Picking Up the Protocol

“New Zealand may be best known for adventure tourism including sky diving, bungee jumping, gliding and ‘Zorbing’ ó rolling downhill in a 10-foot-tall inflatable sphere cushioned with water.” Yet the most enriching part of Seattle Times reporter Kathy Matheson’s trip was the cultural tourism that taught her about the Maori. “Don’t be fooled: ‘Meeting’ a Maori tribe at a heritage centre can be just as intimidating as thrill-jumping off Auckland’s Skytower. What’s the proper reaction when a tattooed, spear-carrying warrior bounds out of a house, shouts something in Maori at you, makes menacing faces and throws a leaf at your feet? Think fast, because that spear is pretty sharp. My adrenaline got pumped enough by the spear-carrying Maori at the heritage centre in Rotorua who threw down the leaf. The proper reaction, by the way, is to pick it up. They’ll invite you in. Stay a while they make a mean feast.”