As I was checking the weather there while writing my Made in New Zealand Plum Jam story, I found out thanks to 100% New Zealand that the Kawhia Kai Festival was around the corner.
Actually with the time difference, as I write this, event is now progress.
Here's a highight of what 100% New Zealand shared:
"In 2010 more than 2500 kono / traditional flax baskets were woven to serve up hangi portions to 10,000 hungry guests.
Waitangi Day
Locals call Kāwhia – on the North Island’s rugged west coast – "kai food heaven" because of its plentiful supplies of seafood and wild game.
The annual Kāwhia Kai Festival coincides with New Zealand’s national holiday Waitangi Day / 6 February which celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the nation's founding document.
Hangi teams
Food is cooked for the event in traditional underground ovens using super heated stones.
For 2011, hangi experts working at four Māori marae / villages plan to produce the largest hangi New Zealand has ever seen – cooking mountains of pork, chicken, beef and vegetables in a series of huge pits.
On the festival eve, teams light fires of hot-burning manuka wood to heat the cooking stones. Around dawn, the food baskets are laid in the cooking pits, layered with the hot stones and mounded with soil to allow the food to steam in its own juices."
Besides food, the festival offers Maori arts and crafts. It is smoke free and alcohol free
Happy holidays, New Zealand.
(* Illustration from 100% New Zealand media pages)