Join a private day trip from Auckland to the most award-winning cultural attraction in New Zealand. Experience an evening of ceremonial rituals, powerful cultural performance, storytelling, and hangi feasting. Immerse yourself in the traditional Māori way of life during this interactive and entertaining evening experience with a sumptuous dinner.

Travel to Rotorua in a private luxury vehicle with a professional driver guide who is passionate about geothermal wonders and Māori culture. Step inside the village and be transported into another world. Experience an evening of ceremonial rituals, powerful cultural performance, storytelling, and hangi feasting.

As you travel deep into the heart of an ancient tawa forest, your guide will explain the protocol for entering a Māori village as manuhiri (visitors). From the moment you are picked up by your warm and humorous hosts, your evening experience promises to be entertaining.

Upon arrival, warriors emerge from the forest by canoe to perform the powhiri, an ancient ceremony of welcome that allows visitors’ safe passage into the village nestled within a native Tawa Forest. After a fearsome challenge by a group of warriors and the exchange of a peace offering, you will be warmly greeted and brought onto the marae (meeting house area).

Immerse yourself in the traditional Māori way of life. Witness the earth being scraped away from the hangi pit by your Māori chef to reveal baskets laden with a sumptuous, mouth-watering feast, which has been cooked beneath the ground on hot stones.

Enter the ancestral meeting house, sit back and relax, as the family entertain you. Enjoy a powerful display of cultural performance of song and dance, including the spine-tingling haka finale. Join on a celebration to feast on Māori songs, traditions, and divine seasonal cuisines within the forest village, towering Tawa trees, blazing bonfires, and forest-formed amphitheatre.

Feasting begins with forest canapes and culminates in a lavish 4-course Māori-fusion feast. Hāngi is just one of the stars in the seasonal menus designed by award-winning Māori chefs and served to table. When darkness descends and dinner concludes, wander by lantern light for dessert and a nightcap in a secret forest alcove.

Share stories some ours but especially yours inspired by a magical firelight, before returning to Auckland under a blanket of stars.