Take in an Amazing Outdoor Stage Show at the Polynesian Cultural Center
|
Excerpt from I Need to Get L'eid from the Teresa the Traveler series of books. When I told my friends I was going to Oahu, they all told me to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center, so on day five I did just that. I purchased a ticket from the tour agent and caught one of the big black Polynesian Cultural Center buses near my hotel for a one hour ride to the other side of the island. Our jovial Hawaiian guide kept us entertained during the long ride with stories about the fascinating history of Hawaii’s number one paid tourist attraction.
The Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) is a 42-acre open air museum representing the Islands of Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti and Tongo with additional exhibits featuring Marquesas and Easter Island. In 1921, Mormon missionary and visionary Matthew Cowley delivered a speech in Honolulu saying he hoped “to see the day when my Maori people down there in New Zealand will have a little village there at La'ie with a beautiful carved house...the Tongans will have a village too, and the Tahitians and Samoans and all those islanders of the sea." The PCC grew from a fundraising event called a Hukilau that Church members held in the late 1940’s. The fishing festival and luau featuring Polynesian entertainment was immensely popular. In 1962, President David McKay authorized the construction of the center as a means to provide meaningful employment for the students of the recently constructed Mormon Church College of Hawaii. Over 100 missionaries volunteered to construct the center alongside skilled artisans brought in from the South Pacific to ensure the authenticity of the villages. Since 1977, the center has served over 33 million visitors and provided jobs, financial assistance and scholarships to over 17,000 students from over 70 different countries while they attended Brigham Young University-Hawaii. The Polynesian Cultural Center also hosts several annual events such as the Moanikeala Hula Festival, the World Fireknife Championships and Samoa Festival, a Tahitian dance festival, a Māori cultural competition, the Haunted Lagoon (a haunted canoe ride through the lagoon) and a Polynesian Christmas Celebration. When we arrived at the center, we had the choice of taking a guided tour or a self-guided tour. I grabbed a map of the center and headed out on a solo-adventure. |
|
This guy was demonstrating how to climb a coconut tree
|
The Fiji float in the canoe parade
|
Ra - The Breathe of Life show
|
Every evening ends with an amazing stage show
|
|
|
|
