January 8, 2006

We finished breakfast then boarded a bus for the #1 paid attraction of Hawaii, The Polynesian Cultural Center. The certer has seven native villages with authentic homes and structures, shows preformed by students from the countries: Tonga, Tahiti, Marquesas, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Samoa. We tasted coconut bread in Tahiti, Maria wove a dish for the audience in Tonga, and she danced with the natives in Marquesas. At mid day it began to rain and that turned into a down pour. We bought ponchos to stay as dry as we could along with all the other tourists. It poured the rest of the day. The dancers just danced in the rain. Maria got cold and was glad when we went into the Imax theater to see a movie about the coral reef. Hawaii's largest and most authentic luau was next. We each recieved a fresh flower lei. Four natives did the ritual of removing the well roasted pig from the fire pit, or imu. The food was very yummy. We had a royalfeast that harkened back to the days of
old with taro bread that was blue, teriyaki chicken, island fish, sweet potatoes, rice, poke (marinated fish), salmon and seasoned beef (pipi kaula). There were also cold fruits, salad and deserts. Thoughout the meal performers shared the ages and island in a medley of song and dance. It was a wonderfu joyous gathering. Then we donned our ponchos and walked over to the theater for the eveing show, the larges Polynesian song and dance revue in the world. Dressed in authentic attire, over 100 performers representing six island nations. The fire dance was great, the hula dancers could sure wiggle, the drums were great. What an exciting day, rain and all. We boarded our bus for the hotel.