Wow, wow and wow. Te Vara Nui is so worth while a visit. The whole complex has been designed and built in an area that a few years ago was a swamp.
I particularly liked the fact that a young Cook Islander (Moana, daughter of Vara, who the village is named after) and her husband built this business. A lot of young islanders leave Rarotonga for New Zealand or Australia, but they had an idea and made it work. The gardens are truly beautiful and Chris in particular appreciated them as he and his family own the ‘Wright’s Water Garden’ also planting water lilies and other tropical plants…
The amazing gardens in Te Vara Nui. Our dinner was in the building on the left and the show was on the stage in the middle of the lake on the right.
The Ewens clan at Te Vara Nui’s garden.
Kylie and Chris looking lovely.
Butter couldn’t melt in her mouth…yeah right!
At first we did the cultural village, which is set out as a variety of huts. Each hut has a different topic, like the ‘fishing hut’, ‘the medicine hut’, the ‘history hut’ etc and the guys talking in each hut were knowledgable and fun to listen to.
We were welcomed into the village by the chief …
The chief first challenging us, then welcoming us.
and we as a group had to ‘select a chief’ form amongst us, too, to respond to the challenge. The same system operates among New Zealand Maori when entering a Marae for the first time.
We learned something new in all huts, at least that is true for me.
The boys listening attentively and me grinning stupidly in the back.
In the last hut, which we can’t remember the name of, we learned about the importance of the coconut tree to Pacific Islanders. Everything of the tree is used, the young coconut (a ‘nu’) is very nutritious and if you were stranded on an island you could live of it…don’t know how long for…quite some time though by the sound of things!
We were shown how to husk a coconut in less than three minutes, that was very impressive and Ben got to try coconut milk of the ripe nut…
Ben volunteered to hold the coconut shell and to try the milk. He didn’t really like it…:-)
At the end of all that it was time for dinner. We were seated and had a very nice buffet dinner, followed by the dance show. The show was very good, sadly I have no good photos of any of the amazing dancers, as I wasn’t in charge of the camera that night. Something was wrong with the setting and we didn’t realise until the next day…too bad…Here is what we did get…
The men during the fast drum dance.
The ladies during the drum dance.
This is the ladies dancing a slow song, a legend where they are telling a story, mainly with their arm movements.
We had a lovely night, although it was very late for the children and Tessa and Nick nearly went to sleep on the bench between dinner and the dance. Ben, our little night owl, wasn’t fazed by the time!
Later in the night…
aahh…
The next day however Ben succumbed to tiredness on the bench back at the house. He had a ‘tickle back’ for a few minutes and he fell asleep in no time…
Ben fell asleep while I tickled his back.
It was a great experience and the drumming and dancing was amazing.
It was worth while feeling a bit tired the next day.
Tanja
6 Responses to Te Vara Nui