Day 1: 100% PURE New Zealand

Activity 1:  Go to the Tourism New Zealand website and click on the ‘Facts - New Zealand People’ tab. Read about the people of New Zealand and then choose three interesting facts to post on your blog. The facts must be written in your own words. Do not simply copy and paste the facts from the website☺.

Three interesting facts

• The Maori had sailed the seas, from Hawaiki searching for new land,soon  finding New Zealand. Maori are very similar to other polynesian cultures like Tahiti and the Cook Islands.

• One New Zealand Demigod, is Maui. Maui the Demigod is famous for many things. He had taught humans the useful arts and had pulled the sun in making the days longer, but he is mostly famous for fishing up the North Island.

• To catch the Huge Fish, now known as the North Island, he had used a hook the he had made secretly using a magical ancestral jawbone, pulling the fish up with help from his brothers.

Explanatio[Matariki]

Matariki is the new year for the maori people, matariki is also known as the 7 sister and the mother surrounding there six. Matariki is invisible until the next June. In English people call matariki pleiades.

During Matariki Maori people celebrate the Maori new years, maori dance with their friend and family when matariki When Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother, were separated by their children the god of wind, Tāwhirimātea, became angry, tearing out his eyes and hurling them into the heavens.

Matariki has two meanings, both of which refer to the cluster of stars. Mata Riki means Tiny Eyes, and Mata Ariki means Eyes of God.

Some people celebrate new years when the new moon rises and other people celebrate new year after the new moon. In Samoa it’s called matali’e.