The Pali and Polynesian Cultural Center

When we have visitors we sometimes turn into tourist. This day was definitely one of those times. We started out in the late morning by driving up to the Pali look out. 

I couldn't decide if I liked the almost 180 degree picture or the one that would show the city, Kaneohe, better so I posted both. 

Here we are. A nice Australian took our picture. 

One of the biggest tourist things to do on this island is go to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) and that is exactly what we did. The PCCs description is: visit authentic villages and mingle with natives from six Pacific cultures as they demonstrate their arts. 

The PCC is a created village with six different sections for different islands. This is a picture of the river that flows down the middle of  the village. 

This is a man climbing a coconut tree in the Samoa section. They also showed what they did with the coconuts after getting them down from the tree. 

The next area was Aotearoa (New Zealand). Here we watched a reenactment of two tribes meeting and some of the songs and dance they did. 

 In the Fiji area we learned some history and geography about the islands. Then we all woke up by banging our bamboo sticks on the floor in rhythm. 

In the middle of the day they do a Canoe Pageant where a boat from every island area goes by with dancers. This first boat represents the king and queen.

In the Hawaii section we learned the proper way to pronounce ukulele and learned about Hawaiian hula dancing.  

In the Tahiti section they preformed a traditional wedding ceremony.

The final area was Tonga and we watched some fun drumming with volunteers. 

This is the tree used in Blue Hawaii. Elvis sat on it in the movie.

These statues represent Rapa Nui (Easter island). There is no presentation about this culture but that's probably because little is known about the island culture. Something looks a little different about the one in the middle. 

Coconut wall

This is a picture of the king and queen at our luau. 

One of the dinning halls has large murals all around the walls. 

This group of kids is amazing at playing xylophones. For more, check out Topher's blog. 

Lots of keiki (kids) swinging around balls on strings can be dangerous, especially in large groups.    

This is the stage for the evening show, HA: Breath of Life. Photography is not allowed during the show.

However I did find these two pictures online to give you an idea of what it looks like.