Birthday Mitai

.........after we came back from the lake and dumping our gear off we went to a place called Mitai. www.mitai.co.nz loacated at the famous Fairy/Rainbow Springs.......the doorway to the spirit world,well thats what there web site says.
Mitai is a Maori Family and they are all descendents of the local tribe of Te Arawa here in Rotorua.

Probably "THE" best Hangi and concert EVER I have been to in Rotorua (Can never be better than a whanau one down home)
The staff are awesome and we were once again treated like Rock Stars........and so were the other 115 people there that night.

ABS-SO-LUTLEY stunning as we were lead down to the srpings and Im not talking grand mountains and valleys,just the simple natural things,like looking thru the ferns and seeing water gently flowing over rocks.......well we waited..........and waited,then came the questioining glances of "What are we waiting for?"...........then abit of a whisper,a shout followed by the rythmic chant as aWAKA paddled up the stream (Very,very cool) as we followed everyone up to the concert site the last song of the Tui and the whole atmosphere of the surounding bush....... was in a word very cool. The performance was soooo diffrent from the "HOTEL" type concerts set in a kinda marquee with the performers out in the actual bush.

Heaps of youthful enthusiasm,quite young preformers and when we saw them later you could see the "kid" in them,but during the concert........very cool.
Sorry no photo's of the concert as it was too dark.guess you'll just have to go and see for yourself.

Mana sat on my knee the whole time quietly and watched with eyes wide and abit of nervous excitment.

She was constantly ducking and diving trying to see what was going on (was very happy to see her intrested in her culture,although she doesn't realise it yet) then she asked "Where do the Maori people live???"Meaning do the Maori people live in the bush......Ummm a long time ago...no thats right but not what she wants to know....ummm here.....well not here here but in this area...ummm everywhere....and now over to you Mum.

When it came to eating she proved that there was some Maori blood pumping thru her and she "munched " away quite happily.

So the general feeling was that it was well worth it Mum and Dad found it really intresting and Keiko said to me this was the first time she has had a hangi and concert in Rotorua that she really enjoyed and as I scoffed down the second (or was it third) helping of Kumera,Chicken.Pototoe's,Pumpkin,Stuffing and HEAPS of gravy I had to agree.....