Friday, January 23, 2008: Polynesian Culture Center on Oahu.
Bob: We decided to take a final shore excursion as we left the Pride of Aloha, and we settled on visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center as something we had wanted to do but just had not had the time for before the cruise began. It was expensive, of course, but compared to the complexities of storing our stuff for the day and then using public transportation to get to the airport that evening, it was deucedly convenient. So after breakfast we waited in the Stardust Theater for our tour to begin, and I used the time to bring my journal up to date. It turned out that the tour included a loop drive around the eastern half of Oahu island. In fact, it was roughly the same loop we had used TheBus to travel when we visited Waimea Falls and the North Shore just before the cruise, but this time we stopped at different places. On the way out to the Polynesian Cultural Center we stopped at an old macadamia nut processing facility that had become a true tourist stop. We looked at the old macadamia nut de-huller (I think), drank some Kona coffee, and nosed about some of the boutique style shops before reboarding our bus and continuing our drive northward on the eastern shore of Oahu. |
Monika: We had gone back and forth about what to do on our last day. Our plane did not leave until 11PM and we got into port at about 8AM. We did want to see the Polynesian Culture Center but what to do with our luggage. Well, the cruise line had some shore excursions, that let you keep your luggage in the bus or van during the trip and then delivered you and your luggage to the airport at the end of the tour. So we opted for the Polynesian Culture Center Excursion. We had a leisurely breakfast, got out of our room so it could be made ready for the next passengers, and spent a couple of hours in the Stardust Theater waiting for our excursion to be called. Of course, I also went to pick up my New Zealand beer bottle that had been held hostage since Hilo on January 13th. Since we were one of the last people off the ship, we had no problem finding our luggage and loading it on board the little van we were going to take. The driver was a very good guide and kept us entertained with stories about Hawaii. We stopped at a coffee and macadamia store for a pit stop and some free Kona Coffee and macadamia nuts and then went on to the Polynesian Culture Center. |
Bob: The Polynesian Cultural Center turned out to be really interesting. Although sponsored by the Mormons, as far as I could tell the center showcased aspects of Polynesian culture that were authentic and there was nary a hint of proselytizing on behalf of the Latter Day Saints. Rather, we were told that students at the nearby branch of Brigham Young University staff the center and the proceeds support students from various Pacific islands who come to get an education. Trying to preserve the native culture is 180 degrees different from the attempts of the early missionaries to stamp out that culture, and the fact that the Mormons are doing this raised them a notch in my book (The Book of Bob, not to be confused with the Book of Job since I am definitely retired!). Our tour guide had clearly figured out an efficient sequence of seeing the presentations, and that was necessary because the center did not open until after noon and we had to leave by about 3:30 p.m. to complete our driving tour around Oahu. We first attended a presentation on Samoan culture given by an extremely engaging and very muscular young Samoan. He made the presentation partly into a comedy routine, and he had the facial expressions, a really funny patter line, and an accurate sense of timing that I associate more with a professional comedian. But the basic Samoan living skills he demonstrated were quite serious. He ground a short stick down onto a larger stick to make fire, and I was astonished that he did that in under two minutes of rubbing. I don't think I ever even got that to work when I was a Boy Scout, and I'm quite sure that if I did it took a lot more than two minutes! After getting a glowing ember on the large stick he use a coconut husk as tinder to get a blazing fire and then calmly and slowly stamped it out with his bare foot! He really must have had very tough, callused feet because he also climbed a full-sized coconut tree using only his hands and feet in under 30 seconds. Then he gracefully slid down the trunk using his hands and feet to slow his descent. Take a close look at a palm tree the next time you see one, and imagine sliding your feet over the spiky growth rings to brake to a halt. That would have to hurt! While talking to us about different aspects of Samoan culture, he sliced the husk off the coconut, impaled it on a hollow wooden tube with sheer brute force, whacked it in two even halves with a machete, ground the meat of the coconut out of the shell using a bench with an iron tip, and finally squeezed the milk out of the raw coconut shavings using some strands of copra. You honestly would have to see some of that stuff to believe it. He made everything look easy, but this guy was very powerful (think Charles Atlas) and I doubt very much that I could have done any of it. |
Monika: The Polynesian Culture Center is run by the local branch of the Brigham Young University, that gives scholarships to students from all the Polynesian islands. The students are also encouraged to study their local arts, customs, and culture and participate at the center. Thus all the performances and exhibits were very authentic. We first stopped at the Samoan center, were a very entertaining Samoan told us and showed us how to make fire with two sticks, how to husk a coconut and how to get the milk of the coconut. At the end he even showed how to climb a coconut tree Very impressive! |
Bob: Our next stop was a Maori show in a kind of council house or meeting house that appeared to have authentic carved wood decorations. The traditional songs and dances were narrated by a very pleasant woman with the most beautifully accented English I have heard since I last saw Tony and his Maori family on our bus trip in Eastern Europe (see Wanderung 12). I think it is the precise British style of pronunciation combined with some kind of inflection possibly stemming from the native Maori tongue that I find so pleasant to listen to. The presentation covered several different aspects of the oral and dance traditions of the Maori. The Haka dance, for example, was a very warlike, aggressive dance used by warriors to psych themselves before going into battle. Another dance involved rhythmically timed passing of baton-like sticks from person to person; it was supposed to increase coordination and timing of the young warriors. At the section on Tonga, I took a split palm frond and wove it into a fish shape complete with a "fishing line" made using the spine of the frond. Despite looking quite fragile, my fish survived the trip back to Virginia intact and joined the plumeria plant which we had brought back from Hawaii on our last visit. I also volunteered to go up and do a drumming session with the native Tongan drummers. They were, of course, excellent as that is an important piece of their culture, and I just tried to play along the best that I could. The section on Tahiti had some very nice static displays where I learned about the five principle island groups and the physical and economic differences among them. I was surprised that Tahiti included both the low-lying coral atolls and the truly craggy, mountainous volcanic islands resembling what we had just seen in Hawaii. I would have loved to have seen Tahiti's cultural presentation, but we couldn't wait for it. In fact there were a total of 8 different cultural presentations for different island groups and I only really saw 3 of them, so I very much want to go back on our next trip to Hawaii and take advantage of the fact that after you purchase a ticket you can have free re-admission for the next 3 days. |
Monika: Our next stop was at the New Zealand house and we were treated to several Maori dances and chants. It was great, and I was reminded of Tony and his family that we had met during our bus trip through East Europe, who were Maori and at the end sang a Maori song for us. The Tonga performance of drumming had volunteers helping. So, of course, my introverted husband volunteered. He really was quite good on the drums and I had a lot of fun cheering him on. We then went over to the kitchen of the Tonga enclave were we were shown how to make fish from palm leaves. Bob's actually made it all the way back to Virginia. The Tahiti house did not have a performance but we looked at the artifacts of the different islands of Tahiti. |
Bob: Our time at the center ended with a kind of grand parade of Polynesian dancing skills from Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Tonga. Dances from each group of islands were performed on shallow-draft catamaran rafts that were polled around a man-made lagoon. The audience sat or stood on both sides of the creek to watch the performances, which were remarkably different despite the noticeable similarities. |
Monika: After that it was time for the performance at the lagoon, where canoes with people from the different cultures did some of the dances of their respective cultures. At the end Bob and I decided it was time for our orchid leis, that we had been wearing, to be thrown into the lagoon, so that we would come back. Our final adventure was a canoe ride through the Polynesian Culture Center. Bob and I both decided, there was a lot more to see so next time we are in Hawaii, we definitely would come back! |
Bob: Our tour guide gathered us together to continue our drive around Oahu, so we reluctantly left the Polynesian Cultural Center and reboarded our minibus. Driving along the North shore of Oahu past Turtle Bay Resort we saw stopped at Sunset Beach. The surfers were out on their boards but the waves were much lower than the ones we had seen when we used TheBus to drive around the island prior to the cruise. Shortly thereafter our sharp-eyed driver suddenly braked to a halt and backed into a bus stop area, then told us to quickly go down to the beach. There we found a really huge green sea turtle resting at the high water mark, apparently basking in the sun. A naturalist was guarding him and had roped off a no-contact area around him, and he told us that it was a male but how exactly he knew that I'm not sure. Still it was impressive to see a sea turtle up close and personal, so we snapped a few pictures before our guide hustled us back onto the bus and we continued on our way. The loop we were on curved back to the southwest and we stopped briefly at the Dole plantation tourist center before continuing on to Honolulu airport where we were dropped off for our flight home. |
Monika: On our way back to Honolulu, we first stopped at Sunset Beach to watch the surfers. The surf was not nearly as high as it had been when we went to Weimea Falls, but it was still fun watching the surfers. We made another quite unscheduled stop, when our driver spotted a large Green Hawaiian Sea Turtle basking on the beach. There was a red cordon around the turtle about 10 feet away, so that people would not get too close. But it still was wonderful seeing one of these animals alive and well. |
Bob: United Airlines had cancelled our connecting flight from LA to Washington, which would have left us stranded in LA, but the people at Northwest Airlines were able to get us on a direct flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul that left just 15 minutes after we arrived, so at least we didn't have to spend the evening sitting around the airport. The next morning we boarded a final flight directly to Dulles airport, took a taxi home, and gratefully staggered across the snow and ice that was covering our front yard into our home. Experiencing the 20-30 temperatures back in Northern Virginia, we fondly remembered the warm balmy temperatures of Hawaii and all the fun we had during our nice vacation there. |
Monika: We finally got back to the airport around 5:30. Our tickets were from Honolulu to LAX on Northwest and from LAX to Washington on United. During the day we had gotten a couple of calls from United, telling us that the flight from LAX to Washington had been cancelled but they had rebooked us from Honolulu to Denver and from Denver to Washington and we should report to the United counter. So we reported to the United counter, where we were told, that yes we had been rebooked, but for them to issue us the ticket from Honolulu we needed a release from Northwest for our ticket from Northwest. So we walked over to Northwest with all our luggage (1 suitcase, 2 rollie carry-ons, one backpack, and one ukulele). Luckily Honolulu's airport is not extensive, so it was just a short way. At Northwest, the ticket agent said: "Why should Northwest give up our ticket when United cancelled a flight; he could get us to Washington even quicker." The next Northwest flight to Minneapolis was leaving within 20 minutes, and from Minneapolis we could get a flight to Detroit and from there back to Washington. We would get into Washington 2 hours earlier than planned. This all sounded good to us. We got our boarding cards and off we went. At security, they reminded me of my poor little orphaned bottle of New Zealand beer. Of course, I did not have the time to drink it. So after having sailed around the Hawaiian islands, it now was left at the security post in Honolulu. Oh well, it was not meant to be. On board, Bob and I bought each a sandwich for dinner and I splurged with a $5.-- bottle of beer, thinking of my poor bottle left behind. We both managed to get a few hours of sleep on the plane before landing in Minneapolis at -5 degrees Fahrenheit. We had packed our coats, so we were freezing on the walk to the terminal. We got on our flight to Detroit. But then we had to get back off because of hydraulic problems with landing gear (better discovered before you take off!!). When they found a new airplane, we went to the counter, saying we may not make our connection. The gate agent agreed and put us on a direct flight to Washington that would leave a couple of hours later but still get us into Washington in the early afternoon. She tried to re-route our luggage, but we had our doubts. We had a light breakfast, bagels, and then got to our gate in plenty of time. The flight to Washington was quite empty so I could sit at the window and take some pictures of Milwaukee and the Shenandoah. Once in Washington our luggage had, of course, not arrived with us. We filled out the claim form and were assured it would be brought to us by the evening. We grabbed a taxi to go home, where we were greeted with snow still on our lawn and sidewalk. Oh well...a day before we were in 70 degree weather, now it was in the high 30's, but I guess it could be worse, we could have been stuck in Minneapolis! Thus ended a very nice cruise through paradise. |
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