This beautiful turquoise lake is actually a large thermal pool in the Whakarewarewa Thermal Village, or Whaka Village for short. This village is a traditional Maori village turned tourist attraction to educate people on the history and culture of the Maori people near Rotorua, New Zealand.
Cory and I visited this village while in Rotorua looking for new wildlife and before we went Zorbing, which was strangely very fun. The name of the Whaka Village always makes me think of Fozzy the Bear from the muppets. Our tour guide, explained to us that the name of the village was actually much longer.........
And that the WH in the native Maori language is pronounced more like a PH or an F, but as the Maori began to understand the English language better post colonization, they decided it was probably be best to not be known as the as the Phaka people. They settled for Whaka.
The Whaka village is still inhabited by Native Maori and with the addition of some modern conveniences, they still live pretty traditionally here. The village is built on top of one of New Zealand's largest geothermal areas. In fact it was explained to us that Rotorua, much like Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA, is really sitting on a massive volcano. The entire Whaka village is riddled with thermal pools, mud volcanos, fumaroles and geysers.
Our tour guide explained to us that the volcanos and geothermal hotspots all around the "Pacific Ring of Fire", and really all over the world, truly are connected. He explained to us that when Kilauea in Hawaii erupted in 2018 the geothermal pools receded 2 feet, and when Stromboli in Italy erupted in 2019 the pools receded 5-6 feet. Also our tour guide was really proud of the Whaka village geyser which he explained is more faithful than Old Faithful in Yellowstone NP, USA. He went onto explain that their geyser erupted every 10-15 minutes while Old Faithful took an average of 1.5 hours between eruptions.
The Whaka people have made the best of things though. Like many Polynesian cultures, Maori traditions and mythologies are centered on the natural environment including volcanoes and geothermal pools. This village has roughly 80 tekoteko carvings all around it, including on islands in geothermal lakes. Tekoteko carvings are representative carvings that are meant to capture the essence or spirit of Maori ancestors and are meant to be reminders of those who came before.
The Whaka people take advantage of local Pounamu (greenstone) deposits, which they carve into beautiful statuary, icons or pendants for personal use, to trade or barter and to sell. Cory bought me this one after the artisan had finished carving it. The symbolism here, I would find is common amongst many Polynesian cultures, including Hawaii. Both Maori and Native Hawaiians see a little of themselves in the Disney movie of Moana. In fact in both Auckland, New Zealand and Hawaii, there were sections of various museums showcasing parallels between the movie and Polynesian culture.
Of course the Whaka people use the thermal pools and mud volcanoes for restorative baths and mud baths, they know which pools are safe to use for these activities and which will melt flesh off the bone. Our tour guide told us that the geothermal pools are great for clearing up the respiratory system, to include allergies, COPD and general illnesses. Of course our tour guide also told of a local folk story where, a woman distraught by the fact that her husband left her for another woman, threw her self into the hottest of the geothermal pools in the village and not a trace was seen of her ever again. They also use the pools to do laundry and they have created trenches, like plumbing or aqueducts to move water from a pool to man made pits to create baths and laundry areas with varying heat.
Perhaps, though, the coolest thing the Whaka people use the geothermal pools and fumeroles for is, for the preparation and cooking of food. The Whaka people have identified the fumaroles and pools varying temperatures and know which ones are good to use with different types of foods, from hangi (meat) pies, to corn on the cob to whole chickens and roasts. While in the village, we were treated to a plate of meat pies, corn on the cob and cakes, all cooked in specially made boxes around a fumarole or boiled in a deep thermal pool.
We had a lot of fun in this village, the food was great, our tour guide was very happy to be showing off his home, and the villagers were very friendly. (In fact Cory spent an hour or so talking to a local villager discussing history, mythology and culture. This guy wasn't even in a shop or anything, just sitting on his porch and struck up a conversation.) Finally, it probably wouldn't have been a true Maori village experience without a presentation of traditional Maori dances, including the Haka, war dance, during which enlarging your eyes and sticking out your tongue, to appear as intimidating or as crazy as possible is half the point.
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