Jason - June 16th 1:57 PM EST

It's been a few days since our last blog entry...

The day before yesterday was pretty dull. Anne Marie and I spent the morning in bed, further recovering from our sun-burns. In the afternoon, we went out for ice-cream at the Cold Stone Creamery, which was excellent, then Anne Marie went back to the hotel, and I went out and did a little shopping. In the evening, we went out for dinner at Matteo's, a very posh Itallian restaurant, with very subdued lighting, and waiters in tuxedos. Anne Marie had the Fetuccine Alfredo, and I tried the Beef Lasagna, both of which were very good.

Yesterday was considerably more exciting. We caught a tour bus at 10:20 AM (local time) for the Polynesian Cultural Center. Just the ride to the cultural center was quite entertaining; we saw a number of sites along the way. We saw a few places where some famous movies were filmed, such as Jurassic Park. We saw the little village from Karate Kid 2 (the one in Japan... That's really here in Hawaii). We also saw some moutains which were "Nigeria" in a recent Bruce Willis film. We saw the infamous H3 highway, which took decades to build, because the locals didn't want it running through the mountains for religious reasons (and in the end, it was mostly built around the mountain). We also learned some Tongan "hand dancing" on the bus, from our tour guide.

The Polynesian Culutural Center is a 42-acre park, divided into eight "villages"; Tonga, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Easter Island, Fiji, Samoa, and the Marquesas. Each of them (except Easter Island) has a show every hour on the hour, where you learn about that particular culture. Each "village" is a complete recreation of an early village of that culture, and there is a great deal to see and do at each village. So much to do, that it would be impossible to see it all in one day (in fact, you can return for free if you go back within three days). We went on a guided tour, and saw most of the shows at each village.

The center was founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to preserve and portray the cultures of Polynesia. 80% of the staff at the center are students from Brigham Young University Hawaii, and all profits from the center go toward student grants.

We started with the Samoan village, where we saw how the Samoans would husk coconuts, and make fire by rubbing sticks together. We also saw an impressive tree-climbing demonstration, where a bare-footed guy basically ran up a huge coconut tree. (At the top, he yelled out "I'm stuck. Someone call 911." :) The Samoan demonstration was, I think, probably the most humorous of them all. Our Samoan demonstrator told us how, as a child, every day he would climb trees, husk coconuts, cook (since in Samoa it is the men who cook), and make fires, until one day he told his parents "I quit! I'm going to America, land of the free!". He hopped in his canoe, paddled to America for two and a half years, and finally made it. And now, all day, he climbs trees, husks coconuts, and makes fire. :)

Next we went on a Canoe ride through the whole center. Then we went to the Hawaiian village, where we learned about a number of traditional hawaiian instruments. Most Hawaiian instruments were rythmic; hollowed out gourds, coconuts, rattles, etc... They'd also use flat rocks essentially as castanets. There was one interesting instrument composed of two small gourds, hollowed out and filled with seeds then attached end-to-end, forming a rattle. The interesting part, though, was that it had a handle and string; pull the string and the two gourds would spin around in the handle.

Hawaiians also would drill a hole in the top of a conch-shell, turning it into a sort of horn. They also played a "nose flute", which was a little strange.

The guitar and Ukulele are also "classic" hawaiian instruments. One of the early kings of Hawaii saw cattle at a rodeo in the western states, and decided to import cattle to Hawaii. He hired several spanish cowboys to come and teach the Hawaiians how to raise cattle. This is how the guitar was introduced here; the spanish brought it with them. The classic Hawaiian "steel guitar" was invented by a local when he was 15; the story goes that this boy had his guitar across his lap, and was combing his hair, and accidently dropped his comb across the strings. (A steel guitar is also tuned to an open-chord, instead of the traditional guitar tuning; but Hawaiians typically tuned their guitar to an open-chord anyways.) The ukulele is a wholy hawaiian invention, and was essentially their combining of the shape of the guitar with the size of a mandolin.

I should point out at this time, by the way, that in Hawaiian, as in many languages, the vowels do not have a "long" and "short" sound. All hawaiian vowels always take the equivalent of the english "short" sound, except "O", which is always long. Therefore, "uku" is pronounced "ew-kew", and "lele" is approximately "leh-leh". It is therefore "ew-kew-leh-leh", and not "you-kew-lay-lee", as we westerners have been taught to pronounce it.

In Hawaii we also saw a few traditional hula dances. Hula is really a hand dance; the dancer tells a story with his hands. Hula as portrayed in western film isn't really that much like Hawaiian hula. What you see in western film - the girls with grass skirts, coconut bras, and fast hips - is actually Tahitian dancing. Coconuts are an instrument in Hawaii, not apparel. :) Some of the more vigorous Hula dances are similar to some of the more sedate Tahitian dances, but it is very different on the whole. Also, traditionally hula was done for religious reasons, and was practiced only by men. Today, it is done more for entertainment, and is done by both men and women.

After Hawaii we went to a canoe-show; they had several double-canoes with big stages on them, and we saw a variety of dancing from all over polynesia.

After the canoe-show, we moved on to Tahiti, where we heard some traditional Tahitian drumming, and saw some Tahitian dancing (yes, there were fast hips). They dragged a number of audience members (myself included) up on stage and taught us some simple Tahitian dance moves. It was a lot of fun, although very loud.

After Tahiti we stopped in briefly in Fiji, and saw a number of Fiji buildings. The Fiji village cheif's hut was very large and had four doors. One door was for the chief, two opposite each other for the nobles, and one for the commoners. If someone other than the chief were to enter to through the chief's door, he would be clubbed to death, no questions asked. We also saw a root used in the Fiji Yaqona (or "Kava") ceremony. The root was chewed up by young maidens, then spit out, then strained and made into a liquid. The result was powerfully intoxicating; we were told that if you were to chew on the root, you would become intoxicated the next several times you drank water.

Finally we saw a recreation of a Fiji temple, where human sacrafices would have taken place. There are only three such temples left in the world; two in Fiji, and one at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Next we went to Tonga. We had a demonstration of how Tongans made this papery-substance they used for clothing and decoration. They would take the inner bark off a certain kind of tree, then wet it, then pound on it with a mallet until it was very thin and paper-like. They would then glue two or more sheets together with the grain running in opposite directions. The result is an extremely tough fabric. When Captain Cook originally discovered Tonga, he tought it was not a new island; he saw islanders running around in what he presumed to be cotton spun clothing, and assumed it had been introduced by westerners.

We then saw a demonstration of traditional Tongan drumming.

Our tour guide was a native of Tonga. In his words; "Don't worry, we don't bite... Anymore." :)

The next island we saw in our whirlwind tour of polynesia was New Zealand. We saw a number of New Zealand buildings, all ornately carved as New Zealanders believed they should carve images of their ancestors all around them to protect them from harm. We also saw a New Zealand war canoe. This canoe would have been a boat used for sneak attacks; the boat would hold 40 warriors, and the accoustics were such that if someone whispered at the front of the boat, it would be clearly audible at the back. The canoe was somewhat unique in many respects; it was not a recreation of a New Zealand war canoe, but the genuine article. This canoe was made as a gift for a former king of England, but was completed after the king's death. The New Zealanders buried the canoe in secret. Recently, the canoe was dug up by a New Zealand farmer, and donated to the center.

All throughout the day we learned the traditional native greeting on each "island" we visited. I don't remember any of them. :P (Anne Marie remembers a few of them, but as we can't spell them...)

After New Zealand, we went to a luau. The luau was quite authentic, complete with imu cooked pig. The imu is an underground oven. You fill the imu with hot rocks, then put in a whole pig (sometimes with rocks in the pig itself), then cover over the pig with leaves, and let it cook all day. The result is some of the finest pork you've ever eaten. There was also a variety of other foods to try. We had some "poi", which is a paste made from Taro root (and which is nasty). And, of course, what all you blog readers have no doubt been waiting to hear; Anne Marie and I finally got lei'd.

Anne Marie and I, and all the newly-weds there, were ushered up on stage to dance to the traditional Hawaiian wedding song.

After dinner we retired to a huge theater for a display of traditional dancing from all the various cultures represented at the center, including some polynesian fire dancing, which was very impressive.

Finally, at around 9:00pm, we boarded the bus back for Waikiki (on the bus we got to watch Disney's "The Parent Trap"). We didn't get home until quite late, and we were both pretty exhausted and suffering headaches from dehydration, hence the morning-after blog entry.