Maori Bling

TheJester here.
We may have accidentally OverDosed on Maori culture within the last 24 hours. We went to a hangi ( a traditional Maori dinner feast) and a hacka (warrior challenge dance with much bugged eyes and sticking-out tongues) in Rotorua yesterday.
Then today, we went to the Te Papua Museum( http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/Tepapa/), which is a bit like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, but with a much more NZ feel. Most of the captions are dual-labelled in English and Maori. About half of the museum is dedicated to Maori cultural artifacts, which are actually pretty interesting.
The museum also had a bunch of other interesting stuff. Appearantly, NZ bugs are BIG. Like BIG BIG. There was a scale in one display, and the mouse on one end was 20grams, and the bug on the other end was 70grams. Big. Bugs. Bunsteroonie would have found this hilarious. :)
They also have some really interesting parrots that live at altitude in the mountains, and can appearantly handle snow. There was an amusing diorama with a bunch of those parrots taking apart an alpine hiker's backpack and making off with his stuff.
Interesting exhibits on plate tectonics, volcanism, and forest ecosystems as well.