Ohinemutu

Saw these black swans while we were waiting for our tour guide to arrive.  We were going to tour Ohinemutu, a Māori village that is home to the Ngati Whakaue tribe, a sub-tribe of the Te Arawa waka which journeyed from the Pacific homeland of Hawaiiki to New Zealand around 1350 AD.  The location was chosen for its lakeside setting and abundant geothermal energy, used for cooking, bathing and heating.

I read there were signs in the village so people could do self-guided walks, but I never saw any on our tour.  I was surprised when our guide arrived because he was white, and I was expecting a Māori. The guided tours are arranged by members of the tribe and the money raised goes into upkeep of the village.  This guide was married to a Maori woman and attended the church in the village.  This building is one of the smaller meeting houses.  

Their graveyard jutted out into the lake and contained crypts because burial isn't an option on this thermally active land. The Ngāti Whakaue gifted the land on which the city of Rotorua was built, and today the historic village is still home to a few hundred descendants.  Our guide had lead us through the village and showed us the stem vents used for cooking and the buildings built around hot pools.  The whole family will bath together in the hot pools, which are owned and maintained by that family.  

So active that new vents pop up all the time.  This one, in the parking lot, had just been filled. 

This is a community steam oven.  You open a valve for steam to enter the oven.  A lady showed us the bread she had just finished baking in the oven.  Her pan was a metal coffee can. 

Steam tank for letting the pressure build.

The Anglican Church - St Faith's

There are also crypts in front of the church. 

Since our guide was a member of the church, he was allowed to unlock it and show us the interior. 

Our guide told us some of the meanings behind the windows and carvings. 

Also the meanings relayed in the wall patterns. 

Image of Jesus wearing a Māori cloak placed so that he appears to walk across the surface of Lake Rotorua

I don't remember the names of their ancestors that founded the village, but the guide told us some of the legends. 

The village is home to a magnificent traditional Māori meeting house named Tamatekapua. 

The carvings on the house are exquisite and highlighted by hundreds of inlaid shiny paua shells.

Whakaturia  = the dining hall

I saw several of these pretty trees, so I asked the guide what they were called.  The common name is Change Tree but their real name is Toona Sinensis.  The leaves are pink in the spring but turn green a they mature.