Month: July 2022

Hawaii

We went to Hawaii with our Grandparents(who live in the States), at the beginning of school break. We went because we haven’t seen them since December when we moved to New Zealand.

Plane Ride

To get to Hawaii you have to 1. Drive to Christchurch, 2. Fly to Auckland, 3. Fly to Honolulu, 4. Fly to Lihue (Capital of Kauai) and take a shuttle to Timbers Kauai. The Plane ride to Honolulu from Auckland was 8 and ½ hours long. On the Air New Zealand flight there are little TVs built into the back of the seat in front of you so you can watch movies the whole time. The movie I watched was the bad guys and it was very funny

Kauai

Kauai is a medium sized island but one of the most beautiful. Along the Na Pali coastline there are waterfalls and caves. One of the caves is sacred because it is where the kings got crowned. Somewhere along the Coast is the place where they filmed a scene in Jurassic park. In Timbers ( The hotel we stayed in ) there is a dock in the lagoon where you can go fishing. I caught 31 fish in five days but we didn’t eat them. It was catch and release. The biggest fish I caught was 15 centimetres and it was a rainbow coloured fish. The smallest fish I caught was a tiny baby fish and it was just flopping around on the dock.

Dukes

Dukes is a restaurant named after the famous surfer,
Duke Kahanamoku. That night I had a cheeseburger and fries and it tasted so cheesy. For dessert we had a chocolate lava cake and it was so delicious . The ice cream had little chocolate cups in it. I thought I wouldn’t like it, but when I tried it I was proven wrong.

Catamaran

A catamaran is a double hulled boat and we rode on it down the Na Pali coast. After around 45 minutes we stopped to go in the water. On the back of the boat there was a slide, which we rode into the water, also when we were sliding down it, the captain of the boat sprayed us with a hose. On the way back to the port the boat was rocking up and down like a cradle because the swells were very humongous.

Matariki And Her Stars

Matariki is a cluster of stars that appears in the sky in June and July of each year. During this time people in New Zealand celebrate Matariki, signifying the end of the Maori new year. In other parts of the world the Matariki star cluster is called Pleiades. When we see Matariki we know that it’s time to harvest the crops and plant new one’s for the next year. Each star has an important job to do. Some of the stars in the cluster are Waitī, Waitā, Waipuna-ā-rangi and Ururangi.

Waitī
Waitī is the twin sister of Waitā and she is tied to freshwater and all the kai sources in freshwater. Waitī means sweet or melodious in Maori. Wai means water in Māori and since she is tied to water it suits her.

Waitā
Waitā is associated with Tangaroa (the God of the sea) and all the food sources in the sea/ocean. Waitā is a twin to Waiti, shining on sources of salt water and protecting all life sustained within it. Wai means water in Maori and ta means salt, so together it is salt water.

Waipuna-ā-rangi
Waipuna-ā-rangi is connected to rain,storms and bad weather while Ururangi is the wind. She is in charge of nourishing the land. She decides what the weather will be like throughout the year. The meaning of Waipuna-ā-rangi is water that pools in the sky.

Ururangi
Ururangi is the star which determines the nature of the winds for the year. It was only by harnessing the power of the wind that Māori were able to travel to Aotearoa in the very beginning. He is the god of good attitude and that is why he is above all the other people on the Matariki charts.

As you can see, the stars of the Matariki cluster are really important to everyone and everything.