A pōwhiri (pronounced pōwiri in the Taranaki-Wanganui area of the western North Island) is a Māori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, singing and the hongi. A hongi is a traditional Māori greeting in New Zealand. It is done by pressing one's nose to another person at an encounter. It is used at traditional meetings among Māori people and on major ceremonies and serves a similar purpose to a formal handshake in modern western culture, and indeed a hongi is often used in conjunction with one. In the hongi the ha, or breath of life, is exchanged and intermingled.
Through the exchange of this physical greeting, one is no longer considered manuhiri (visitor) but rather tangata whenua, one of the people of the land. For the remainder of one's stay one is obliged to share in all the duties and responsibilities of the home people.
There you have it, straight from Wikipedia. Thanks to Margaret for taking me to this ceremony to welcome a new colleague into the college. It was a wonderful experience.
As for the weather (it’s really all that people in SK and the maritimes want to read about, right?)... A website reports the following for Palmerston North today:
Actual: 20.1°C
Feels like 20°C : 1 layer of clothing
Data updated 1:59pm 1 February 2011
Wind: Fresh
W31 km/h
Gust 46 km/h
It was a beautiful day to go for a run/walk and capture photos of the windmill farms on the hills surrounding Palmerston North (oops! I said I wouldn’t mention the wind today…)
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