Tāmaki Herenga Waka Festival

Over the long weekend, Auckland Anniversary weekend, we decided to head downtown and take in some of the festivals while Mark's parents were here. There were several going on all over the city but we decided to attend the Tamaki Herenga Waka Festival as there was to be a cultural performance of a Haka Waiata which Mark's parents really wanted to see after having seen the performance last year at the museum.  We were hoping to take them to the Otahuhu College Haka Waiata House competition, but the competition was to be held a week and a half after they had already gone home.

We set out early in the morning as there was to be a traditional boat race between some of the iwi (family tribes). Unfortunately, after arriving it was decided that the waters were too rough and windy for this particular type of boat. There was a boat on display though, so we were able to see the handcrafted beautiful work that goes into the boats up close.

We visited the stalls of jewelry, crafts, traditional medicine, wood working and food. There was a lovely area set up for children with traditional children's games and lots of adults were taking part in the fun.

As lunch time approached we all settled down to eat, and afterwards headed back to the main stage of the festival to watch the Haka Waiata performance. It was a school that performed, the school that won the Haka Waiata competition last year. I missed their name, so I'm not sure what school it was that was performing. They did several performances all in a row. They did the traditional Haka and the Waiata and followed it up with some traditional kids songs that have actions.

After the delightful cultural performance, we wandered around the area as there was also a buskers festival going on to celebrate the long weekend. We got to see two of the acts.

In addition the buskers, we were able to see some of the Auckland Dragon boat teams compete in some friendly races around the harbour. 

 

Despite the windy start to the day, the sun was out in full force and the water was fine by noon to have small paddle boats out in the water. Thomas of course slept through everything, except this. No one, not even Thomas, can sleep through bag pipes!