The 2001 New Zealand Census showed that 14.9% of people in the Auckland Urban Area, belong to Pacific Peoples ethnic groups. This is easy to understand when you attend this crowded but vibrant and colourful festival with its 350 stalls - 150 being ethnic food stalls - where greetings such as Kia ora! Talofa Lava! Malo e lelei! Ni sa bula vinaka! Kia orana! Fakalofa Iahi aut! Kam na Mauri! and Taloha Ni! can be heard as the festival celebrates the art, culture and lifestyle in the South Pacific. This festival first started in 1993 with 30,000 people attending. Today over 210,000 people attend this festival. At the festival, various villages from the different cultures of the South Pacific can be seen and there are a number of stages with hundreds of performers from all over the Pacific, that keep the crows captivated throughout the day.
Entrance to the Cook Island Village
Colourful craft stalls everywhere
Ladies busy making flower crowns
A Cook Island lady proudly wearing her flower crown
Dancing ladies from Nuie
Looking across the lake with the lifeguards on duty
Drinking Coconuts - cold & tasty - just what you need on a hot & humid Auckland day
Dancers from Samoa
The crowds
On my way home I spotted this palm tree and saw it as the perfect end
to a perfect Pasifika day .....
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