Thursday, March 19, 2009

Pasifika Festival - 14 March 2009

Is it possible to visit all Islands in South Pacific in a day? Guess what, I did that by attending 17th Pasifika Festival held in Western Springs Park recently. It was reported that, 300,000 people attended the event and it was recorded as one of the largest free community events in the South Pacific.

The event featured ten cultural 'villages', one for each Pacific nation, and I had visited Fiji, Cook Island, Niue, Samoa, Tahiti, Tangata Whenua, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Tokelau in less than 4 hours.

Frankly speaking, I never heard some of the names before and that made me realised the importance of being attentive during Geography class in school. The festival is a showcase for Pacific talent and culture. The idea is to see, smell, taste, feel and hear the uniqueness of Auckland's Pacific Island community in all aspects from arts and music to traditional foods, handicrafts and cultural performances.

It was a splendid experience and for the first time in my life I felt so small and thin since most of the Polynesian people wore XXXL shirt. And another surprising fact is I do look like them!

Tuvalu Ladies

One of the stalls selling handicrafts

Ice-cream in watermelon - yummy !!

Crowds in Samoa Village

with Miss Samoa

Let me end this posting with greetings in different language of ‘Pacific Nation’

Kia ora (Maori)

Talofa lava (Samoa)

Malo e lelei (Tonga)

Ni sa bula vinaka (Fiji)

Kia orana (Cook Island)

Fakaalofa lahi atu (Niue)

Kam na mauri (Kiribati)

Taloha ni (Tokelau)

La orana (Tahiti)

Talofa (Tuvalu)

Greetings


Ahau-Dee

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Viola, you sure look much thinner standing beside the Polynesian gentleman, tapi when beside the Ms Samoa, yo, you look like "ah pek" la...why you bongkok, too shy to show your Malaysian height...kakakaka!

Ahau - Dee said...

ha ha ha ... memang 'ah pek' pun but punggung hitam punya version ... kah kah kah.

I memang bongkok lah Jean ... cannot change that but the most important is ... senyum mesti nampak manis ... kah kah kah.

A lot of people say that ... ha ha ha

Anonymous said...

If you were to wear the grass skirt and the head gear with a lembing in your hand, sah2 Miss Samoa and other Polynesian ladies dah mistaken you as one of their men! kah kah kah. Mesti Dee dah kena angkut bawak naik boat pegi island depa. ANd you'd be put on a pedestal and diraikan dgn meriahnya.....


...well, before they sacrifice you to the hungry volcano ha ha ha

Lari Dee lari!!!! Tapi jgn lupa senyum anda yang manis itiew.

Ahau - Dee said...

Hi Wiz,

I love your imagination ... you memang boleh buat script filem daa ...

sebelum dikorbankan ... kenalah buat lambaian ratu sambil cakap ... world peace!

Ha ha ha