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Our Hawaii Adventure

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Saturday, July 19, 2003
July
19

Since we hadn't been to the Honolulu Zoo yet, we decided to check that out. We considered walking, but, as the distance was about three times as far as to the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center where we saw the "Magic of Polynesia" show, we ended up taking a bus. It turned out to be an interesting experience. Kekoa, our driver, appeared to make it his mission to "pick up strays". After we got on, he picked up at least two other couples who were at the wrong stops and drove them down to where they needed to go. He also refused to take money for this. We were impressed with his kindness.

The Zoo was under construction, so it was a bit disappointing, but we still were able to see quite a bit. Their biggest exhibit is the "African Safari", but they also do quite a bit with a program to help endangered animals. There were "be kind to the animals" signs everywhere, written in clever little "Burma Shave" type rhymes.

We not only were able to take several pictures, we learned quite a bit also. For example, there was a sign informing us that in 1982, Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, presented a female elephant to the Zoo "from the children of India to the people of Hawaii." We were not, however, able to discover whether or not the elephant that we saw was the same animal. We also learned that the black rhino is quite nearsighted and that at 30 feet, cannot distinguish between a man standing still and a planted tree. Stephanie was interested to know that the chimpanzee can see in color, the small meerkat (relative of the mongoose) stands upright to greet the morning light, causing the ancients to believe that these animals actually worshipped the sun and that some species of alligator are actually devoted mothers. They stay with their eggs until they hatch, not even leaving to find meals, and up to six months afterwards. We never saw the lions and figured that they were staying out of the sun.

Stephanie was startled to learn that peacocks can fly. We were coming around a path and right above our heads was a male cock sitting in a tree branch, grooming himself. Ken began snapping pictures and the bird let out a loud cry. It was interesting to note that the two peacocks that we saw were kept in separate enclosures.

The most fascinating animals, however, were the tigers and the ostriches. The tigers alone of the big cats actually like water. They will swim not only to avoid a predator or to cool off but just because they want to. They will often climb into a pond and splash around like a child in a swimming pool.

The ostriches, besides having the biggest eggs of any of the birds (they take two and a half hours to hard boil and can last up to a month in storage) also have the most interesting "family unit". One male will mate with up to twelve "inferior" females while forming a "pair bonding" with one "majority" female. Meerkats and lions also have interesting "family units". The meerkats alone group around the males of the species. It is the female meercat who leaves the clan after giving birth, seeking breeding ground elsewhere. Among the lions, the females (aunts, sisters, cousins) are blood relatives, while the one to six males of the pride are not. Like the female meerkat, the male lions will often leave the tribe, seeking other habitat.

Saturday evening we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Our driver, Keith, continued the "day of nice bus drivers" tradition by stopping to buy us some fresh Hawaiian pineapple from a roadside stand. He also told us some amusing stories, such as the fact that "luau" sounds like "lua" (the Hawaiian word for restroom) and that Hawaiian fishermen consider saying "I am going fishing" bad luck. Instead, they say "I am going cruising."

The Polynesian Cultural Center is located in Laie, about an hour away from our hotel. Laie turned out to be a town inhabited by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In fact, outside of the Mainland United States, Laie is the site of the first Mormon "Temple" (dedicated in 1919) and many of the guides and dancers at the Center are students of Brigham Young University-Hawaii.

We learned many things about the islands of Polynesia at the Cultural Center. One of the first people that we saw was a man from Samoa. He informed us that Samoans are known as "happy people" and demonstrated two techniques: making fire from a nest of twigs and splitting a coconut into three pieces. He also told us that coconut "milk" is not to be confused with the "juice". "Milk" is made from shredding and squeezing the "meat" of the coconut, which he did. We later saw young men from this nation walk on fire (a routine that they turned into a sort of "Three Stooges" skit, pushing one another into the flames) and got a close up view of the "Samoan Warrior" during his fire knife dance.

After visiting the Samoan center, we walked over to the depiction of Fiji. We toured a chief's hut and learned that each of the four doors meant something. One was for guests, one for the regular populace, one was for important men and one, guarded by warriors, was used by the chief and only the chief. The chief's hut contained one bed. This was for the chief himself. His wives slept on the floor. The chief's pillow was a wooden head rest with a hole in the center. The rest was for the chief's head, the hole for one of his hands. Due to the lack of hairdressers, the chief slept in a position designed to preserve his elaborate style.

There were two stations in Fiji that one would not want to be in, according to Cliff, our tour guide. One was the chief's first wife. When the chief died, the wife had a choice of being stoned or buried alive. The other position was that of the third person allowed into the temple, the sacrifice. The chief and the priest entered the tall building, proud of the fact that the high roof allowed them access to their god. The sacrifice entered and did not come back out. The temple was an authentic one, as were all of the buildings at the Polynesian Cultural Center. They were built by people from the islands that they represented and, in fact, the temple is one of only three remaining in the world.

We also saw statues depicting the stone monuments of Easter Island. Some legends depict them as being spirits of ancestors guarding the Island, others say that they were gods. Neither can anyone agree on the red stones on top of the statues heads. Some say that they are representative of the long red hair that the ancient peoples had, others say that they are meant to be headdresses.

We then moved on to the Hawaii (or Havaii or Hawai'i) section to learn about the culture through music, dance and food. The young narrator explained to us that the Hula that we are used to seeing with the grass skirts and flower necklaces actually came from Tahiti. Ancient Hawaiians used instruments such as hollowed out gourds and bamboo poles to help them tell their stories. He explained that the guitar came to Hawaii in the 1830's with the arrival of the Portuguese and the ukulele originated sometime after that. He amused us by explaining that the name "ukulele" sounds like the Hawaiian for "jumping flea" and had us say "Oo-kay-lei-lei because there isn't such a thing as a `You-key-lay-lee'". Our narrator lamented that "we used to sing songs about battles and valiant chiefs; now we sing songs about `bubbles'". He also explained to us that the "ha" in "Aloha" harks back to "the breath of life" that the first man was given, so when you say "Aloha" to someone, you are giving them the breath of life. After this musical demonstration, we moved on to a place where Stephanie tried the hula. Keeping feet and hands in motion at the same time proved difficult for her, but not as difficult as trying a dance from the Marquesas later on. That required bouncing on one toe the entire time.

From the hula, we moved on to sampling poi, both the dish of Hawaii and the word for "beating" or "pounding". This food is made from beating the taro root and is actually tasteless. It takes on the flavor of the other foods that one is eating. Poi is a "non allergy" food and is often given to babies allergic to milk.

We did not tour the section devoted to New Zealand "The Land of the Long White Cloud", but we did see a boat of the Mauri warriors. The canoe was commissioned in honor of King George IV. When he died, the warship was taken to be a bad omen and was buried and abandoned. Thirty years later, a farmer dug up the boat and finished it. It is so long that to hear one another, the men had to bend down along the sides and let the sound carry from the front to the back through a hollowed out log. New Zealanders are unique among the Polynesians because their houses have fences around them. They also are unique in their tattooing system. Men have tattoos on their cheeks, women on their chin. The Marquesaian people also tattoo. By the time he is grown, a male, for example, will have a full body tattoo depicting his tribe, family and place in society.

We then made our way to the "Horizons show" in which each people group gave a demonstration of their native dancing. Stephanie was amused to see that the musicians changed each time the dancers did. Our dessert was a pineapple "Deelight", which turned out to be a hollowed out pineapple with cherries and sherbet in it. It was good. Another pleasant surprise was spotting Susie and Sandy, the sisters from California that we shared a luau with.

We are having so much fun on this adventure.

Pictures from July 19, 2003 - Honolulu Zoo
Pictures from July 19, 2003 - Polynesian Cultural Center