Polynesian Culture Center

This tour didn't start until 10:00 am so we got to sleep in for a bit.  Gary and I did our usual coffee on the beach walk, we would go to Starbucks and share a cup of cinnamon dolce latte then go out on the the beach and take a short walk and just enjoy.  Quite alot of people exercising along the beach and we would watch the guy rake the sand.

The Culture Center is located on the north side of the island in a town called Laie, it is an hour bus ride and our guide gave us some of the history in the little towns that we passed through.  Didn't seem an hour ride he made it very enjoyable.  We also introduced ourselves to our bus neighbors mainly to see who was on our bus as when we leave the center there are going to be alot of buses and we wouldn't want to get on the wrong one.

The Culture Center is owned by the Mormon Church and there is a college right next door.  All the workers in the center are students.  What made this neat is that all the students have their tuition paid by the Mormon church, all that is required is the students work and then after completion of their education have to do a Mormon mission.  We told Jennifer to go to school here and become a Mormon for 4 years, that way we could come every year and visit.  She said no.

Our guide told us that for $25 more per ticket we would get him as our guide through the grounds, we were about the only ones on the bus that did not do this.  He gave us our tickets and showed us where we would be eating dinner then on we went.  We were given a map of the grounds.

The islands represented in the Center are Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand and Tonga.  Each has their own area in the compound and they give demonstrations of their culture.  We learned how to hula both Hawaiian and Tahitian style, played Maori games in New Zealand, learned how to climb a coconut tree, make fire and get coconut milk in Samoa, play drums and throw spears in Tonga, and play instruments in Fiji.  It was all very informative and not much different than the Native American culture here.

Learning the Tahitian style hula

Stick Game

Spear Throwing

Dinner was a buffet with carved meat.  It was all very delicious with a touch of island flair.  We were met at the door with a greeter to take our tickets and had to wait for about 15 minutes.  We visited a bit and they encouraged us to go visit the temple (we didn't do) then had a photo taken with a couple cast members.  After dinner we had time to browse through the gift shops before the show started.

The night show is pretty spectacular, however new rules absolutely no photography of any kind allowed.  The last time we could take photos but no flash.  Our seats were pretty good, except we got a side view of the stage.  The only parts of the show we couldn't see was when the actors climbed to the top of the set.

Got on our bus and waited, we were short one couple.  All of us were told what time to be on the bus.  The driver waited for them and we were the last bus to leave.  Jennifer was shocked that the driver just left them.  I reminded Jennifer that all of us were told what time to be here and everyone else followed directions.  The only thing we could think of was they left early or else got on the wrong bus.  We didn't see a couple standing on the sidewalk as we left.

Had a good time, but nothing really changed in the six years.  The demonstrations were the same as before.