New Zealand Highlights-"WILLOWBANK"

That evening CTMH whisked us all away for a very fun evening at "Willowbank" Willowbank is a wildlife reserve. A visit to New Zealand is not complete without seeing a Kiwi bird. It's a big part of the culture and life in New Zealand. So there at the reserve we learned all about the Kiwi bird and habitat as well as other wildlife in the area.

We were then entertained and was able to experience the Ko Tane Maori Culture. We discovered Tane Mahuta, the Maori God of the forrest and the people who live in harmony with nature. We experienced how the South Island Maori live. We were guided onto our Pa (village) with a powerful challenge and we were entertained with traditional dancing and learned the haka(war dance) and poi dance (swinging ball) as well as the waiata aroha(love songs).







They chose David Lynton to be the "Chief" of our group for the ceremony. So for the rest of our trip we called David "CHIEF"


Fred and the guys were challenged to learn the haka. It was hilarius. We were then escorted into where we were served a lovely buffet dinner. We sat across from Kay Pekin and her husband. We had a fantastic time socializing with them as we enjoyed our dinner.


Well that was everything for Monday. Were were exhausted at that point so we went back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep.