We woke up to quite heavy rain. We tried to think of things to do, but struggled. We nipped in to town to have a look round some of the shops and a cafe for lunch. The gifts at the Jade Factory were excellent, and Claire finally found some replacement pink shell ear-rings after 7 years of looking! All in all we weren't very inspired so decided to have an easy day back at our motel.

We waited for our lift to our traditional Mauri hangi with Mitai but we had to call them up as we'd been forgotten! We got there just in time and had a fab evening. We were sitting with two interesting middle-aged English ladies who were great company. The evening included watching a traditional canoe landing; greeting rituals; local dances (including some very good pois) and, of course, very good food. The food is cooked by heating stones in a fire that then collapses. The food is wrapped and placed on the stones before being buried. The potatoes, kumara (sweet potatoes), chicken and lamb all tasted fantastic, being effectively smoked.

The evening finished with a night bush walk. We saw many native trees, big insects and the village spring source. The water was beautifully clear with rainbow trout and an eel. 24 million litres of water emerges every day!