Saturday, July 14, 2007

Friday 13th July 2007


Yesterday, we heard that a local radio station was dropping thousands of balloons over Cathedral Square - some containing money and tickets for tomorrows All Blacks vs South Africa Rugby match (which is here in Christchurch), so of course - we headed over to grab-the-cash! Unfortunately, the place was packed - thousands of people had the same idea (don't these people have jobs?) and so all we came away with was a free newspaper.

Seeing as we were already in the centre, and the sun was shining, we decided we'd take a walk through the Botanic Gardens. Afterwards we went into the Christchurch Museum for about an hour-or-so, and then went to Tourist Information to see what else we could do.

At about 5.30pm this evening, we got picked up and were taken to a place called Willowbank Wildlife Reserve - where we'd booked to see a Maori experience called Kotãne. We had a really good time. We were taught all about Maori history, and were walked through a forest to a village, where I took part in a Haka and Nikki took part in a Poi Dance.

Afterwards, we were taken to a restaurant where we ate a traditional New Zealand / Maori dinner (Hangi) and then were given a tour of the wildlife reserve, where we saw Kiwi and other native New Zealand birds.

A Haka with the Maori - i'm an All Black now!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not so long ago Maori used to be cannibals, I assume you managed to escape un-eaten?

Glad you had chance to have a Hangi, they're awesome!