Outside of Auckland, North Island
Hangi at Rotorua continued
A hangi is an essential part of Maori culture, and you should feel privileged that the warriors are willing to welcome you into their village to share with you.
A hangi is a Maori feast, cooked in large pits, and featuring everything from appetizers to dessert, almost all cooked over a wood fire, and with a lovely smoky taste as a result. You will get meat, chicken, vegetables, fish, and the ever present kumara, the native sweet potato.
It is served buffet style, and there are lots of salads and bread on the side, and you can buy drinks at the bar. It is a great chance to try the local beers, like Tui, named after an adorable little native bird. The wines will of course be all locally grown and first-rate.
I went three times, I had such a wonderful time, two to the same place because while the food was not the best, the entertainment was second to none. Each hangi group thrives on their similarities as well as differences.  They all wish to portray Maori culture, and tell wonderful myths and stories.
The hangi at Tamaki Village is very well advertised, but the people are, shall we say, not quite so athletic at performing a haka, a ritual dance you may be familiar with from seeing the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team perform one on the playing field before each of their games. The Tamaki performers are built like Samoans!
The women singers are also  not quite as good, but the food was first rate, and their recreated Maori village where they try to live as their ancestors would have done is very atmospheric and fun. You also get to see the food cooking, and there is a first rate gift shop full of wonderful Maori objects in paua and jade, handmade soaps and more.
The hangi at Mitai was terrific. They are situated in a wonderful glen not far from Rainbow Springs Trout Farm, where the 4 different kinds of trout thrive in pristine pools and you can see the nocturnal kiwi (you can actually do a night tour of it as well in combination with the hangi if you book ahead with the tourist center).
You will get settled into your food tent and have time to get drinks and use the facilities, before being asked to come view all the food cooking in the traditional pit. Then you will be taken down into the glen, seeing the wonderful silver fern the Maori used as navigation in the dark.
The underside of the fronds is silver, so they would turn them upside down when they were walking one way, and retrace their route and turn them back again when they were coming home.
In the glen is a stream and the warriors row up it in their war canoe, singing, and all is lit by torches. It is an impressive sight, and don’t worry, they back up and do it twice in case you missed getting good pictures the first time.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.