Pasifika

This weekend was the Pasifika Festival. We went on Sunday. It was a great way to spend my birthday.
So Pasifika is like the heritage festival for all the Pacific Islanders. It's held where the music festivals here in Auckland are held, and next weekend is the City Limits Music Festival so the main stage was like set up to the side so that was cool. Anyways the park (it was in a park) had different sections of tents for each island(s) but they were all connected by a path. It was cool. My favorite islands were Samoa and Hawaii. I've already been to Hawaii twice and I planned on going to Samoa while I'm here anyways, so that's reassuring. I also wanted to go to Fiji while I'm here but I wasn't that impressed with the Fiji part, but we'll see. It's all dependent upon my final exams schedule and the moolah so we'll see.
Anywhos, so as soon as we walk into Pasifika, there are people drinking out of coconuts. If you know me, you know that I live off of coconut water (as I'm writing this I am currently drinking some more coconut water to be honest). So this was a necessity I needed like right as soon as I saw people had them. So Celeste and I went to find the coconut waters. I got the big one and she got one of the medium sized ones and I ended up drinking mine and most of hers, but she mostly just wanted the meat anyways so she ate all of her coconut meat while I couldn't finish mine because it was a lot. But Evan got a $10 meat (like animal meat not coconut meat) package thing and he couldn't finish all of his food either (because it was legit so much) so I ate some of his leftover lamb while Celeste worked on the chicken, so maybe that's also why I was too full to finish my coconut meat.
If you couldn't tell from the picture up and to the right, these coconuts are a severely different species of coconut than the ones we get in the Caribbean Islands. It's kinda funny; I was just talking to Sarah about how the coconut water I've been drinking here comes from Thailand and it tastes so insanely different from the coconut water I'm used to, but it's so much sweeter; it's super nice. But here's some visual aids to help you visual learners:

My Samoan coconut -
brown, round, and hairy.

My usual Caribbean coconut -
green, oval shaped, and hairless.

So the water was sweeter, but there was less of it because the coconut was smaller. But the meat was a lot softer/squishier and had a totally different texture. It was like legit smooth. Kind of like those "jell-o shots of my childhood" that I posted on Instagram that got like 0 likes. It was strange though because I was only eating one coconut, but the two halves had different meat. The first half was insanely smooth/soft/squishy, and the second half was thicker and harder, more similar to those I'm used to, but still way too smooth/soft/squishy to be the same or to even have similar texture. It was really good.
Coconuts are good for healing. Like if you're sick or kidney stone or cancer or hangover or depressed or anxious, drink some coconut water. Tis natural medicine. You should use it. Don't matter what species coconut I believe; coconut is coconut. Coconut is healing. 

Poor Celeste, I feel like I talked to her about coconuts until we moved on from our little coconut & food break. Oh well. 

So after enjoying our foods and watching some Samoan entertainment, we walked around the rest of the Samoan set up. We saw a man dying a sheet by using paint and a carved stone, see picture to the right. Then I entered to win a trip to Samoa that I probably won't win but we'll see, and I got some free stuff. A water bottle, a towel, and sunscreen. Who doesn't love free stuff? I also hung out with some firefighters because well, it was my birthday and my daddy's a firefighter so it's kinda like he hung out with me, right? Nah I'm just a loon but it's okay lol.
So Celeste was like "it's her birthday" and they were like "oh how old are you" and I was like "19" and they were like "oh we're way too old" and I'm just like lol I'm not trying to get with you, I just want a picture because my daddy's a firefighter...lol yeah. 

Then we tried to move on to other villages, and on the way we saw some intense birds. Black swans, gigantic ducks, huge chickens (which if they're that big and just run wild idk why KFC is the best fried chicken I can find down here but whatever).

We visited the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Niue, and Fiji before we reached Hawaii. It was cool to watch the American Flag flying above the Hawaiian stage, even here in New Zealand. Celeste got a meat skewer and we watched the traditional sugar cane dance/song before Celeste and I headed to Tonga. Tonga was another one of my favorites. They had a lot of different coconut oils for sale and I bought a meat pack similar to the one Evan got in the Samoan part, to take back to my flat for later.
Unfortunately, we missed the Tahiti part, as well as some other lesser known to me islands. After Tonga we purposefully skipped Aotearoa because that's simply New Zealand and next weekend our Loyola group is going to a Maori thing all weekend where we will get more cultural background than if we were to just stop by their booths real quick. We did pass a couple on the way out tho, so I guess we didn't really skip it. After Tonga we went back to Samoa to get pineapple sundaes, but they were out of the pineapples so we settled for watermelon sundaes instead. We meaning the others lol. Emily had one earlier and Evan had one at the end; I didn't get one which is why there's no picture, but it was great. I tried some of Emily's. 

Celeste and I met up with some professional rugby players - the Auckland Blues, and of course we had to get a picture. I only got a picture with two of them but there were about 6 or 7 there. They just had to wish me a Happy Birthday.
Then we got back on the bus towards town and found our dinner restaurant on our way back to our flats. 

Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha