Park Heritage - Maori Experience

Park Heritage - Pohutu Cultural Theatre

On Wednesday, March 2, 2005 we arrived in Rotorua and the Park Heritage Hotel. Not only was this hotel very nice to stay in, but it is also the location of the Pohutu Cultural Theatre in which we would be entertained and fed that evening.

The Park Heritage Hotel is not far from the Rotorua shopping center. In fact, a number of people walked back to the hotel from town. But it is a bit of a hike for legs already worn from shopping, so the hotel offers a free ride (shown at right) to and from a couple of convenient points in town.

The Park Heritage Hotel has over 200 rooms including standard rooms, superior rooms, deluxe rooms and bedroom suites. The only regret I have is that I should have enjoyed their pool while I had the chance. I later learned it was a rare opportunity to find the time for that sort of leisure.

Most of our APT tour group enjoyed the hospitality of the Park Heritage Hotel for two consecutive nights, but a few of our group chose to enjoy a country homestay on the evening of Thursday, March 3. Lynn and I would not have felt comfortable "imposing" on a Rotorua area family and stay with them overnight in their home. Those who did break away for the night and stay with a local family came back the next day with wonderful stories of their enjoyable time. They learned a great deal more about local culture, savored the great taste of homemade New Zealand cuisine and made new friends even if it was for a short while.

Reportedly, New Zealand families that host country homestay options do so on some sort of regular basis. While they may be paid a modest fee from the tour company, they feel they benefit from meeting interesting people from around the world and have an opportunity to share the homes in which they are so proud.

But the real treat for all of us was on the evening of Wednesday, March 2 when we were greeted in the lobby of the hotel by a Maori gentleman and led to the Pohutu Cultural Theatre at the rear of the hotel.

The doors of the theater opened to a grand room full of large round tables at the foot of a stage that spanned across the entire length of the room.


A cast of about one dozen Maori entertainers taught us a lot about Maori culture, tradition and dance including the world famous Haka; the Maori

war dance and chant.

We enjoyed the music, the language and authentic costumes as the Maori men and women put on a very entertaining show for us.

We learned of Maori legends including one of a princess that betrayed her father's efforts to keep her apart from a man she loved from another tribe.

There were also a couple of opportunities for the audience to participate in the activities. (I made sure I was busy fidgeting with my camera to avoid being selected.)

The women demonstrated games that Maori girls might play, but with complicated twists that proved they had great skills at what they did.

"Volunteers" from the audience were invited to try some of the moves only to discover that it was nearly as easy as it looked.

It's very difficult to hold a camera steady when not using a tripod.


	After the live entertainment, we were invited, table by table, to visit the buffet for

an authentic Maori feast. Fortunately, our table was among the first, so I was able to get some photographs before the food disappeared. Above are Whole Pacific Prawns.


Nearby, were South Pacific Crab.

The fish shown at left was nicely displayed. I cannot recall what kind it may have been.

Lynn and I are both "mid-westerners" and we never developed a taste for seafood (especially the kind with eyes and limbs still attached).

Although we enjoyed the experience, we filled up on salad greens for the most part and enjoyed a snack when we got back to the room.