Willowbank Nature Reserve

Saturday February 9

We are both fascinated with Maori culture and language, and have been watching the Maori TV station (including a game show like "Password" and something that Barbara could have sworn was called "Pimp my Waka"). Unfortunately, we were told that the Marae near Christchurch was no longer bringing in visitors, so our best option for any sort of exposure to Maori culture (outside of the friendly Maori people we've been meeting and talking to) was a show called Ko Tane, at the Willowbrook Nature Reserve. We don't like packaged "cultural experiences" much, but they worked in Bali; and this one came with a nature walk that promised us a glimpse of real live kiwi, AND a dinner.

The show was a pleasant experience, including a mock marae, haka, and several pretty songs and dances, in which we got to participate and make fools of ourselves (Barbara couldn't catch her poi, but Holt was praised for how far he could stick his tongue out). We also got to chat with Dave, the emcee, afterward.

The dinner was very good too. It started with a selection of seafood: mussels in a soy-based sauce, a juicy rock oyster, peppered salmon fin, a prawn, and a tasty smoked fish paté. We got a bottle of Stoneleigh Savvie 2007 to start us off right. The hupa of the day was spicy tomato (yes, soup; Maori has no "s"), served with good bread and a salad bar. Everything was house-made and fresh-tasting.

As we couldn't have a real hangi (a meal steamed for hours in a pit full of hot stones), we got a lamb shank cooked in that fashion. It was tender, its flavor straightforward and meaty, served with kumara, potato and blue cheese mash. The ribeye steak was grilled, and there was about a ton of it, surrounded by roast potatoes, kumara, parsnips, and carrots.

There were desserts, including the requisite pavlova, but we skipped them to go look at the animals, including a tuatara and, in a dark enclosure, three furry soccer ball-shaped kiwis, rootling around with their long beaks. At last we have seen the national bird, and can go home content.