The culprit was a little camera shy - or maybe he was just fond of camouflage. But we found him anyway. We spotted another of his friends acting all sweet and innocent.
Our leisurely morning included a walk to the Laie Temple and then down to the beach. The Temple property extends all the way down to the beach, where they used to do baptisms. We really enjoyed seeing the beach by daylight and wading in the surf as we walked along.
And this was all before the main event of the day - visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center. The PCC has 8 villages representing different Polynesian cultures. Although one of our friends (daddy) had to work that day, the other (mommy) brought their daughter and the four of us headed off to the PCC. We started out at the Samoan village, where we saw someone make fire and then demonstrate how to prepare a coconut (step one: use sharp stick, step two: use hard rock, step three: scrape out insides of coconut, step four: squeeze out coconut milk). This was followed by some monkeys (I mean boys) climbing up a coconut tree. The two little boys at the end were adorable.
Next we hopped onto one of the canoes that takes you for a tour of the PCC. Our tour guides were pretty new at their jobs - we bumped into the walls and even another canoe as we made our way through the center. By the time we left the water, we could feel the sun even through the sunscreen.
We had figured out which shows we were going to attend using the PCC's website, but the schedule had changed. Just a heads up to anyone who goes there - if you look at the schedule they hand you when you buy your tickets, you can figure out how to make it to most of the villages' shows. We did a little recalculating for our own schedule and went to the village of Hawaii just in time to watch a hula demonstration.
Next we stopped by Tonga to practice our spear throwing and to weave ourselves some fish. The guy teaching the weaving put our fish together on a stick so they looked like they were kissing. Can you tell which one he called a chicken fish?
The Rainbows of Paradise canoe parade was next. We sat along the riverbank and watched the show. The parade started with the girl in the middle tossing flowers into the water. The other six pictures (left to right, top row and then bottom row) are the canoes for Fiji, Hawaii, Tonga, Tahiti, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Samoa. Each canoe performed a dance or activity as they circled in front of use before they moved on to make way for the next group.
Our friends took off for the afternoon, leaving us to finish exploring the PCC on our own. They were picking up daddy later on to come back with them to the big evening show. Dan and went back to the village of Tonga for their show. They started with conch shells and then they called up audience members to do some drumming. The guy in the black shirt got really into it, much to the delight of his kids and wife sitting right behind us.
After Tonga we visited Aotearoa (New Zealand). This village was a little different because they started by having us wait outside to see a greeting ceremony - involving a leaf on the ground. Then we went inside and watched them demonstrate singing, poi ball twirling, and stick tossing.
Then we visited the two villages that don't have a show, the Marquesas and Rapa Nui.
We stopped by the Tahitian show on our way to our luau, sticking around just long enough to attempt some dancing. Let's just say there was a lot more laughing than dancing. Unfortunately we couldn't stick around long enough to try their coconut bread, but we still had plenty of food coming up at the luau.
Since it was a very full day we were in the secondary luau location. We were greeted with leies and shown to our seats. We were sitting by a couple on their honeymoon and a group of high school seniors celebrating their graduation. There was entertainment before and during dinner. Before we ate we watched them dig up our dinner from the pit where it was roasting. Mmmmm... Kalua pork.
And here is our dinner. Starting with the purple roll and going clockwise we ate:
Taro rolls
Chicken long rice (just a little bit is showing under the roll)
Baked taro (I'm guessing by the purple color)
Salad
Spinach salad
Lomilomi salmon
Poke (yes this is marinated raw fish)
Pineapple
Poi (boiled and pounded taro root)
Kalua pork
Fish
And teriyaki chicken in the middle
All with rice.
And for dessert (unpictured) there was huapia (a coconut custard), coconut cake and chocolate cake too.
A great day, right? But it's not over yet. We tried to go visit the IMAX theater but they were closed by the time we left the luau, so we wandered around through all the shops (I love the little frog noisemakers they had) until it was time for the Horizons show. We were entertained by dancing and singing and drumming and finally folks playing with fire. At one point three young men put out their fires by sitting on them in a comedic routine with lots of shoving, pushing, tricks and burning grass skirts. The lady in the upper right picture was one of my favorites. And the drummer.
It was fun to see how many of the performers our friends actually knew. After we met a few of them on the way out of the center, we climbed into the car and headed home to collapse, digest, and take the nightly shower. By this point I was really appreciating the value of feeling cold!
1 comment:
So cool! I wanna go!
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