One of the ladies retorted: "But we Maori do like it hot, and the more sun the better."
She told the ancient Maori legend of Maui and shared how Maui trapped the sun with a rope net and beat it up, so that it has to limp across the sky, resulting in more sun hours in the summer months.
Well, the Chinese have a different legend, which talks of a time when there were 10 suns in the sky. The heat made life on Earth unbearable and an archer armed with a magic bow was sent to frighten them into appearing one at a time. But when they wouldn't listen, he shot down nine of them, leaving only the one sun we have now.
"This probably explained why when the sun is up, when you find someone all wrapped up complete with gloves, hats and an umbrella, it'd most likely be an Asian," the other Maori lady said with a laugh. "Kiwis would do the opposite and start stripping down."
I joked that it was because the Chinese loved the moon more than the sun, celebrate the Moon Festival and follow the lunar calendar, that helped account for our lower rate of skin cancer.
We talked about how different perspectives of life and lifestyles can be between those born overseas and New Zealanders and, with immigration, how well placed New Zealand society was to accommodate these differences.
Going by the assessment of these two Maori ladies, there is still a way to go yet before New Zealand can truly embrace diversity.
Rotorua is the tourism hub of the North Island, said one of them, so locals there do get to meet and mingle with people of various nationalities and ethnicities.
But even then, one of the ladies said, it wasn't until she took on Asian homestay students and working holiday-makers that she realised there were more kinds of Asians than there were choices at her local Chinese takeaway.
Kiwis living in rural New Zealand would very likely not get the opportunity to have the same level of interaction with Asians as this Maori woman. And even with the good mix of ethnicities Rotorua sees everyday, the ladies said a common question they faced when they talked about their Asian homestays was how well assimilated they were with New Zealand society. This, they said, was a reflection of how being different was, by and large, still being frowned upon.
I mentioned a letter responding to an earlier column I wrote claiming "immigrants should bring their culture with them, but forget their race and become a New Zealander". And how that also revealed an inability of that correspondent to truly accept different races in our midst.
"It's funny how Pakeha conveniently didn't talk about forgetting their race or assimilation with Maori when they first got to Aotearoa, when we had only Maori here," one of the ladies quipped.
Funny also how, when it comes to immigration and integration, New Zealanders seem to have one set of rules for Kiwis and another for immigrants.
When an immigrant does well here and decides to return to his country of origin, his allegiance is questioned and he is condemned for using New Zealand for his own selfish ends.
But with a Kiwi who does the same overseas, a la John Key, who made his millions in the United States before returning home, well, he didn't use that country - he has done this country proud.
In a recent survey, 53 per cent of Kiwis said they were considering moving overseas to live and work. When Kiwis stick together overseas and congregate to cheer for the All Blacks, they are loyal New Zealanders.
But immigrants who do the same, cheering for a sports team from their country of origin, will be accused of being unable to integrate.
My exchange with the two Maori ladies ranks among the top things I have done in Rotorua.
By talking about our differences, I found out that there is so much we can still learn about each other and also discovered some of the things we shared in common.
Pity we don't have public foot-pools in Auckland. How about constructing some when you're done with Eden Park, Mayor Banks?
