A Buried Village, and Mitai Maori Night
Travel Location: Rotorua,New-Zealand
So how did you like all the funky stuff I told you about Rotorua in the last post? Sometimes the city seems like any other city….then you bump into a geothermal area, and it looks like another planet! Well, the whole area around Rotorua is filled with volcanic areas, and activity. Other places in NZ have volcanoes too. This post I am going to tell you about one place that suffered from a volcanic disaster, then I’ll share about our second Maori experience. So let’s get started.
Remember when we learned about Pompeii last year? If you forgot, here’s a quick summary: Mount Vesuvius erupted, spewing ash, mud, volcanic gases, lava flow and such all over the city of Pompeii. It was buried under all this in a matter of hours. For hundreds of years it remained buried, until some archaeologists (those are people who dig up ancient artifacts and places to try to figure out what they are, and what they mean) dug it up. Being under all that volcanic material preserved the city as it was the day it was covered, so we can see what life was like in a 1st century Roman city.
Well, something like this happened here in New Zealand. They call it the Buried Village, and Norma and I headed just south of Rotorua to check it out. In the late 1800′s, thousands of tourists would come through this area to visit two magnificent geothermal features, called the White and Pink Terraces. They were different colorful ledges cascading down to the lake, and filled with hot springs pools as they went. Sometimes they were even called the 8th wonder of the world. People came from all over the world to see these incredible features. It wasn’t easy to get to them as there were no real roads, and it involved a lot of hiking and even travelling by boat to make it out to see the terraces. Local people provided food, places to stay, transportation, and guide services to the tourists coming out to the area. As a result, several villages grew up around the area. This was also the traditional land for a Maori tribe. Now keep in mind, that where there are geothermal features, there is also volcanic activity. Some time in the 1870′s or 1880′s ( I don’t have my notebook with me, so I can’t remember the exact date), something wierd began to happen in nature. A guide noticed that the fish were dying. The streams around the lake had no water in them, while the level of the lake began to rise. Small earthquakes occurred. Then, one guide reported seeing a ghost canoe. She and her group were going across the lake towards the terraces, when an ancient style Maori canoe with many paddlers appeared. When they got closer, she said that the rowers were not human; they had scary dog faces. Then, they just disappeared. This is what people call an omen. That means a sign to say that something good or bad is going to happen in the future. Now you may not believe in this, and I may not believe in this, but the guide did and told the local Maori spiritual leader. He declared that all these signs meant something bad was going to happen in the near future. Although some people felt not exactly right about this (uneasy), no one left, and they all continued taking tourists to the terraces. A few days later, the nearby volcano erupted, spewing fiery lava high into the night sky. Instead of running away, many people just went out onto the balcony of their hotel and watch the display. It must have been like fireworks in a huge way! Unfortunately, for some people, that was the last thing they saw. The volcano began spewing out ash, smoke, and lava bombs- huge fiery rocks that flew up into the sky and crash-landed in flames on the earth. The lava that had been building up under the lake also exploded up and out, blowing the terraces to tiny bits, destroying them completely. Volcanic mud also poured out of the volcano, burying many villages completely under yards and yards of mud. Several villages disappeared completely under the mud, and everyone who lived there died. There was no way to even see if there were survivors because the mud was so thick and deep. But in the village that is now called the Buried Village, many people ran to 2 of the buildings in the village that they thought might stay together under the rush of mud, ash, and lava bombs. One was the Maori meeting house, and the other the guide Sophia’s house. Lots of other houses in the village collapsed from the weight of the mud and ash. But thse two didn’t, though they were covered halfway to two thirds in the volcanic mud. In Sophia’s house, they dug themselves out with a garden shovel and garden fork after the eruption stopped. Survivors had to move away from the village, as it was hopelessly ruined. And besides, there were no more terraces to show. Time went past, and the mud hardened, grass grew on it, and the area became more or less abandoned. In the 1930′s, a family bought the area to farm and to serve teas to travellers going through. They knew about the buried village, and finally decided to have archaeologists excavate it. Under layers and layers of mud, they discovered parts of houses remaining, bottles, glasses, beds, dishes, shoes, clocks, hats, and other artifacts of life from the time period. They were still covered in the now hardened mud, but you could see what the things were, and in some cases, you could chip the mud away to see the piece underneath. The family decided to dig out as much of the village as remained, and put the whole thing on display. And that is how the Buried Village started. You can walk through and see what houses looked like in that time, and some of the household items that were used in that day. It’s like these things were preserved under the mud that covered them.
Walking around the village was kind of wierd. It was like a ghost town. Some of the buildings were gone, but they had rebuilt some, while others had remained under the mud. You could also see how high the mud had flowed, and why it was so hard to survive such a volcanic blast. Norma and I enjoyed looking at all the artifacts and houses, but it was also kind of creepy to think about that volcano- because it is still there, and while it is “sleeping” at the moment, it could erupt again.
After finishing at the village, we drove up to a lookout to see the volcano. The thing is, we all have a certain idea of how a volcano should look. This didn’t look all that different from a regular mountain, though the top was kind of dented in from the eruption. They had some pictures from the time period before the volcanic eruption, and you could see how much the land had changed because of the eruption. It was very interesting.
We headed back into town to do a little shopping so I could get some artifacts for our culture kits. I can’t wait to show all the neat stuff I got for you to look at! After that, we went back to our place and got ready for the Maori experience that night. Again, a bus picked us up to take us to our show and feast. This place was called Mitai, and is owned by the Maori tribe of the area. A family from that tribe does the show on the land. This time we started with a little break in the dining tent to have a drink and relax for a few minutes. I tried a mango soda. It was pretty good. After our guide found out where we all were from and taught us a song, we had to choose a chief to represent us when we went up to the village for the welcoming ceremony. Then we followed a path into the rainforest to wait by the river. The next thing that happened was truly magnificent. Maori warriors came down the river in a canoe. Now, when we think of a canoe, we think of those little dinky things we take out on the lake that fit 2 or 3 people. Remember, the Maori came to New Zealand (Aeteroa) across many wide and wild miles of Pacific ocean. Their canoes are huge, long, and mighty, and can hold 40, 50, maybe more, people. This canoe that came down the river was a smaller copy of those mighty canoes. It was elaborately carved, and the warriors chanted as they rowed the canoe past us. It was an incredible sight, and a really awesome moment. After that, we headed up to the village. This time the village was built on a stage for us to view as we sat before it. Again, a mighty warrior came out and challenged our chief, offering a peace challenge to the chief. Once the chief accepted it in the proper way (eye contact, pick it up, back away), the chief of the village gave a speech in the Maori language, that our guide translated. Remember, I told you that speeches are an important part of Maori culture, especially in the greeting ceremonies. Our chief then had to give a speech, too, then we sang the song we had learned. The cool thing about it was that he was from Mexico, so he gave the speech in both Spanish and English. It was impressive, and we were welcomed into the village with a welcoming song after that. We got to then stay in our seats as the performers explained more about their culture between songs and dances. Once again, the poi, the long and short stick, and haka were done, but this time this group also showed us the moves that a warrior might do in training for battle, and in using the long stick to learn to fight. Younger members of the group showed us the exercises that the men had to do to work on their strength, agility, speed, and balance. One of them involved the man squatting and having to jump between sets of sticks without losing his balance, or touching the sticks. This group also let us get a better view of the women doing the haka, and explained that different tribes have different hakas. They spoke more in Maori, and sang us a Maori song, with one of them translating as they went. They also showed us a more modern dance where the women and men dance in couples. Finally, one man showed us his real tattoos. The moko (tattoos) on his face were also the painted ones, but the ones all over the back of his legs and thighs were real ones. He explained the meanings of these tattoos, which have a different special name. These tattoos symbolize character traits (like the lifeskills) that you want to have. Another meaning of the moko on the face was of 4 birds of NZ that symbolize different strengths, characteristics, and personality traits. It made me look at the tattoos in a different way, since they really told the story of the person who had them.
We then headed back to the feast tent. Remember I told you about the underground oven in the last post? Well, this time we actually got to see one with the food in it. They had just uncovered it, so we saw all the meats and vegetables in the trays that had just been steamed for our dinner. Once again, the food was really tasty. After dinner, we took a night walk into the rainforest again to see glowworms and the tribal sacred spring. I will tell you more about glowworms in my next post, but for now let me just say that they glow like tiny little stars in places close to rivers. We saw a few in the bushes as we walked to the sacred spring. The sacred spring was absolutely beautiful. It was so clear that it looked like glass instead of water. You could see all the different fish living in there, and even a big black eel on the bottom. For the Maori of this area, it is a special place in their spiritual beliefs, so it is their responsibioity to take care of and protect the spring.
And that ended our wonderful Mitai night. I was so glad we had gone to 2 shows, since we learned different things at each one, and saw different things at each one. Sadly, that was also the end of our time in Rotorua. Both Norma and I wished that we had had a day or two more there, but time was running short, so we had to head on out in the morning if we wanted to see all we planned to see! So where are we off to next? Cave country….on my birthday!
