Skip to main content

Polynesian Cultural Center

I can not believe we have not visited the Polynesian Cultural Center before now.



This has been my favorite tourist attraction so far. We bought annual passes so we can go often.

If you are planning a trip to Hawaii, this is a must see!

The Polynesian Cultural Center consists of eight villages representing Hawaii, Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Easter Island, Tahiti and the Marquesas. Each village has crafts, music, houses, games, and natives in traditional dress to give you an idea of what these Polynesian islands are like.

Granted, these villages don't have pigs and chickens running around in them. And the "natives" smell clean and have all their teeth, so it's probably a Disney-esque version of Polynesia.

And for this we are truly grateful.


I put most of the pictures in a slideshow at the top of this post. I took so many, this post would run on for days if I tried to describe everything.


We saw dances, listened to concerts, watched ancient rituals, tried fresh poi, took a canoe ride, watched an Imax film on coral reefs, and just generally enjoyed the heck out of our day.


I can hardly wait to go back!




We even got temporary tattoos in one of the villages!

So cool. And so temporary. I'll let her get a permanent tattoo when she finds a hairstyle she wants to keep forever. Or a shirt she can happily wear every day for the rest of her life.
One look back at the disco era ought to strike fear into her heart about being stuck with the same look forever.

As usual, there was the same Hawaiian scourge that spoiled the day:

Shave Ice and a white tee shirt.

When will they learn???

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...