As part of our Te Reo course (part two, part one doesn't exist) our class had a weekend stay at a Marae by Rotoiti. I was expecting a crescendo of snoring during the night because 3 classes combined came to about 40 people, but I was pleasantly surprised to have a pretty good moe both nights. Some of our class weren't so lucky. I think the communal sleeping might have thrown them a bit.
The first night we were all a bit nervous because we had to give our pepeha and whakapapa infront of the elders. After a lot of kai we all rocked the pepeha. Then we got into moenga to waiata:
The next day I had to skip off to Bunnings for a Hockey fundraising sausage sizzle, but made it back in time for the highlight of the weekend, which was having a hoe in a Tangata Waka:
We spent some time on the shore practicing our strokes and chants, which looked awesome when we were all in time, but was pretty tiring, so by the time we got on the waka I was having trouble holding my paddle up.
We were quite a sight from the shore and everyone came out of their whare to have a titiro at us. It was MAKARIRI out on the roto though, and when we got back to shore my waewae and ringaringa were like tio. Ka pai day though!
We warmed up over a huge kai. Then we sat around feeling momona and being serenaded by some lively rangatahi, which put our own waiata to shame.
We were all pouri to leave (except Gail, who was looking forward to a good night's moe). Lots of fun, lots of food, and lots of ngakau nui people!
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