zealand: July 29, 2006

Beautifull day. Cold this morning. Walking out of my hostel i was hit by what I first thought was the effects of an open sewer, that awful raw sewage smell. It took me a few moments to realize that it was in fact the sulphur smell from the geothermal park here in town. What a smell to wake up to each morning. But i suppose over time you don't even notice it.
A quick breakfast and i made the short drive over to Te Puia, a Maori Cultural park. Walking past a huge war canoe made by the Maori and through a tunnel, which to me felt like the gateway leading back through into the distant past, i came to the entrance.
"Te Puia which means the geyser or volcano but also refers to the entire valley. When geysers play and the land awakens with steam, light and water, the valley is said to be flowering."
I was in time to catch the 11am tour that would show the kiwi house and the mud and geyser area. The start of the tour encompassed some of the everyday life of the maori people, such as how they made their clothing, the purpose of the tiki. It was interesting to learn about a people that were culturally still free and present unchanged today.
The kiwi house is were the conservationist are hoping to start breading the New Zealand Kiwi bird. They are a threatened species these days. Nocturnal creatures we were not able to take pictures, but in the simulated night sky lighting we were able to make out the two kiwi foraging among a natural recreation of it's environment: forest lands. It's pretty much synonymous with New Zealand, and fun to watch it hunt around for the various insects added each day to it's habitat.
From the Kiwi house we came to the boiling mud pits. Kinda like a tar pit, but mud. The mud is often sold and used by hospitals and others to treat symptoms of arthritis, congestion and other medical things. I asked the guide about taking a quick dip, slathering it on, but these particular pits are somewhere around 180-200+ degrees CELSIUS! that's waaaaaaaay above boiling, you'd be dead pretty quick.
Did i mention the nasty sulphur smell? lol
The geysers are easy to spot, you can see them driving in from the road, well, you can see the steam clouds they cause, though the main geyser, when it erupts, its height is somewhere around 12-140 feet, so 12 stories up? It's considered a blessing to have the spray of the geyser fall upon you.
The smaller geyser was still impressive, and as we sat upon the tiered stones to watch and listen to our guide explain more about the geysers properties, you couldn't help but notice the heat of the stones we sat upon. The geothermal activitiy all around and beneath them kept the stones nice and warm, and in the chill of the NZ winter they were rather comforting, like standing in front of an electric heater at full blast!
We were able to get back from our tour in time for the tradtional Maori welcome held each day at noon. One of the visitors was chosen to represent our "tribe" to the Maori people. With this selection the traditional welcome began.
A group of Maori men, in reed loinclothes, tattoos, and spears appeared before us, challening us, trying to intimidate us. One of their number stalked towards us, issuing challenges and making threatening gestures. If i had been one of the original explorers, i would have been fairly certain i was going to end up dead and rather soon. lol But the songs of the women and those of the men soon blended in welcome as our "chief" accepted the fern as token of entance (i think).
We were then able to file into the meeting house to watch a performance of Maori love songs, battle hyms and celebratory performances. It was very entertaining, interesting and fascinating to watch these people perfrom a small part of their skills.
(not one of my pictures, I wasn't that close, mine were mostly of peoples heads)

The performances where relativel short, but insightfull. Afterwards i was free to wonder about the valley and see the various mud pools, hot springs and other wildlife. One of the more interesting things was the re-introduction of trout into the cold spring creek that flows through the valley. For an unknown reason, from time to time, trout have been known to swim from the spring creek and into the hot spring water that feeds into the creek. In about twenty minutes or so you have a nice hot boiled trout. lol
Wandering around the valley on the paths, i imagened that not much had changed over time, the land still seemed wild and untamed to me. With the clouds of steam and sound of running water, i could see how this area took on somewhat mythical appeal.
Yet the cultural centers Maori sculpting school was easily my favorite area. I'm sure i was influenced by my family history of carpentry, but seeing the tiki totems and other carvings in various stages of completion, to take a tree and shape it into this artwork, and art that is considered the Maori's first form of written word, was worth the trip itself. I was lucky enough to watch one of the students do some carving on his piece, a slow, tedious process.
The school was set up in the 70's (i believe) to help maintain this important piece of maori tradition. It was imperative to pass on the knowledge gathered over the centures to the new students, students who were selected from the various tribes and entrusted with these skills. There are still many master carvers who keep their knowledge and artform to only certain select members of their own tribe, yet in time their is hope to bring even these into the fold, preserving their knowledge for all time.
Inside the cultural center was a jade shop. Now this jade is different from that found in China. In the Maori culture it held significant importance, though was used mostly for heirloom items, or in time of war highly prized for the making of their weapons. In this shop was a bulletin board that showed the steps that took a rock dug out of the earth and created into a piece of artwork. Fascinating as always.

http://www.tepuia.co.nz/