We left early on the morning to go to Waitomo caves.
Waitomo caves is known for it's black water rafting (rafting done under ground), glow wormes and amazing cathedral like caves. Safe to say, it was too expensive, and we opted on doing the free cave experience instead. It was kind of cool and a nice day activity. I snapped some photos and did some filming.
After taking about a thousand pictures of caves and waterfalls we headed for the next one. A cultural stop where we were to sleep in a Maowi funural/wedding/celebration house.
We arrived at the place and were greeted by "Kiaora!", the Maowi word for hello. It was a lot more modern than I expected and the man and woman that greeted us was wearing simple and ordinary clothes. We were stopped at the gate and told that women always entered the small grass courtyard first. It's an old tradition. If I understood it correctly it was because women are life-givers and that the courtyard had actually seen blood. All the challenges that were brought forth were always held here, and people had died there a long time ago. The guy told us that we were not doing the traditional greeting, because it involved fighting the challenger, which wasn't a very nice way of welcoming strangers.
As we came to the door of a big building with Maowi carvings everywhere, the guy leading us told us all to take off our shoes before entering. They didn't want us to bring in the bad energy of the courtyard into a house of piece. We complied, of course, and we walked in and sat down in rows. At the front a stern-looking guy in black pants and a black shirt sat and waited.
The ambiance of the place was that of a church. I also caught a glimpse of a christian cross in the window on our way in. I was a bit confused about the whole thing until I asked the oldest "cousin" later. Apparently they do uphold their own beliefs, but in the Maowi belief-system they already had an all-powerful god. So when the Maowi became christians, they simply made all the smaller gods into "guardians" and it fit. Back to the event.
After sitting down the oldest cousin (black clothes) blessed us, himself and all of our ancestors in moawi, before talking to us again in english. He made a couple of jokes and the mood grew a lot more casual and easy-going. We then did the traditional greeting of the Moawi, the touching of noses. Now this you have to hear about.
We all stood, and all of us had to go up to the guides and the people at front, take their right hand in a handshake while holding their shoulder with our left. We then had to lean in, touch noses two times, before we walked and stood beside them, so that the next person could do it to us as well. This ment that we touched noses with all 40ish people that were with us. Safe to say there were quite a few laughs had and the mood in the room grew even lighter.
We then sat down again and the oldest cousin explained that another ritual that the Maowi had to do as well, was feed their guests. After that we were family, and were welcome to come their for the rest of our lives.
The rest of the day was spent looking at a ceremonial dance and song event, learning the hacka (not sure about the spelling but it's the wardance you can see during rugby etc), and eating a lot of food. It was awesome, even though a bit overpriced at 85 dollars per person.
Before we went to sleep the older cousin came into the big room where we were all suppose to sleep and saw my ukulele. I was in the bathroom at the time, but apperently he asked "who's the ukulele!?". Henrik, being Henrik, said "I'ts Philboy's". Somehow that stuck and for the rest of the trip a lot of the guys called me just that; Philboy.
A really nice day all in all, except the HORDES of giant bugs and shit that were outside our living space at night. The bugs were HUGE. Not even kidding.
End of day three.
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