Polynesian Cultural Center

On Friday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. The guide on the bus was great. He showed us a lot of places that were used in movies...my favorite one was Turtle Island where they shot Gillian's Island. Once we got to the Polynesian Cultural Center we went to the villages...New Zealand first. We played some games before the performances started.

Here is the stick game. Christian wanted to make a haku face for the picture.

Christian liked this game. Another guy would call out front, back, left, or right and we would go that direction without stepping on the sticks. The first guy to step wrong or on the sticks lost. I did fine during the practice, but when we started the game I lost on the second call.

This was the Samoan performer. He kept posing during his presentation. Here he is making fire.

This is a New Zealand performer doing the poi balls. When Christian was trying the pois earlier, he showed him some tricks as well. Another performer said that I should perform with them since I did them so well.

Fiji dancers

Christian is playing a Fiji drum. It was interesting to keep changing the beat between four rhythms.

Before the canoe pageant these students came by selling ice cream. Christian and I played war while waiting for the pageant to start.

New Zealand canoe

Samoa canoe

Tahati canoe

In Tonga it was a lot of fun. The guys on the drums were hilarious.

Christian loved watching the Tahitian dances - especially the fast hip shaking lady dances:) I learned how to do the dance

and Christian video taped it (but I can't get it to load, I'll try again later). During the video Christian did a typical guy thing. When it came to the part where we were suppose to move out hips very fast, Christian put the camera on the instructor so he could see her hips instead of mine. Then he panned back to me. Hilarious:)

Here Christian is trying to learn a Tahatian dance.

Christian got a tattoo at one of the villages. Here he is showing it off.

Here we are ready for our luau. I was excited to attend one -- it is one of the things I wanted to do.

They are unwrapping the pig. They wrapped it in banana leafs, burlap bags, and then plastic. The men who unwrap the pig are generally considered very brave as the heat is unreal. We could even feel it away from the pit. You can see the steam rising up.

Here is the pig before they carved it.

The purple roll is a taro roll. It's actually pretty good. I liked them. They are a sweet roll kind of like a potato roll.Christian and I both had a smoothie. Mine was strawberry and his was pina colada. They were served in these cool hollowed out pineapples.

After the luau we went to the Horizons show. It was spectacular. We show a lot of dances, but since we weren't able to use a flash I didn't get many pictures.
The Tongans were great with their drums. They were going soooo fast.

The fire dancers were amazing!!! Again, I couldn't get the video to load. I'll try again another time.