We arrived in Tauranga, New Zealand on Valentine’s Day. While most people might have opted to head inland to Rotorua, we stuck to Tauranga and did an excursion that focused on the Māori culture. Or at least that was the intent. Rather than focus heavily on the Māori culture from a historical, mythological, or religions perspective, it more focused on a single welcoming ceremony that occurs when you visit their marae. A marae is a meeting ground that serves as the focal point of a Māori community. Typically including ornately carved buildings within a complex that belongs to a particular iwi (tribe), hapu (sub-tribe) or whanau (family), the marae is a place of belongingness for its members. The maraes host many events, including funerals, social gatherings, celebrations, meetings, and educational workshops.

To prepare us to visit the marae, we first went to a Māori high school.

At the school, we participated in our first of the two welcoming ceremonies. This occurred as follows. First, because we were coming in peace, the women and our appointed Chief (a guy named Mark) were at the front of the group. Three ‘warriors’ (male students dressed in traditional Maori attire) came out of the school, grunting and waving their weapons around in what was meant to be an intimidating manner, complete with menacing facial expressions. One of the warriors placed a ‘peace offering’ on the ground (a small twig/leaf) and Mark picked it up. At this point it was determined that we came in peace, so a girl sang a song to essentially welcome us into the school. At this point, the men sat in the front while the women sat in the back as a sign of respect (and because if things turned bad during the events the men would be expected to protect the women). We sang a song in Māori and Mark thanked the students for inviting us into their school.

At this point, the students performed several dances and activities for us. There were a dozen students, and it struck us that they were basically like the choir/theater group back home, getting out of class to perform for us.

One of the activities they did was a game where they all threw some sticks around with the goal of not letting any of them fall on the ground. So each person had two sticks and they had to coordinate when they threw them so that they could keep them in the air (like juggling, kinda) without hitting each other.

While performing a haka (a ceremonial dance) they would create the most menacing facial expressions. There were several girls who had the sweetest expressions and then would all of a sudden have these crazed expressions with eyes glaring while they shouted. It was wild.

After they performed, they invited audience members to try it out. John and I participated, following (quite poorly) their moves and trying to chant like they did. The boys watched us and mostly laughed at our feeble attempts.

A photo opportunity after the dancing allowed us a chance to talk to some of the students. Here we are trying to recreate the menacing face.

And here’s John recreating another common look – the ‘stick out your tongue’ face:

And here we are with some of the students. What I’d like to point out is that the boys in the picture are the same age as Matthew – 14 – and several had tattoos. In fact, one had his entire butt tattooed with Māori tribal patterns. We let Matthew know that, no, he was not allowed to get a tattoo at this age!

After our visit to the school, we went to the marae. Here we recreated the welcoming ceremony once again, complete with the warrior approaching us, dropping the peace offering, and Mark picking it up. Again, women were in front when we arrived and then moved to the back during the talks. And again we sung the song in Māori (our guide would sing a verse and we’d repeat it, for about 7 verses).  

This time, rather than watching a performance, we listened to a short talk that welcomed us to the marae and informed us that the ceremony was not a show but rather something that was real. The guy ‘released’ us to get a snack and drink in a nearby building (and shop for souvenirs, of course) after which we went into the actual meeting house for another short presentation.

Inside the meeting house, we were not allowed to take photos, but wish we could have. The walls were adorned with carvings that told the stories of the families who call the marae home. The carvings were done by regular people – not professional artists or craftsmen – yet looked as if they were professionally done. Tongues were out, eyes made of abalone, and different expressions on each face. While seated in the meeting house (which was a no-shoes area as well as no-cameras), we were taught about Maori weapons and clothing, as well as what a welcoming ceremony might have looked like centuries ago with warriors scouting out the chief of the visiting tribe and assessing the threat factor. It was quite interesting.

After this, the excursion came to an end, and we headed back to the ship. We all agreed that the day was good, though there was more standing around and “down time” than we might have wanted, particularly at the marae. Nevertheless, it made for a memorable day in New Zealand.

Oh! And as I mentioned, it was Valentine’s Day… and John is the best, so I have to share the gift he gave me for Valentine’s Day: A kiwi necklace he picked up for me when we were in Bay of Islands. I had no clue! 😊