June 9/ Second day + Cultural Experiences

On the second day of the trip, we got to go on a duck tour.  A "duck" is an old war machine that they used back in the 1940s.  They now us it for tours (obviously).  Our guide took us all over the place and he explained the history behind everything.  He took us on two lakes.  One of the lakes, he told us about a ghost story.  The other lake, he actually told us about a different lake called the green lake, which is believed to be haunted. 

After the duck tour, we visited the Maori village called Whaka.  The actually name was about 37 letters long (still can't say it).  Our guide explained everything about the culture.  He took us through a normal day in the village.  It was cool that the people in the village use natural resources for pretty much everything.  A big energy source was all of the steam.  They use it for everything from bathing to cooking food.  He explained to us some of the Maori's beliefs and it was very intresting.  He also made some Lord of the Rings references which really made me smile :)

The last thing we did was go to a hangi dinner.  The food was great, I tried so many different things.  Not only was the food great but the singing/dancing was great too.  The performers did a very good job.  They made everything look so easy!!  They made some of the girls go up on stage and try these rope things.  They couldn't really do it but "A" for effort.  They also made some of the boys go up and try the haka.  The haka is a war dance thats really scary when done right.  It was really funny watching all the people (who didn't know how to do it) try to be intimidating.