Te Puia’s Whakarewarewa Valley, NZ (9/17/2025)

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 (continued)

Normally we could have walked from the hotel to Te Puia, but with the sore hip, we used the rental car.

Te Puia is a Māori-owned attraction featuring the
Te Whakarewarewa geothermal valley and Māori 
culture through the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts

 Institute, as well as having the Kiwi Conservation Centre

Our tour began at the Arts and Crafts Institute that
includes the National Schools of Wood Carving,
Stone and Bone Carving, and Weaving; here we
see three patu/hand weapons made from stone,
nephrite jade and whale bone

Carving on a Sperm whale tooth,
which is rare to find (KSS)

Pounamu/nephrite jade carvings

Waka huia/treasure box (2016, by Clive Fugill) is a
Agathis australis/Kauri wood carving with Haliotis sp/
Pāua/Sea Snail or Abalone shell for the eyes

Students in the School of Wood Carving workshop (KSS)

Two versions of spiral carving patterns

A type of kite made to resemble a bird, but with
a human face; perhaps this kite represents the sun
with his face facing the earth as he flies overhead

Examples from the School of Weaving

Students at the School of Weaving (and plaiting)

On the left is traditional woven Harakeke/
Flax, but on the right is a Kahu kiwi/
sacred cape made with kiwi feathers

Kete harakeke/flax basket

Of course, we were taken to the Āhua
Gallery, essentially the gift shop; this
is a hei-tiki/pendant in human form,
usually of the First Ancestress, and
costs NZ$3,5000/$2,000 (KSS)

Woven handbag, only NZ$690/$400

Piupiu-Tane/mMen's flax skirt for NZ$2,300/$1,340

Wall wood carving with woven panel (KSS)

Wall detail with spiral carving and abalone shell,
and woven panel of slats woven together in patterns

We next visited the Kiwi Conservation Centre where it was too dark for photos. I think we barely saw a male, a female, and a chick.

Next, a general view of the
Te Whakarewarewa geothermal valley
and our first view of the Pōhutu Geyser

A trek through the valley took us past a burbling mud pool

Leptospermum scoparium/Mānuka/
New Zealand Tea Tree is the source
of medicinal mānuka honey

Amphitheater benches around Pōhutu Geyser
are very warm for sitting

Pōhutu Geyser is the largest in the southern hemisphere and
erupts about 20 times per day; initially there was just steam...

...yet when it erupted, we just saw more steam

There is a boiling pot next to the river

The river-side of the geyser has build-up of silica (KSS)

Our next event was the Pōwhiri/Māori Welcoming Ceremony
where a warrior approaches showing how fierce he is; he then
lays down a small branch; we visitors chose a leader who
picked up the branch to signal that we came in peace (KSS)

We were invited to enter the meeting house, for the
haka/performance after a formal welcome speech

Poi Dance:

The haka taparahi/challenging dance of intimidation
without weapons, was performed instead of the war dance;
the performers bug out their eyes, stick out their tongues,
beat their chests, and stomp their feet (KSS)

We continued our Maori experience with a Hāngī
Buffet Lunch; the hāngī is a traditional Māori method of
cooking food in an umu/underground oven using heated
rocks, steam, and earth to create a smoky, tender, and
flavorful meal for community gatherings; the meats were
all in lidded chafing dishes, so this is the salad bar

These are the desserts, which included...

The Pavlova, a dish claimed to have been invented by both
the Australians and New Zealanders, on the occasion of
the 1920s visit of the Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova; it is a
meringue-based dessert with a soft center but crisp edge,
topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit

There was corn and watercress soup, Rēwena bread
(a sourdough bread using a fermented potato starter),
and shrimp salad, and kūmara/sweet potato

Cheese potato bake, hāngī lamb and chicken,
and pork boil-up with potato and cabbage

Prawns

View of Pōhutu Geyser from the restaurant

Waka taua/war canoe is carved from a single log; this canoe
is 19 m/60' long and can carry 30 persons, but such canoes
can be 30 m/98' long and carry 100 warriors; the Māori are
Polynesians who came to New Zealand perhaps due to
overcrowding on their home islands; navigating by stars,
currents, and wind, these explorers brought kūmara/sweet
potatoes) and other plants, developing a distinct culture over
centuries in isolation, with traditional history pointing to a
a mythical Hawaiki, the origin of all Polynesians
before dispersal among the southeastern Pacific islands

Pātaka/elevated storage house for the
safekeeping of food and cultural treasures

Whoa! ...from a distance we could see the
Pōhutu Geyser erupting up to 30 m/98'

Next: Orākei Kōrako, Wairakei Terraces, and Huka Falls.