Once a year you can do Pacific Islands’ hopping without moving from Auckland. And because the timing was perfect: we were in Auckland exactly at this weekend, and because after New Zealand we will do the real islands’ hopping – we had to visit Pasifika Festival.

In a lovely, huge Western Springs Park, 11 villages were set up. Each of them representing other islands: Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Tahiti, Tokelau and Tuvalu. Festival like this took place for the 22th time and is without any doubt the world’s biggest celebration of the Pacific culture.

So here we go: through the crowds of sunny (dark and smiling) faces, not very slim but very much moving in the rhythm of the music bodies and smells of 150 different dishes.

Talalelei, maybe 60-year-old lady from Samoa, came to Auckland with her whole family: – Of course we gonna sell our food, but most important is that we will show the people here how it tastes. No, it’s totally not about the money – she smiled.

Our favourite? Palusami – a bit of coconut cream wrapped into baked taro leaves. And oka l’a – a salad made of fresh raw fish, lime or lemon juice and vegetables. Mmmmmmm. Can’t wait to have it every day :)

Hanna was definitely most excited about half of the watermelon (in some villages half of a pineapple) filled with ice-cream.

And Mila? When she saw those little girls from Vanuatu playing very different kind of drums, she just froze. And when they asked who wants to try and play with them, she was the first one. Our shy Mila, the musician.

Hey Pacific Islands, see you just after this few next weeks in an amazing New Zealand! We won’t forget the oka l’a taste!

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Our first book is out!

We have published our first book (for now just in Polish:) about our Central America Trip.
See, read and order here »