Hokule'a & Hikianalia Reflection

On Wednesday, 26th of March, all children from the Manaiakalani schools came down to sing a Waiata that greeted the two double hulled wakas the Hikianalia and Hokule’a.

Early in the morning over 2,000 children arrived at the Pt England Reserve to see the two amazing wakas the Hokule’a and the Hikianalia. Everyone thought it was amazing and so did I because Paige, Mrs Lagitupu and I had the opportunity to ride and film on the Hikianalia as it was coming to shore.

Everything was incredible, the nice calm water, the people and the waka itself. I thought the coolest thing on the Hikianalia was the two big anchors. To carry it you would need at least five people, four to carry and one to pull the very long chain. Then they would carefully put it into the sea.

As everybody (Manaiakalani schools) on the reserve chanted ‘E oho’ the crew started smiling and saying that it was beautiful and amazing. Then it was time to leave the waka A dinghy came and took us to the beach and that’s where we saw all the children singing a waiata and the children in front dancing and doing the pukana.

This welcome was all for the people who worked on the Hikianalia and the Hokule’a. Then Mr Burt (Principal of Pt England) told all the children to come past the crew members and give them an awesome high five. This took at least half an hour long as there were 2,000 children. After that all the children left except for 3 from each school.

The children who stayed back were the children who got to eat a delicious hangi including the waka crew members (Hangi is food that is cook in the ground). Inside there was kumara, potato, stuffing, and a yummy drum stick.

It was a privilege to meet these people because those people or crew members are really fantastic they didn’t have to come down to meet us but yet they did, all for us our school our community just to learn a little bit about us and what we do. It was so spectacular and I am really happy that this event was so significant and successful.