Apart from geothermal activities, Rotorua is also the perfect place to learn about the indigenous Maori culture, as it is a notable region in New Zealand where the Maori community is large. There are many Maori Villages in the region which invite visitors to visit, some of them authentic, others more touristy. While I am usually advocate of authenticity and off the beaten track type of travel, we chose to visit a more touristy one as we were short of time, and more importantly, we wanted to see a real kiwi bird. So we chose to visit Te Puia, the biggest Maori Culture experience attraction in Rotorua. Te Puia and it's next door neighbour Whakarewarewa used to be a single Maori Village for generations. I remember visiting the village as a kid. However, in the last decade, a combination of land dispute and government funding issues resulting in the area splitting into two. The original Whakarewarewa Village where Maori Villagers still peacefully live there, welcoming visitors who prefers a more authentic experience, and Te Puia next door which becomes a cultural complex showcasing different aspects of the Maori Traditional Culture, as well as the home of The New Zealand Maori Arts and Craft Institute.
除了地热，罗托努阿的毛里文化也非常有名，因为新西兰北岛中部是毛里人囗比较集中的地区。在罗托努阿周边的毛里传统村落，有很多都会欢迎游客参观。有些是非常传统原味朴实无华的毛里村落，有些是专门让游客以最短时间感受毛里文化最精彩的部分的景点。虽然我通常对这种过于商业化的景点比较反感，可是因为在罗托努阿的时间不多，而且想让M和他外婆看一下真正的奇异鸟，我还是决定去罗托努阿最大最有名的毛里文化景点，Te Puia。Te Puia 和隔壁的Whakarewarewa本来是同一个村庄，是个历史悠久的传统毛里村落。我清楚记得小时候来过这里玩。然而，在近十年来这村庄因为土地纠纷和政府资助问题最后一分为二，Whakarewarewa仍然是一个住着普通毛里人的传统毛里村落，依然欢迎游客来参观他们的日常生活。而旁边的Te Puia变成了一个专门为游客展示毛里文化的文化中心，也是毛里传统艺术学院的所在地。
There are a number of cultural experiences that visitors can enjoy at Te Puia. We chose the Te Ra + Te Po experience, which essentially combines a day time tour and a night time cultural experience into one. The Te Ra + Te Po tour starts at 4:30pm. So we were there just past 4pm, to make sure we don't miss anything. Along the perimeter walls of the Te Puia complex, there are a range of Maori Sculpture which is of traditional design but injected with modern elements. At the foyer of the complex there is a structure which tall wooden poles forms a circle around a fountain at the centre of the foyer. On each pole there is a carving of a Maori god both on the top and on the side of the pole. In the Maori culture, there are many gods, and the who structure signifies the Maori’s legend that mankind are descendents of god's from heaven.
Te Puia 有好几种文化体验供游客选择。我们选择了日与夜体验，基本上就是白天游览团和晩间文化体验二合为一。日间体验从下午4:30pm开始，所以我们在下午四点就早早来到Te Puia, 以免错过了开始时间。在Te Puia文化中心的围墙外，可以看见很多不同的毛里雕刻。这些都是以传统的雕刻法，注入了现代艺术的元素以突显毛里文化与现代社会的融合。在文化中心入口的露天大堂，有一座以高木柱为基础的大型艺术结构，形成了一个圆围绕着大堂中心的小型水池。每根木柱顶部和侧面都雕刻着一个毛里人的神。毛里传说里有很多不同的神，而这个结构代表着在毛里传说中，人是从天而降的神明的后裔。
Our tour guide was an old man who have been living in the village since he was a kid. The first thing that he showed us was a sign with the full name of the Village: Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahio, which literally means the war dance of the war parties of Wahiao. It sounds cumbersome, but in fact, all Maori Place names are almost always named after an event associated with a famous historical figure, and the common name is usually it's shorten form.
我们日间体验的导游是个老毛里村民，他从小就在这村庄里长大。他首先带我们看的是一个写着这村庄的全名的牌。这村落的全名是Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahio，意思为”怀合奥的战士们的战舞”。这种冗长的地名在新西兰很常见，因为毛里人喜欢用他们历史里的人物事件来命名一个地方，而常用的地名都是这些全名的缩写。
The next stop was the Pohutu Geyser. The Geyser erupted every 3 - 4 hours, and it just so happens that the geyser was erupting at that time, and the guide wanted us to catch the last bit of it before it stops. And luckily, we did. Despite the wet weather which meant that the geyser was covered with thick steam, we could still make out the hot water jets that is spurting out from the geyser. Looks really beautiful with the coloured afternoon clouds as a backdrop. After Geyser, we guide us took us past a boiling mud pool, which to be honest, wasn't as spectacular as the one at Waiotapu. But apparently the mud here is full of minerals and is used by many ladies as face mask and hand cream to keep their skin looking young and smooth. The mud is also used to treat arthritis with supposedly very positive results.
看过名牌后，老导游带我们去了珀胡图喷泉。这个间歇泉每三到四个小时喷发一次，而我们去的时候刚刚好让我们抓住了尾巴。因为是下雨天，湿度很高，所以整个间歇泉都被浓厚的蒸汽覆盖着，能见度很低，可以很是隐约看到泉水喷发的景像。在橙红的晩霞底下看上去格外优美。看完喷泉，老导游带我们去看村庄里的热泥潭。这里的泥潭远没有怀奥塔普的壮观，不过他说这里的泥矿物成份很高，对皮肤病，关节炎等有很好的疗效，还可以用来制造面膜和润肤乳呢。
But we were more interested in the Kiwi House. The Kiwi House is an enclosure that is home to three Kiwi Birds. These birds are the national bird of New Zealand. They are usually brown, the size of a chicken, and can’t fly. It is like a giant kiwifruit with a yellow beak. The are nocturnal, and very sensitive to light, so no photos were allowed within the enclosure. But we did see them roaming about behind glass panels, looking fluffy and cute, searching for food. Unfortunately, due to their long and difficult breeding cycle (their egg is ¾ the size of their body), and the introduction of predators such as cats and ferrets by human, the population of kiwi birds decreased a lot, and it is very hard nowadays to see a kiwi bird in the wild.
我们还是比较对奇异鸟屋有兴趣。在这里的奇异鸟屋圈养了三只奇异鸟。这些浑身棕毛，体型像鸡，不会飞的鸟是新西兰的国鸟，看上到像个多了个尖嘴巴的大型奇异果。他们在夜间出没，害怕强光，所以我们在奇异鸟屋里不能照相，只能在巨大的玻璃窗外欣赏这几只毛绒绒的小可爱在黑暗中觅食。奇异鸟的蛋达到成年鸟体积的¾，因此奇异鸟的繁殖率非常低。再加上人类引进了像老鼠，猫等捕猎者让奇异鸟的数量锐减。现在在野外看到奇异鸟是难上加难啊！
The last stop of the Day part of the tour is the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. This place is a working institute where students are taught traditional Maori arts and crafts skills, as a way to past ancient knowledge to the generations to come. It is important as globalisation and industrialisation meant that these ancient arts has lost its original purpose, and newer generations are more attracted to modern technologies than traditional arts. In order to attract young Maori people back to their roots, the Institute offer scholarships for those who are deemed suitable. But they only select the best – only 1 student every 3 years! There are a few “departments” in the Institute, one department corresponds to one form of traditional crafts: Bone Carving, Bronze Carving, Wood Carving, and traditional textile. And as we walked down the corridor, we could see different displays of artwork that was created here. Some of the craftwork is more complex than it seems. For example, bronze craving involves multiple steps of craving the mask, making the mould, and finally use the mould for the actual bronze statue. Or like the traditional textile, where cloaks are made by sewing feather by feather using fibre made from flax plant, and premium handcrafted cloak can worth tens of thousands of dollars. Also on display were man-size wooden statues, and bags made from Kiwi feathers. It was interesting to take a peek of how traditional arts try to survive in the modern world.
日间体验的最后一站是毛里传统工艺学院。这是一个教授毛里传统艺术和手工的学院，让毛里传统得以世代流传。在继续现代化和全球化的社会中，这种传统学院是保护传统文化重要的一环。年轻的一代通常会对新数码科技或现代艺术更感兴趣，所以为了吸引更多的年轻人学习传统工艺，毛里传统工艺学院会为有才华的学生提供全额奖学金。不过他们每两三年才收一个学生，所以只有最顶尖的人才能拿到奖学金。工艺学院里有四个院系，他们分别是:骨雕，青铜雕，木雕和传统纺织。我们在学院的走廊参观，可以看到不同的工艺品在展览，也有学生在作坊里制作工艺。有些工艺品的制造方式看上去挺复杂的，例如制作青铜雕需要先制作倒模，再作铜雕; 或像酋长的羽毛衣要手工用亚麻叶做线，然后一针一线把羽毛串成羽毛衣。也是因为这么繁琐的步骤才能使上等的传统工艺品变得价值连城。一件上等的羽毛衣可以卖到几万块新币呢！我们在学院里还看见了其他特别的工艺品如像人那么高的木雕像和用奇异鸟羽毛做的包包。这个工艺学院参观的确挺有意思，让我们感受到传统文化在现代社会冲击下怎样为生存作出改变。
And that was the end of the day tour. We were lead back to the entrance where we wait for the tour to start at 6:30 pm. We waited around the souvenir shop, browsing pretty stuff while enjoying the central heating that was much more cozy than waiting outside in the cold. There are a lot of cool stuff like polished Paua shells and Opal jewelleries. There was even hand cream made with Thermal Mud. Outside, it was getting dark and the wooden statues outside the foyer was lighted up nicely. The night tour starts at the Café, but only as a shelter for visitors to sit down when they were given groups and table numbers for the upcoming dinner. The dinner is traditional Hangi, which is a Maori way of cooking where the food is wrapped up in cloth and then placed in a hole in the ground and then steamed using geothermal hot stones, and takes up to 6 hours to cook. For us, the Hangi is that is served is not entirely traditional, with modern tools such as stainless steel boxes which speeds up the cooking time down to about 1.5 hours. Sure, it may not be authentic, but it still look delicious even as it was cooking.
到这我们的日间体验就完满结束了。我们被带回入口处等待夜间体验的开始。我们在礼品店逛了一会，一边享受着暖和的空调，一边看着各式各样的精美礼品，例如新西兰有名的红木雕像，玉石，还有地热泥所制的护手霜。外面天开始黑了，露天大堂的艺术结构被夜灯所点亮，看上去挺漂亮的。夜间体验的集合地点是大堂旁边的咖啡厅，不过这只是让大家可以坐下来休息一下，而不是吃晩饭的地方。夜间体验包晩餐，而且是传统的Hangi晚餐。Hangi是毛里传统的烹饪方法，把肉，甘薯和蔬菜用湿布包着，放在一个地坑里，坑里都是地热石头，然后把木盖子盖上，靠地热把食物蒸熟。这种传统烹饪方法耗时六个小时，非常的慢。所以这里用了半传统方法，以不锈钢器皿代替木制器皿，把时间缩短到1.5小时。需然不是十分正宗，可是看上去还是不错哦！
So while we wait for our dinner to cook, we were taken to see a Maori Culture show. The culture show happens in a Marae, a traditional meeting hall that exists in every Maori Village. Outside of the Marae, there was a traditional bronze box with Maori Carvings that is usually used for storing food and the tribe’s treasures. It looks quite pretty as it was lighted up in a purple colour as the night falls. Usually, visitors needs to be invited by the Village chief before entering the Marae of a village, and the welcoming ceremony will usually happen at the lawn outside of the Marae. But because it was pouring down, we were instructed to go in and take a seat. The welcoming ceremony is called a Haka, a traditional Maori War Dance which showcases the strength and fierceness of the tribe, involving a lot of muscle slapping, eyeball bulging, and tongues sticking out. The Haka is still used today in many international sporting events such as the Rugby or the Cricket by the New Zealand National Team. After the Haka, the Village Chief would either decide that the visitors are welcomed, or not welcomed. If welcomed, the chief of the visiting tribe (here randomly selected by our guide) will go through the “Hongi”, where the chiefs’ noses touches to greet and signify friendship. After this fascinated ceremony, we were treated with a range of Maori performance, ranging from traditional weapon display to Poi dancing to Romantic Maori songs. We even got to try our hands on playing with Pois and performing the Haka! It was a really fun experience!
在食物在烹调时，我们被带到村里的Marae看传统表演。Marae是毛利村落里的聚会厅，每个村庄都会有一个，是族人聚会，开重要会议和迎接客人的地方。在这个村庄的Marae外，有个长得像个小型Marae的青铜盒子，是用来装放村里的贵重物品的地方，在蓝色的夜光下看上去十分美观。通常在进去Marae之前需要得到族长的正式邀请，可是雨越下越大，我们就直接进去Marae里，在里面举行邀请和欢迎仪式。邀请仪式就是大名鼎鼎的Haka舞, 是毛里传统战舞。这是一个展示肌肉，气势汹汹的舞蹈，有很多的拍打肌肉，瞪眼喊叫，并以伸出长长的舌头为结束。到现在，在很多国际球赛上，新西兰国家队依然会跳Haka舞来表示他们为新西兰而战。在Haka舞后，族长会以访客的反应来定夺访客是友是敌。如果访客是友，族长会与访客的族长进行Hongi欢迎仪式，以互碰鼻子来表示友善。仪式完毕后，访客就正式被欢迎成为整个村子的上等客。看完这个特别的仪式，毛里表演正式开始。表演者为我们带来一连串的传统表演，例如Poi布球舞，武器示范，还有传统歌曲。我们还上台尝试了玩Poi和跳Haka呢！真是一次非常好玩的文化体验！
Finally, it was dinner time. While the meat and vegetables were cooked in a traditional Hangi manner, it was served in a very modern buffet setting. The meat was served western style rather than Maori style: Pork with apple sauce, Chicken with stuffing, Lamb with mint sauce, and beef with gravy. There was also non Hangi cooked food, such as a salad bar, raw fish salad, steamed NZ mussels, even seafood chowder. But the best part was the Hangi cooked Kumara, a type of local sweet potato. These sweet potatoes are much smaller than the typical sweet potato, and have a texture that is closer to purple sweet potatoes - more starchy and less sweet. But the thing that made it stood out was the smoky aftertaste that came from the Hangi cooking. Absolutely delicious. There was also plenty of desserts for the sweet-toothed, such as mousse cake, soft serves, and the NZ dessert Pavlova. It was a really fulfilling dinner, leaving all of us full and satisfied.
表演完毕后就是晩饭时间了。虽然食物是以传统Hangi烹调，但上菜却以现代自助餐的形式。肉类菜肴以西式酱汁配搭:猪肉配苹果酱，羊肉配薄荷汁，鸡肉配香料，牛肉配肉汁。自助餐里还有很多没有用Hangi烹制的食物，例如蔬菜沙拉，生鱼沙拉，新西兰青口，甚至海鲜周打汤。不过最好吃还是用Hangi烹制的烤甘薯。这些甘薯不是太甜，可是甘香，吃上去还有淡淡的烟熏味，让人欲罢不能。自助餐还有很多饭后甜点，例如慕斯蛋糕，软雪糕，泡芙，还有新西兰蛋白蛋糕Pavlova，是一次非常让人满足的晩餐。
After dinner, we took a people mover back down to the Pohuto Geyser, where it was colourfully lighted up. The wet weather created lots of steam around the thermal rocks that it was very hard to see, but it felt especially mystic. It was really nice and relaxing as we were each given a cup of hot chocolate, and we sat down on a row of rocks that was warmed by the geothermal heat, and watched thick mist dancing under coloured lights. If it wasn't the heavy rain and the fact that I felt slightly uncomfortable as I was too full from the buffet, I reckon I would stay here the whole night lying on the warm rocks gazing at stars and watching the geyser.
吃饱喝足后，导游再一次带我们回到Pohutu喷泉，欣赏夜灯下的美景。潮湿的天气让我们再一次被浓雾所环绕，彩灯下的浓雾让人感觉置身仙境。我们每人拿着一杯热巧克力，坐在暖和的地热石头上，静静的欣赏喷泉的美景。如果不是在下雨，而且有点吃太饱了有点不舒服，我觉得我绝对可以在这里看一个晚上！这里的景色真是太浪漫了！
But that was the end of the tour. So we were taken back to the entrance and were shown the way out, as the main entrance was already closed. We bid goodbye to our host and walked out of the place satisfied. It had been a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. The Cultural show was fun, the geyser was spectacular and the food was delicious. While the ticket was a bit pricey, it was a pretty memorable experience. So if you are in Rotorua and want to learn a bit more about the Maori Culture and want to see the Kiwi Bird and some Geyser action, Te Puia is a good one stop shop that would let you experience all of these over limited time. Highly recommended!
可是天无不散之宴席，我们的夜间体验团到此为止。我们回到了入口，跟导游说再见，很满足地离开了。这半天过得十分愉快。传统表演还不错，晚餐很丰盛，喷泉很漂亮。虽然门票比较昂贵，还是一次让人难忘的体验。所以如果你在罗托努阿的时间不多，但又想感受毛里传统和看奇异鸟，那我们推荐你到Te Puia玩玩，绝对不会失望！
!steemitworldmap -38.1641 lat 176.2504 long Te Puia d3scr
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://stabilowl.vornix.blog/2018/08/30/travelling-with-stabilo-28-te-puia-maori-cultural-centre-%e7%bb%8f%e7%ba%ac%e6%b8%b8%e8%b8%aa-28-te-puia-%e6%af%9b%e9%87%8c%e6%96%87%e5%8c%96%e4%b8%ad%e5%bf%83-2/