Day Three: Aotearoa!!!!

Day three saw us trekking up to the northern part of Oahu to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. Kinda like a 'moving museum' showcasing Polynesian culture from Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Marquesas, Tonga and Aotearoa - otherwise known as New Zealand.

Our tour guide was this freshy Singaporean chick named Christina - so we were guaranteed an authentic polynesian experience (LOL). She was incredibly annoying at first, but after a while you get used to her. I mean, she knew her stuff but I was kinda peeved not getting a real polynesian person who called us 'Cuz' or the group 'Family'. There was a tour guide chick there that looked like Paulini from Australian Idol - come to think of it, they all did. LOL.

Christina, along with pretty much everyone else who worked there were all students at the Mormon University next door. All proceeds (Or I guess most of it) went towards the university and perhaps the students tuition. Good idea. Entry for us was $US125 per person, so it is quite a substantial contribution. For that price I also EXPECT a happy ending. HAHAHAHA

Anyway, by the end of the day I learnt a hell of a lot and ended up getting a new found respect for Polynesian culture. I also found that a lot of Polynesians knew how to speak Tagalog - the musician over at Hawaii treated us to a tagalog song and the incredibly funny Fire Dancer from Samoa knew his Tagalog as well. Actually, that's one of the most awesome things about Hawaii, in that it's such a melting pot of cool cultures. While it is Polynesian at heart, they have learnt to embrace other influences into its culture - from Filipino, Japanese, Korean and "Paniolo" (Spanish/Latin).

Getting off track but yeah, Polynesian Cultural Centre is way cool. The Luau was awesome, the food was great (esp the purple bread rolls), people were friendly, I "nosed kissed" this obese lady who just ate Garlic ("Hello!") and the Night show was entertaining and we learnt a lot. Best of all, we all got Lei'd.

Awesome.