The One With Hawaii Five-O Part II

No trip to Oahu is complete without a visit to Pearl Harbor. Even though it happened 77 years ago,  December 7th, 1941 is still very much present in this place. 

What started as Japan trying to knock the US off balance so they wouldn’t interfere in their world domination plans backfired and actually pushed the US to join World War II. Up until that point, wars have been fought by a military fleet: large and mean battleships that surge long stretches across the ocean. The Japanese, however, upped their game and instead of surprising the base at Pearl Harbor with blasts from the sea, they swarmed overhead by air with 353 fighter aircrafts. They brought all their toys to the fight, including fighter jets, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers that hit the base in 2 waves of destruction. All of the US’ prized battleships were damaged, but fortunately, 4 could be salvaged and were used in the war. On that day, however, the base was defenseless. It was an early Sunday morning and most officers were still asleep and recovering from the Christmas party the previous night when the Japanese rained down in a fury of fire.

After only 90 minutes, the sky was black from the smoke with only the flames of sinking ships to offer light. 2,403 Americans died that day and 1,178 were wounded. For me personally, the worst part of that horrific day was the ill fate of USS Arizona. The ship suffered a direct hit in their powder magazine, resulting in the battleship violently exploding and sinking. This all happened so fast, that all of the 1,177 officers and crewmen aboard had no warning and no chance to escape while the ship slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean. Unlike many of the other ships that day, Arizona’s fate was sealed. The wreck still lies at the bottom of the harbor right below its memorial.

USS Arizona Memorial

Even though there are exhibits explicitly retelling the events of that awful day, the atmosphere isn't somber. Instead of just mourning what's lost, the museum rather places emphasis on paying tribute to the bravery of the officers and civilians and also to remember the events in order to show they've learned from what happened. 

Poly- what?

Although, officially a US state, Hawaii technically lies in Oceania (think of Australia and the region around) and is the northernmost island group in Polynesia.

Polynesia. Sure, you've heard of that before, but what does that actually mean, Jumé?

Well, Polynesia is, as I said, an area in Oceania and has more than 1000 islands scattered across the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The largest country in Polynesia is New Zealand. 

The other big ones are Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and Easter Island. There are approximately 36 distinct groups of Polynesian people. While on Oahu, we wanted to learn more about these cultures and visited the Polynesian Culture center located at the north of the island. 

The park is divided into 7 distinct sections, each representing a major Polynesian country. In these areas you could take part in activities like games, sport, cooking classes or learning the traditional dance. There are also interactive performances where the locals sing traditional songs and play on handmade instruments. It was all very entertaining and educational. So much so, that I want to share some of what I learned with you.
So, let's take a short but very educational trip down to Polynesia. I'll be your guide, quirky but to the point, with the main objective of telling you more about these beautiful islands and hopefully inspiring you to go visit at least one of them. I've now been to 2 and I'm not stopping there. 

Kia Ora!

I mentioned there are 7 big and most widely known Polynesian countries. Let's start with the most popular and the one that everyone knows: Aotearoa. No seriously, it is the most known Polynesian island, people usually refer to it as New Zealand. The first thing you'll hear when entering that part of the park is: "Kia Ora!" It is how the Maori greet one another on New Zealand. It's pronounced "Key Ora".  "Key" as in your car key". It means "good health". 

Why is New Zealand called Aotearoa? Well it's the name of the island in the local language and it means "Land of the Long White Cloud", that's how New Zealand has been seen by the Maori for the past 1,000 years. It wasn't named New Zealand until much later.

Aotearoa is made up of 2 main islands: North Island and South Island, as well as several other smaller island groups, such as the Chathams and Kermadecs. New Zealand is my personal favorite because it is just too beautiful for words. The majority of my time traveling there was spent picking my jaw from the ground. The landscape also inspired Peter Jackson to film The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies there.

There are approximately 4 million people living in New Zealand, and about 10% of them are of Maori heritage, which makes them one of the biggest groups of Polynesians today. Auckland is seen as the largest Polynesian city in the world.

Fun fact #1

Aotearoa is the only Polynesian island that has four seasons. Everywhere else it's pretty much warm and humid all year round. 

Fun fact #2

Polynesia is huge. New Zealand is approximately 4000 miles (6437km) away from Hawaii. 

Bula!

"Bula!", pronounced "boo-lah!", can be heard everywhere on Fiji. It's pretty much an all-rounder word like Aloha. It doesn't just mean hello, it also literally means "life," and when it is used as a greeting it means wishes for continued good health and it is also used as a blessing when someone sneezes. 

Fiji lies west-southwest of Hawai'i about two-thirds of the way to New Zealand. It's right on top of the 180°meridian line, from which the new day is calculated. For convenience, and to allow all of Fiji to fall under one timezone, the International Date Line detours to the East around Fiji. Can you imagine the craziness if it's Wednesday, April 30th where you are and with your next door neighbor it's Thursday, May 1st?

Similar to the Samoans and the Tongans, modern Fijians still practice many parts of their traditional culture. For example, most still speak Fijian, as well as English, and many locals still live in the traditional types of houses (see images below). And for formal occasions, they still don the traditional wrap-around sulu or sarong.

Learning how to make coconut oil with our friend from Fiji

A typical house in Fiji

Fijian dress

Fun fact #1

The Fijian ancestors were known to be fierce cannibals who consumed their enemies and made human sacrifices. The brutality of their lifestyle made sure European sailors stayed far away. Today, the locals see those years as “na gauna ni tevoro” (the time of the devil). Thank goodness!

Fun fact #2

Because Fijians believe the head is sacred, you’ll never see anyone wearing a hat. 

Aloha!

Everyone's heard of this iconic Hawaiian greeting.  Roughly, the 1.3 million people who currently live in Hawai'i and people all around the world use Aloha to express love, compassion, and mercy, but also to say hello and goodbye. It has a much deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians, however. Aloha can be broken down to Alo translating to ‘face to face’and Ha meaning ‘breath of life’. So every time a local greets you, s/he is also wishing you to be in the presence of the "divine breath of life". I would say it's quite a step up from the simple, Hello!

Fun fact #1

The Aloha Spirit law became official in 1986. The Hawaiians’need to live together in peace and work in harmony with the land inspired this to become a legal way of life. 

Fun fact #2

Hawaii is home to the illustrious hula, a dance of graceful hand gestures, usually telling a story.

Mālō!

Located about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, Samoa is geopolitically divided into two parts: the much larger, independent nation of Samoa; and the smaller American Samoa. Despite the different governing systems, the Samoans from both areas speak and share the same language and culture and even the traditional chief still practices significant influence in the daily lives of the people.

What I really like about the Samoans is that they do most of their activities together. Their values can be broken down to 3 main parts: faith, family, and music. Even the way they live resembles this, their traditional homes, known as fale, have no walls. Their lofty living space also sleeps up to 20 people and during the day the fale is used as a communal area where they relax and chat.  The concept of family is very important to Samoans. Even extended families live and work together. Like many Asian cultures, the elders in the family are greatly respected and hold the highest status. Respect thy elders!

Somoan dress

Fun fact #1

On December 29, 2011, Samoa jumped the International Dateline, skipping December 30, 2011, to fall in line with the same day as New Zealand and Australia on December 31, 2011 – New Year's Eve.

Fun fact #2

Samoa has one of the highest obesity rates in the world but it’s not because of their diet. A gene variant much more common among Samoans is partly to blame.

And because I love this culture so much, I'm adding a third fun fact:

Fun fact #3

Transsexuals are seen as a third gender in Samoa. Known as Fa’afafine, transgender people have been recognized and accepted in society since at least the early 20th century. Born as men, but choosing to live as women, they don’t identify as ‘gay’but do engage in relationships with other men who, sometimes, are not transgender themselves and who also don’t identify as gay. Gender seems to be a side issue in this culture. 

Ia Ora na!

(pronounced yo-rah-nah)

Ah…Tahiti. Even though I’ve never been, I always conjure up images of white sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and palm trees swinging in the wind. The mother of all tropical islands. Technically, a French territory, Tahiti lies in French Polynesia and is situated about halfway between South America and Australia. 

  

Tahitians are French citizens with complete civil and political rights. French is the official language but Tahitian and French are both in use. Their “French-ness” have gone such extremes that instead of mail boxes, they have bread boxes in front of their homes to collect fresh loafs twice a day. To get their mail, they actually need to go to the post office in person. 

Tahitian dancers

Fun fact #1

Tattoos are from Tahiti! The word originated in French Polynesia from the Tahitian word ‘tatau’.Tattoos have long been considered ways to show beauty in Polynesian culture, and in ancient times were ceremoniously applied to the body when reaching adolescence. 

Fun fact #2

Flowers and relationships go hand in hand on Tahiti. It's common to put the Tahiti's national flower, a tiare, behind your ear - on the left side if you're taken, and on your right, if you're looking.

Mālō ē lelei!

Scattered over a huge area of ocean about 270,000 square miles (700,000 square kilometers), Tonga is an archipelago of 169 islands of which only 36 are inhabited. 

A rather funny anecdote about Tonga is, that when Caption James Cook arrived in Tonga in 1773 during the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to Tonga’s paramount chief (Tuʻi Tonga) and he was so surprised at how friendly the locals were that he dubbed them the friendliest islands in the world.  According to another source, the chiefs in Tonga actually wanted to kill Cook but could not agree on how to do it, so they just let him join the festivities. 

Fun fact #1

According to the Church of Latter Day Saints, Tonga has the highest proportion of Mormons in the world.

Fun fact #2

It is considered very respectful in Tongan culture to keep your knees covered for both men and women.

Iorana!

Finally, we come to the last and most remote Polynesian island: Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. It is located about 4,300 miles (6920 km) southeast of Hawai'i and is actually closer to Antarctica. 

I guess the most noticeable quality that Rapa Nui has is the 887 Moai statues scattered across the island. A lot of people believe that these Moai statues are just large heads decorating the island, but they actually also have torsos, and most even go to the top of the thigh, and others are complete kneeling figures. Nearly all the statues are from solidified volcanic ash. The locals carved them in teams using basalt stone hand chisels. It is believed that a single Moai took a 5-6-man team about a year to finish. Why carve these statues? Pure decoration? Boredom? It is said that each individual statue represents the deceased head of a family ancestry line. 

Fun fact #1

The island got it’s Western name when Dutch explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, arrived on the island on Easter Sunday, April 5th, 1722. Very imaginative, Jacob.

What's fascinating is that the 887 figures are actually not the complete set of statues that the locals carved. Only one quarter was installed while nearly half are still lying around waiting to be erected. The biggest head on the island is known as "Paro". He weighs 82 tons and is 32.15 ft (9.8 m) tall. Now, to give you perspective on just how huge Paro is, the average size of a Moai is 13 ft (4m) and 14 tons. To blow your mind even further, explorers found an incomplete statue and after doing some calculations, this guy would have measured up to a whopping 69 ft  (21m) and 270 tons. The “Island of Giants” would have been a more suitable name.

Fun fact #2

Easter Island was the first Pacific island nation to be registered by UNESCO on its World Heritage List.