Marae

For the past 3 days, i went to Onuku Marae to study Maori Health (maori is the indigenous people of new zealand). Maori health is the compulsory subject in new zealand medical schools because Maori is the second largest population here, thus it is very important to understand their culture and belief when we encounter them in the future.

Onuku Marae is around 45 minutes away from Christchurch, by bus. The journey was pleasant, because of cool breeze and awesome scenary. Whenever we think of new zealand, we think of vast greenland with cows and sheeps. That's so true! Can't believe i actually saw it with my own naked eyes when the bus came out from the city centre. Feel like just jumping out of the bus and roll on the grass.

Later we reached our destination. The marae has a main hall(wharenui), a dining hall(wharekai), few toiltets and a church behind it. In front of the marae is a calm, blue sea whereas behind the marae is hilly area. So you can imagine what a beautiful place it is! Really regret for not bringing my camera along....

There are a few customs and rituals that we had to follow during our stay in marae. It's really interesting to understand a culture by immersing myself into the particular environment. Most of the time, we learned its languages, beliefs, and taboos. But the worst part was, an assessment would be conducted before we left, such a nuisance!

The food was great and abundant, they really wanna fed us well. But the annoying ulcer beneath the tip of my tongue has been forbidding me from consuming more food that i possibly could. Sigh....

The experience was really memorable, and hope i can pass my assessment, haha! Kia Ora!

This is the main hall of marae, we had most of the activities there, and all of us slept inside too. The problem of sleeping with a big gang was the thundering snoring from unidentified people (and rumour was saying it's from the dean, haha). The picture was taken from the net, as i said justnow, i didn't bring my camera, what an awful mistake!