Onwards to day four! (Because if I don't write these I'll never come back to the present mkay)
We woke up early in the morning and went for our breakfast. Soon enough we were on the bus and headed for Hells gate, a park full of volcanic activity, mudbaths and a spa (we weren't on time though since we were all on "Twinkle-time", approx 30-45 min late). Upon arrival me and Henrik came to the conclusion that it was far to expensive and that we'd rather take a free walk in town and look at shit there. And look at shit we did.
After the smelly hot things (yeah), we went to McDonalds to eat some more smelly hot things (burgers). I tried to blog but I used up the bandwidth which sucks.
After McDonalds we said goodbye to a few people, before we went to our next Maowri experience. This one was also a lot more modern then expected and it was almost like a western little motel. That being said, it was probably one of the better stops on the entire trip and I really enjoyed both the day and the evening a lot. Before we got there though, we picked up an older gentleman who told us about their tribe, what they belived in and what they were fighting for. He showed us some rock art and told us about the eels they were trying to save in the river. Eels that has been a big part of their tribe for many generations and that now was threatened by the power companies.
We coninued to the place where we were sleeping and it was situated near a lake (Aniwhenua?). The place was quite simple but also beautiful. Upon arrival the owners cooked food the traditional way by lowering it down into a hole filled with hot stones they had collected from the bottom of the river. To kill the time we played volleyball, which was really fun since just about everyone really, really sucked.
The food was AMAZING. I ate far too much and I was stuffed for the remainder of the evening. After dinner and everything it was quite late already, so we sat down with two older gentlemen who told us stories about family and older ones about the tribe. They looked quite western, but they said that they choose to follow the old ways of the Maowri because they felt more Maowri then western.
During the day Martijn, a dutch guy, started calling me T-bag because I apperently looked like T-bag from Prison break. I don't agree, and a lot of people didn't either, but I guess some thought it sounded fun so I have one more nickname in the bank it seems.
I've been learning some dutch as well. It's a funny language. A lot of throaty sounds. A mixture between swedish, frensh and german as me and Henrik use to say.
I guess that was that for that day. I really need to blogg faster so I can start writing about things happening right now, but wifi has proven to be a most unreliable thing, even though I payed for it at two occasions.
End of day four.
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