New Zealand – No Laughing or Smiling

We hopped off the bus and arrived in the Maori village. Our bus driver told us who our chief was and we went to the front. There were three buses so three Chiefs. Our chiefs’ name was Morris.

Cairo our bus driver told us “no smiling, laughing, or don’t poke your tongues out, even if they do it to you!” Suddenly out of nowhere, charged about 15 Maoris doing The Haka, they had wide eyes and they were smacking their elbows and thighs and poking their tongues out like this 😝

The Maori were actually very friendly and showed us around their village and all the things they used to do. The women used to have a little plastic ball on the end of a string and practiced tricks and patterns. Another activity was weaving with a type of waterproof leaf and they layered it on top of their roof and then no water could get into their huts. Also they had different patterns on their faces with tattoos but they used to use a dagger or a knife to cut off all the skin on their faces and use a pin to inject ink into their faces and then put ashes on top of it, so the ink wouldn’t spread.

They used to cook their food underground because it was like an oven and that’s how they cooked everything for our dinner which was a feast.