Friday 12th September 2008

Aloha to all our readers!

Today, we went to Iolani Palace. This was the home of the last King of Hawaii. We had a guided tour and had to wear special slippers to protect the floor. When we got inside, we could see how shiny the polished wooden floor was. Everyone kind of went, 'Wow!' - and that was just the floor we were looking at. Nobody was allowed to touch anything - even the handles of the doors. We learnt a lot about Hawaiian politics and history. One really interesting fact that we were told, was how Iolani Palace had indoor plumbing (flush toilets, hot and cold running water etc..) as well as electric lights installed and a telephone system in the 1800s before Buckingham Palace and even the Whitehouse! Apparently, King Kalahau had met Thomas Edison on a trip overseas and after striking up a friendship with him, went back home and hooked up the palace!

Next stop was Bishop Museum where we had a brief tour and browsed the souvenir shop before we moved on to Laie for our second visit to Polynesian Cultural Centre. We stopped off on the way to have lunch at a local shopping centre. Some people were shocked to see a fire engine that was bright yellow instead of the usual red. Locals had a chuckle to see our kids posing in front of the fire engine as if they hadn't seen one before.

After our lunch, we went to Brigham Young University (BYU) in Laie. In front of the univesity were over seventy flagpoles flying the flags representing the culturally diverse student body. We sat in the admin building while some people had a look in the bookstore. Meinata won a prize from some student competition that was happening in the centre. It was a great experience for members of the Mormon church and was inspiring for anyone who was thinking of attending university. Meinata, Asher and Nicole all said that they wanted to attend BYU in the future. I hope that these students will remember this visit and use this memory as a tool to inspire them to achieve their best at school with the goal of returning to Hawaii to pursue a tertiary education.

We watched the canoe pageant at the Polynesian Cultural Centre before going to watch the Samoan village presentation which was very entertaining to say the least. The hosts demonstrated how to make fire with wild hibiscus wood (fau), how to climb a coconut tree in under ten seconds,how to husk and crack a coconut as well as how to make coconut cream. We went to the Fijian village where some people had a close up look at the traditional temple buildings of Fiji and the strip of 'masi' or tapa that hung from the ridgepole of the house that the gods would come down through to talk to the people. We toured all the villages and got tattoos, learnt how to do the Hawaiian hula, the Tahitian tamure, we wove fish made from coconut leaves and observed a Tongan drumming session.

After the tour, we came back to the hotel, quickly got changed and went out to dinner at Perry's (a local Waikiki Smorgy restaurant). It was a $11.50 all you can eat buffet - so as you can imagine, all the kiwis had a great time having dinner. We had a few presentations starting with Renee's birthday - we all sang Happy birthday to her and she received a couple of prezzies from the group. We stayed on even though the restaurant had closed as we had more speeches and presentations from students and supervisors. I hope that somebody left a tip for the restaurant because we were there for a good hour after they had closed. Something tells me that we shouldn't go back there tomorrow night.

Most people walked back to the hotel while a couple caught a bus and witnessed the nightlife of Waikiki. Some students went swimming before going to bed. Tomorrow is our last day - back to the Swapmeet to finish off our shopping.