I stayed in my room all day, missing the museum program in the a.m. I was able to Facetime with Kerry, as she was working from home, for the first time on the trip. It was good to see her face (and Jason at the end!).
I still was coughing, and my ribs hurt like crazy, I assume from throwing up the day before, but wanted to see the Maori crafts (weaving and woodcarving) and performance. We went to Te Puia, a hot springs area with models of buildings in the Maori style. There were mud pools like at Yellowstone and steaming vents. We weren’t there for an actual eruption that happens every 20 minutes.
We went to the weaving area where we saw how they used the flax leaf to strip the green to make threads, roll them to make rope and cut them with a shell to make the “skirts” that they were. They leave part of the green on that eventually turns black to make the squares.
There was a wood carving area for their large totems. All this is very reminiscent of Hawaiian, Alaskan and other Pacific peoples. They were cooking the dinner of roast chicken, I think, and potatoes and squash and we saw them remove the big trays from over the steam vents where they had a natural source of heat. First we were going to attend the dancing.
The Maori were very strong warriors and their dances showed it, with lots of yelling, stamping, and the wide eyes and tongue out. This is the reason they didn’t get overrun like the Aborigines in Australia.
We headed in to dinner and I knew this wasn’t going to work for me. Peter got me a bottle of seltzer to settle my stomach. But when they started bringing food to the table, I moved outside for fresh air. A sweet waitress from Sri Lanka named Dew (she’s 23) brought me some mint tea which really helped settle things. At least, until I got back to the hotel!!
Eventually I got back to my lovely suite and got all packed up for our departure in the a.m.
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