We spent all of this beautiful, warm, blue-sky day at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland. The festival recognizes the Pacific Island heritage of many of the people of Auckland, and is huge.
First, about the park where it's held. Western Springs Park is a very large area around a lake that used to be Auckland's water supply. The spring produces something like a million gallons of water per day, which then flows out and into the sea.
The festival is organized so that each island has a "village" in a different area around the lake. Each village has food and crafts booths and a performance stage. The villages were Samoa, Tuvalu, Fiji, Tahiti (which also hosted a Hawaiian group), Tonga, Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Kiribati, Aotearoa (the Maori name for NZ), and Pan Pacific. Many different languages spoken! It was a fun, joyous day of continuous music and dance performances. We loved it!
Sampled traditional Samoan fried crackers (kind of a salty, crisp, non-puffy version of fried dough), Tahitian curry, and wonderful mango ice cream (tied for first place with Daintree Ice Cream Co.) served in half a small watermelon.
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