Rotorua menu blends Maori hangi, haka, Swoop and Zorb. Eat, play, love, New Zealand

November 2, 11:07 PMSF Culinary Travel ExaminerWanda Hennig

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Green-lipped mussels, above, and warrior pose, below. Pics: Te Puia

Check out the hangi-haka video and see the action-Rotorua slideshow at the end of this story.

Lunchtime in Rotorua, New Zealand, and we’re eating our meal of green-lipped mussels, prawns and corn cooked in the geothermal waters of Ngararatuatara — “the lizard”— at Te Puia, New Zealand’s Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. (Read about Te Puia and see a slideshow here and read about our Ngararatuatara lunch and see a video here.)

Te Puia was set up by legislation in 1963 to foster Maori arts, crafts, culture and traditions. It’s a training center for weaving, carving and “kapa haka,” Maori performing arts. Visitors to Te Puia learn about Maori heritage in the Te Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley, which spouts, hisses, bubbles and gurgles with hot springs, mud pools and the famed Pohutu geyser.

Visitors who participate in the night-time cultural experience at Te Puia get served a hangi dinner, the famed Maori meal cooked in a hole in the ground.

Our group of journalists was flying in the evening from Rotorua to Christchurch on South Island and the hangi wasn't on our agenda, so I asked Te Taru White, Te Puia’s chief executive officer, to explain it.

Hear him on the video below, where you’ll also see some of Te Puia’s cultural warriors perform the haka, traditionally a Maori war dance. If you’ve ever seen the haka performed by the New Zealand rugby team (the All Blacks) before a game (they always do it, facing the opposing team square on, before kick-off at international tournaments), you’ll know how rousing — and intimidating — it can be. Read about the haka on the All Blacks site here.

To quote Te Taru White on the hangi: “ ... traditionally, it’s likened to the way the Pacific Island people prepare their food. In the ground, under leaves, covered over with soil. The heat of the rocks cooks the food.

“Our people, when they came here, discovered this (he points to Ngararatuatara) geothermal (pool). For the people of this particular valley, it made sense to use this for cooking instead of digging holes in the ground and burying the food.

“We do the hangi here as well. But our people were wise. They took the best resources — the ones that benefited them most.”

But when you go away from Te Puia and valley, he added, “around the rest of Rotorua where they don’t have this (geothermal) feature, they’ll cook the hangi in the ground. (They) heat the stones, cool the stones, put the food on top, cover it over quickly with leaves, etcetera, and in about two to three hours it’s cooked. They can cook meats, potatoes, all the vegetables you like, seafoods — you name it, they can cook it.”

Three Maori “H” words to know:

Hangi— The meal cooked over heated stones in a pit dug in the ground. Similar to the Hawaiian lu'au (pit cooking) where the meat (often the k?lua pig) is slow roasted over hot stones in an underground pit.

Haka — The war dance.

Hongi — The Maori ceremonial greeting. No air kisses, cheek kisses or lip contact. You gently press noses. This symbolizes friendship and unity. (Pictured below, right. Pic: Te Puia.)

We whet our appetites for our Te Puia lunchtime visit with some of Rotorua’s adventure attractions. (Rotorua city markets itself as the adventure hub of New Zealand.)

The funnest was the Zorb, where you sort of dive through (and get pushed into when you don’t make it all the way) an entrance hole that leads into a giant inflated ball. There’s a good sloshing of with warm water inside. You get zippered in with the water. Then you get pushed from the outside, and use your weight to push from the inside, until you’re rolling and zig-zagging down the side of of a hill, being flung every-which-way inside. Crazy? Yes. Funny? Pretty hilarious. See pictures in the slideshow.

Rotorua’s Agroventures specializes in what I came to think of, in New Zealand, as passive-extreme thrills. This applies to many of the do-if-you-dare options, including bungy jumping. You just show up, give yourself over, get tied in (or otherwise secured), and you’re off. No expertise needed. No training required. All equipment provided. Best not to throw up, so eat a small breakfast and go before lunch.

One thing that required some physical activity at Agroventures was the Shweeb, a capsule attached to an overhead track where you actually pedal, raise the heart rate and a sweat, and compete, singles or doubles, with an opposing team. The Swoop, a more passive thrill, involved being secured in what reminded me of a sleeping bag (three of us Swooped together, in three joined sleeping bags). You get hoisted 130 feet (40 meters) into the air, one of you pulls a ripcord, and you — swoop (and scream and laugh at yourself for screaming). A couple of us also did what they call Freefall Xtreme. Here, you’re suspended and you “fly,” held aloft by 110 mph winds (180 kph) hitting you from below (and two assistants who throw you about). You also get drool all over your chin — rather gross — I discovered on landing.

© Story and photos: Wanda Hennig. Video: Wanda Hennig

Check out: Extremely hot Maori lunch (1) (with slideshow)

Check out: Extremely hot Maori lunch (2) (with video)

For more info: Te Puia; Rotorua; Rotorua accommodation: Novotel Lakeside; getting to New Zealand; hot mineral bathing and spa therapies in Rotorua. Read about Tiger Moth flights to freedom and romance in New Zealand here. Read about the Matchmaking Flight to New Zealand here. Sign up for e-mail notification of my culinary travel postings next to my bio.