Mira, Atie, Myself & Hijrah w/ the stone that reads ‘Circle of Friends’ @ Western Springs, Auckland

I went to the Pasifika Festival 2009 at Western Springs with Mira, Atie, and Hijrah today. We took a group pass to save on return tickets from Britomart to Western Springs (near MOTAT), and so we stayed together for the whole day. Last year’s festival went for three days. For this year, it’s only from 10am to 5pm today. The place was jam packed with locals and tourists, with lots of colourful and interesting stalls selling things ranging from crafts to luxury antiques to food.

We were lucky to have come early. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a nice experience, making your way through a crowd of merry people.

I find it funny that the Labour Party was campaigning the whole day through. The first tribe we visited was Tonga. The politicians were campaigning on stage at that time, so we decided to not pay attention. It was just my luck (or the lack of it) that the campaign continued on even when Mira and I was waiting for Atie and Hijrah to get their free goodies after having participated briefly in Push Play volleyball game.

At Push Play, we met Ikin and her friends. My juniors were also there, then. Good, good. I can see the enthusiasm in them that’s a bit similar to mine when I first arrived last year.

The only bad thing about it was that halfway through the event, it started drizzling. I could feel the temperature dropping by a few degrees. At about 2pm, we were already tired from walking in the rain, so we decided it was time to call it a day and say goodbye to the festival.

Having been to last year’s festival, I find this year’s a little bit better. It was hard to navigate around last year, because the event site (in Manukau) was a lot smaller. And because pictures speak louder than words, here’s a slideshow of some pictures of us taken at the festival. When you browse through, you might be amused at Atie and Hijrah’s attempt at pukana as they posed for Maori TV’s competition (I think it’s slideshow pic #20).

[slideshow id=4]

I initially wanted to post the random videocast I made, but the size was too big. I’m too lazy to edit and resize them, so yeah. Maybe later. It was funny, as the shoot was done when we were shivering in the drizzle on our way out.

p.s/ I’m so going to miss the big watermelon and pineapple ice cream =D

© 2009, Adlina. All rights reserved. Please link back to this page if quoted.