Kaye and Eric's Hawaii Vacation

KAYE AND ERIC'S HAWAII VACATION

Wednesday - we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.
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We spent the entire day on this trip. This is the view out of the tourbus window on the way to PCC. Everything was lush and green. It took us an hour to get to the other side of Oahu from Waikiki on a long twisty road. I'm glad I don't get car sick!

Tree-Climber This is the first village we stopped at - Samoa. There is a guy climbing the coconut tree above the man on stage. It took him just a few seconds to zip up the tree! The huts in the background are an example of the original houses on Samoa. The top picture is dark because it was a little cloudy at the time. The bottom picture is from the PCC brochure.

Kaye and the Samoan. He was quite funny during his presentation on how to open a coconut. It only took him a few quick hits with a rock and the coconut popped open! The birds on the stage are eating the coconut pieces that fell. This guy twirled fire sticks in the hula show at night. He was amazing. I kept waiting for him to set his um... grASS on fire!

Second Stop: Aotearoa- Land of the Maori
These are examples of the interior architecture and design of an Aotearoan (New Zealand) longhouse. It was really intricately done. It was really nice because it was cool and dark in there! After the hot Hawaiian sun, it was a welcome relief. Aotearoan Architecture

Above: Maori greeting ceremony.
Gotta love tattoed men in skirts! :-)

Maori Dancers

Maori dancers. They are very fond of sticking their tongues out. It made them scarier! Their dancing seemed very violent too. Here they are twirling poi balls. (The white things in their hands.)

In the middle of the day, there was a floating parade of dancing, singing and fighting (choreographed).
The river ran all the way through the place.

After the boat parade, we went to Tonga. Here's Eric with a Tonganese drummer. They drum so hard and loud that you can feel the sound waves hitting your chest. It was awesome in the truest sense of the word.

Eric again, behind the big drums.

This Tonganese woman is making flower leis out of some beautiful orchids. The scent was incredible - so strong you could almost taste the flowers!

This is the traditional wedding dress for Tonga. This Polynesian princess was very nice and talked to us for about 10 minutes. It was really nice to see large women walking around everywhere too. About 35-40% of the entertainers at PCC were large people and they were treated the same as every other performer was. It would never happen like that in California...

After walking around for a while, we took a canoe ride around the river. The boat guides delighted in waiting until the very last second to duck down under the low bridges. I kept waiting for them to get knocked into the river! The river guide dropped us near the restaurant, so we had an early buffet dinner. The food was mediocre, but we were pretty tired by then, so we didn't really care...

After the so-so buffet dinner, we enjoyed an excellent hula show with dances from each of the different islands represented by PCC. There were singers and musicians too.

What hula show would be complete without fire?

There had to be 50-100 performers on stage in this show...

Here are the fire walkers. They wore grass skirts and put out the fire by sitting on it. These guys were insane, but really fun to watch.

Here are the fire twirlers.
Hula Show - Fire Twirler

After the show, we boarded the bus for the return trip to Waikiki.
Practically everyone on the bus fell asleep on the way back.
It was a long day in paradise...

The fun continues...
THURSDAY
FRIDAY 1
FRIDAY 2
SATURDAY 1
SATURDAY 2
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Monday
Tuesday