Waipapa Noho Marae

One of the best experiences I’ve had so far was at the Waipapa Noho Marae event for exchange and study abroad students. It started on the 22nd of February with me walking the short 5 minute walk up to the University, more specifically to the university Marae which is a sacred Maori complex, somewhat akin to a church. There me and 70-80 other international students were nervously standing and waiting to be formally welcomed on to the Marae. But the first guy I talked to there was a Norwegian called Simen which was quite fun. Then a musical call sounded from inside the Marae and we entered into the Wharenui, the meeting house (the primary sacred area is the grass plot in the middle of the complex, and really Marae specifically refers to that though is often extended to the whole complex).

Once we were seated inside we were greeted by two speeches in Maori as well as song before a very brave brit called Will then answered the welcome and we all sang a short song in Maori. Next we were supposed to go to the Wharekai (dining hall) to “break bread” and complete the welcome onto the Marae, but as the girls get their food first and there were maybe 60 girls and 15 guy we first played a game.

After finally having our food we went back into Wharenui where we learned the basics of pronunciation in Maori which is actually super easy as it follows its very simple rules. There are 5 vowels, AEIOU which are always pronounced as their hard versions. And the only other thing is that WH is pronounced F/TH and NG is pronounced akin to the Spanish Ñ. But just remember those two rules and you can say any Maori phrase, which would be incredibly useful as we were going to sing quite a bit.

This was followed up by a Maori professor telling ancestor stories connected to the marvellous carvings on the walls of the Wharenui. Then a Haka performance by the Maori students who were taking care of us, and trying out some flax weaving. All the while being in the midst of 70 people who all were looking to connect with each other which felt wonderful after the slight social starvation I’d gone through since getting to New Zealand.

After the lunch, next on the agenda was a Maori ball game called Kī o Rahi which is something like a mix between handball and rugy, but with an inner and outer team a bit like brännboll. And it’s played on a circular pitch. The inner team’s goal is to hit the middle the blue middle “log” with a ball, which is being protected by two goal keepers. While at the same time also stopping the outer team whose goal is to get the ball and then touch as many of the poles around the edge without being tagged and before then scoring a touchdown in the middle zone around the “log”. It was a lot of fun, and quite competitive though we were very bad and there was quite a few examples of people (including me 😅) taking a tumble.

After running home for a quick shower were I also met one of my roommates Nina for the first time I returned and it was time for dinner. Or rather it was time to wait half an hour for the girls to get dinner, but we had a nice chat so not too bad. Dinner was followed by a singing session where we first sang some Maori songs, one on how to pronounce every syllable and one called Tutira mai nga Iwi. Difficult and really fun, but quite a strain on the voice as they included quite a bit of shouting for us guys. Then a QnA sessions with the Maori students which was really interesting. Finally the night was rounded off by a group of us playing cards and then a game called Toss the pig till 1 in the morning.

Next morning after a terrible nights sleep (I usually have a hard time sleeping away the first nights and here the light was on all night), we waited for breakfast, and then had breakfast. The final activity was then learning a Haka, which is a traditional Maori war dance made famous world wide by the NZ national rugby team the All Blacks performing it before all their games. It was quite difficult, especially as you feel a bit ridiculous doing it as a skinny swede. But was really fun and ended up looking not terrible, though the effect is kinda lost in the video (I’m on the far right in the beige shirt).

My thighs did not look pretty after this

All in all an absolutely amazing experience, I met so many new people, made new friend and now have a whole network of people to go on further adventures with. And the day didn’t stop with the end of the event as we that evening had a BBQ at a roof terrace in one of the other accommodations. Though unfortunately that ended early on a sour note as some people had brought alcohol which was not allowed, and we got busted. But on the whole a really fantastic way to start my experience at the University of Auckland.