Tauranga - Rotorua - Whakarewarewa

What a day we had today!! Our first stop was Whakarewarewa which is not the real name of the village - it's the shortened name - the full name is on the sign below:

And - the name means: The Gathering Place of the Army of Wahio.  Locals refer to it as Woka. 

This is a living Maori village - in other words - people still live there - I think about sixty. These are the people of Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao. These are some of the original inhabitants of NZ and the came in big canoes from Samoa - or somewhere near there. 

The amazing part is that the village is smack on top of an active geothermal environment - one big hot spring.  Hot steaming pools are all around and there are frequent geysers. The steam their food in the thermal pools. Here's some corn cooking- it's floating in a mesh bag in the spring:

Then we ate it:

All of the food for all the families in the village - as well as for tourist guests is cooked in a steam box hangi. People put their aluminum pans into the box in the morning And when they come home, they take out their pans and have a delicious slow cooked meal. There are no kitchens or ovens inside the houses. 

It's hard to describe this place but we loved it. 

Then we went to another Maori Village- which was not inhabited but more of a cultural experience. - and it was!!

We didn't even have time to explore the port city where we docked - Tauranga. However, we drove through and it is a lovely beach town. Very active with surfers and an active beautiful beach scene. 

Tomorrow .... Auckland.