Friday, February 11, 2011

Maori Tour

Today we spent the entire morning and afternoon with our two Maori group leaders. They were both part Maori from their parents and knew just about everything about their history, language and culture. It was great to learn about them but whatever I can repeat here won't nearly do it justice. The first thing we did we took a trip to Mount Eden - one of the larger inactive volcanoes here in Auckland (in total Auckland has 48 of them). Got some great photos that I hope to upload soon. Again the views were truly amazing but we had to be off to another part of the tour - the Auckland Museum for a great performance of dance, weaponry and song from more members of the Maori clan. At the end of that we got some deep fried fish and French fries for lunch with a cup of extra salt on the side....just kidding but it was the worst thing for me that I've eaten in a while. After that we traveled more to the western beach of Kerekere, one of 5 black sand beaches. The waves are always crashing and coming up around 10 feet high. Surfers were out in their wet suits enjoying the non-stop action. Last but certainly not least was our walk to the waterfall. This was our own piece of tropical paradise that no photo could capture. The water was cold but still warmer than those Colorado streams :) We also learned some techniques for weaving thanks to our Maori tour guides.

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