Entries about culture

What shall we do in Taupo? We wondered as we drove into town. Lake Taupo is roughly the same size as Singapore...if anyone knows how big Singapore is. Upon checking in at the hostel we noticed a sign for discounted sailing adventure on Fearless. Hey, why not?! We crossed our fingers that the weather would be good and we could get a spot on the boat for the following day.

The next day we headed down to the docks and secured our spot on the boat. I knew we'd made the right choice when I saw there were bean bag chairs on deck! If I ever have a sailboat, it'll definitely have bean bag chairs on deck.

We headed out onto the water and set sail. What a gorgeous day.

Our main destination was the Maori rock carvings that could be seen from the water. Though not ancient, they were still very impressive.

There was time for a classic Titanic pose and one person even went swimming!

We also had a nice chat with another American onboard! After sailiing we all hiked over to Huka Falls together.

The town of Rotorua is the place to go for a Maori culture performance. We decided to go to the Mitai Village where we got to take a walk through the native bush. The spring waters were around 40F and surprisingly several feet deep.

We saw warriors in traditional clothing paddle their ancient warrior canoe (waka) own the Wai-o-whiro stream.

Then there was a cultural performance where we heard about the Maori past, culture, carvings, and ta moko (tattoo art). We saw the poi dance and displays of weaponry, followed by the impressive haka dance (war dance/challenge).

The audience, maybe around 400 people, were from 22 different nations. Only one other family was from the US, from New York City actually. More Americans need to travel!!!