Hawaii - Day Four Continued

After stopping at the temple we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was a really fun day. I love the Polynesian Cultural Center. I think that they have it landscaped and set up nicely. You get to go from island to island and learn a little more about each of the Polynesian cultures. We started by going on a canoe ride around the island.Our first show was in Tahiti where we learned how to dance like they do and also about the drums that they use. They are the ones that dance really fast with their hips. It was fun to try, but even more fun to watch Justin try. After Tahiti we headed over to Aotearoa, which is also known as New Zealand. As we were waiting for it to start it started pouring rain on us. We were all able to find a place to get out of the rain, except for Justin. He was soaking wet. I wish I would have taken a picture of him. It was so funny. Luckily for us, that show was inside because it kept raining for about half an hour.New Zealand is known for doing the haka. It was fun to watch and it looks like it would hurt so much when they slap their chests. Our next stop was Samoa. Samoa was probably my favorite and it was in Justin's top two.The men do all the cooking and cleaning in Samoa. They started by having someone teach us how to crack a coconut and how to get the coconut milk. The record is three seconds in a men's competition; however, in a women's competition, it is two....days....and that is why the men do the cooking. They had some really funny dialogue and presented really well. The second guy taught us how they start fire by rubbing sticks together. He was so funny. When he saw that people were taking pictures he would stop and pose... so of course, I would take pictures.He said it takes an hour and a half to start the fire, and when he started posing for pictures he said that is why it takes that long. They finished their program off by having someone climb a coconut tree. It is amazing how fast they can do it. He only went half up though because the tree was wet and slippery from the rain.It was an entertaining show. We then went to one of the shops and decided to sport their hats. I think Justin should have bought it. Our next stop was a canoe pageant that all of the "islands" perform in. They have one canoe come across at a time and perform their traditional dance. This was our entertainment while we were waiting for the show to start.During one of the shows, one of the dancers fell in. At first I thought it was a stunt, but the other dances kept laughing at him and when he got back on the canoe he was limping.
After the canoe pageant we headed over to Tonga. Tonga was the other island in the top two. We had to rush over there to get seats after the pageant so we didn't pose under the sign.In Tonga they called a Japanese man, an African American, and a caucasian from the audience to participate. It was hilarious. The main guy in the picture below (the one wearing the colorful skirt) was the drum master and he had the three guys go up one at a time and copy what he was doing. It was great. The Japanese guy was the best. Obviously he didn't understand the concept of a high-five because when the drum master asked him to give him a high-five the Japanese guy just stared at him. Finally, one of the other Tongans did a slapping motion and the Japanese man slapped the drum master across the chest. It was great!After Tonga we headed over to Fiji. In Fiji we learned about their traditional musical instruments. One of their main ones is a hollow bamboo stick that is open on one end and closed on the other that they just bang on the ground. We got to bang the stick on the ground too. It was very noisy.We didn't go to the Hawaii show because we were told they do the same thing during our luau, but we still got our pictures by the sign.Our next stop was dinner! We bought the more expensive ticket package to be able to experience the luau. When we walked into where dinner was we got fresh flower leis. They were very pretty.They did the Hawaiian hula dance during dinner. We also got to see them dig the pig out of the ground. Let me tell you, that is one way to very quickly ruin your appetite!I wasn't a huge fan of dinner (at all), but I think everyone else enjoyed it. After dinner we had a little bit of time before the Ha, Breath of Life night show started so we walked around and took some random photos.We tried to make the same faces as the totum pole people. Justin was a lot better at it than I was.We weren't allowed to take pictures during the night show, but it was awesome. They went through all of the islands again and performed more of their dances. At the end they had a dance with fire batons. It was amazing!