Whakarewarewa - The Living Maori Village, North Island, New Zealand

5Mike S S 5:00 PM Nov 6, 2022

Outstanding Cultural and Geo-Thermal Experience
Booked the All day pass which includes guided tour cultural show and self guided walks around the village and thermal area that surrounds it. Outstanding value and better then Te Puia next door which overlooks the same geysers but does not have a real village to explore. Guide was really good giving personal insights talking about Maori history and culture The guided tour around the inhabited village seeing the people and the children in the nursery brought the Maori culture to life. The guide was excellent the personal insights about life in the village were wonderful and gave a real sense of how Moari culture is now embedded within New Zealand society. New Zealand is much better at co-existence and tolerance of indigenous peoples than Australia.

5Eileen R 5:00 PM Feb 21, 2020

Absolutely brilliant!
Cruise company weren't offering this trip from Tauranga, so booked (with some trepidation) externally (Cruising Excursions.com) and was very impressed. Tours through these companies are half the price of the cruise company trips and timings suit your time in port. Ours was a small grp and travelled by mini bus from just outside the port entrance. Numerous companies represented, each holding up the names of their passengers! Upon arrival at the village, we were allocated a young man as our guide. He was a member of the family who have lived for many years, and continue to live, in this village. He was an excellent guide, informative, knowledgeable (of course!) and amusing. As you enter the village you can throw a coin into the pool for the village children to dive for. The various pools and their geology are explained. I was fascinated to see the cooking areas - boxed areas, about a metre square, with a wooden lid...lifting the lid, you could see the steam rising from between the rocks inside and our guide explained you could cook numerous frozen chickens in around an hour! Vegetables are cooked, tied in muslin and lowered into the boiling water of a (fenced) pool. Each person received 3 rings of corn on the cob, with butter and pepper, cooked in this way. The bathing area was next on the tour and our guide explained how the whole family (by tradition) bathe, communally, in the nude, after the visitors have left! This was followed by a half hour performance of traditional Maori dance, including (inevitably!) the Haka. Photo opportunities throughout the performance and afterwards, when you cd have your picture taken, on your own camera, with 2 of the performers. Wonderful memories of a super day!