(scream)
- Pearl, what are you doing here in New Zealand?
- Um, following you around. - Yeah, I guess so.
- Yes, it's true, guys.
Pearl is joining me here in New Zealand as we do
our finals days of Hello Harto Southern Hemisphere.
(singing Ah)
(energizing tribal drums and shouts with horn blowing)
- [Voiceover] We arrived in Auckland
and the road was calling.
I wanted to get a sense of the indigenous culture
of New Zealand so we headed south towards Rotorua,
but I had one challenge ahead of me.
- About to drive on the wrong side of the road
for the first time in my life.
You have to stop and wonder is this
more dangerous than flying on a plane?
Yeah, substantially, much, much riskier.
But I feel way more confident with this,
but also very, very nervous.
Observation number two, I've walked to
the wrong side of the car twice already.
(Indistinct speech) observations number three,
where's the emergency break, oh, it's here.
This is gonna be weird no matter what.
(happy flute playing)
Guys, the turn signals are on opposite sides.
(gasp)
This is where the window wipers are?
(sorrowful sigh)
I'll be like I'm signalling.
Adjusting gears with the left, totally different.
(incredulous laugh)
Every time!
Stands for, ugh, god damn this.
I think that I will just maintain this
white-knuckled grip until we get there.
(happy flute playing)
I started to get the hang of driving and
safely got us to New Zealand's beautiful countryside.
(happy flute playing)
Well, guys, we're about to go have an authentic Māori
experience at the local Tamaki Māori Village Center.
Ooooo!
The Māori are considered the indigenous
people of New Zealand.
They settled here in the 13th Century
from the Polynesian Islands.
(mournful horns blowing and birds tweeting)
Here we are at the - [Voiceover] Hey!
- Tamaki Māori Village - [Voiceover] Hey!
- Experience getting ready to - [Voiceover] Hey, Hum!
- experience the village. - [Voiceover] Hey, Howi!
- Seems so far so good.
We walked around to the different sections of the village
where they had various demonstrations
of cultural items and games.
- Go, go, go, go, yes, dad, go.
- It's quite the workout.
So what they were saying earlier is that they did this
in water and the goal was to make as small a splash
as possible, like each of your feet was a diver.
I don't know how that could be possible.
- [Voiceover] One of the more obvious traditions
that the Māori have is facial tattooing.
I asked one of the men about it.
- Can I ask you about your face?
- Sure.
- Yeah, so I heard that the males can get it all over,
all over their faces.
Is there any specific system of ranking
or stuff you have to earn to?
- Yes. - Yes
- It can even come way of showing
what you have done in your lifetime.
- Oh! - So below your eyelids
you have the physical realm, what you're good at,
what you can touch, feel, and everything like that.
That's what you put on the lower half.
The upper half is dedicated to the knowledge
that you have within your brain.
- [Voiceover] Mm. - So whatever you, it's like
when you did the hongi you would've seen
the hongi out there, your pressing of the nose is that
ha, the breath of life that you share.
When you go through your passage,
your nose is the first thing to get done.
- [Voiceover] Mm. - That gives you life.
From that you work your way on the physical realm.
Then you go onto the future realm which is on your head
and all the knowledge that goes into your head.
When you do the hongi with your head,
you're actually passing knowledge across. - [Voiceover] Mm.
- There you're passing breath
and then you're passing knowledge
and then that's how you showcase how high ranking you are.
If you don't really have anything on your head,
you're not really knowledgeable,
but you are very good at the physical realm
whether that be fighting or in this day and age,
rugby (indistinct speech) all types of things like that.
- Great, thanks so much.
- You're welcome, you're welcome.
(people calling out)
- We then entered the Māori meeting house
where they performed some of their
traditional song and dance.
(driving drum beat)
- They ended with the powerful haka which is
a ceremonial dance used for war or other special events.
- HAKA!
- [Audience] HAKA!
(Māori language shouts)
- [Voiceover] Very intimidating, that's very intimidating.
I can see why the All Blacks always do it.
That's New Zealand's rugby team.
Wow, that's scary.
- [Voiceover] As we left the Māori meeting house,
I remembered wondering about the symbolic nature of
the fern in New Zealand so I
asked this gentleman about it.
- Silver fern, we have piko piko.
We have food that grows out of there.
When Māori first came to New Zealand, that was the first.
There was a main food source was bush pepper.
- [Voiceover] Mm. - [Voiceover] The bush pepper.
And this was a main food source for a little while,
talking about New Zealand (indistinct speech) or kiwis,
that holds a huge significance to Māori.
One side is green which represents nature
or the natives, if you will.
The other side being silver or white, if you will,
representing the Europeans so the actual leaf
represents both sides coming together
- [Voiceover] Come together.
and then our native's on everything with a silver fern
on it and the background's the black.
That's the different, the two toned
colors or people coming together.
- [Voiceover] Great, thank you so much.
- You're most welcome.
- [Voiceover] Absolutely, thank you so much.
- That's alright.
- And you take all this in and what's to be gained from it?
That there's absolutely something to be gained in
what can be remembered and
what can be written for the future.
There's always a lesson in terms of how to
treat each other and how to appreciate where
you've come from and how to be proud
of yourself even when others might not see it.
Really just a lot of respect, yeah.
(airy circular tones)
- [Voiceover] Next time our travels take us to yet
another world within New Zealand, the land of Middle Earth.
(proud orchestral horns blowing)