Festival Frenzies

"Kshhhhhhh" The doors to the orange and green bus doors closed dramatically as the last person slipped out of its clutches. As the last drops of early morning dew dried up I walked nervously across the Gisborne showgrounds. Today was not a normal Wednesday morning, it was the Kapa Haka festival and Wainui Beach School was performing. A buzz of excited chatters contagiously spread across the large group of children. The crowd of kids soon became a blur of piupiu, matching costumes and greenstone taonga. "E hoki mai ra-" kids sang loudly as people tied up the last strands of their piupiu and mad last minute adjustments to their shoulder straps and skirts, "-pupuhi ai e te hau" they continued happily.

"Go, go" Miriam mumbled quickly from behind me as I marched proudly on stage. I looked of the stage to see a huge room filled with excited parents and the smiling faces of Wai syndicate. After the rest of us shuffled on to the back half of the gigantic faded black stage. We started our first transition song which is 'Tu Mai Ra'. Hunter recited the words in time to the guitar and started to step forward. The rest of us followed until we were in the shape of a triangle. The first two rows of boys knelt down as everyone joined in for the second verso of our school song.

"A round of applause for Wainui Beach School" the commentator bellowed over the microphone. We had been through three other songs in our bracket and we were on to our second transition 'Utaina'. Matiria our kaea yelled our instructions and we went through the song. "Utaina mai nga waka, nga waka o te motu..." soon after we had been through once and we had started to move. I walked backwards around the outside of the group and ended up behind the large group of boys. Next was the haka.

Overall I really enjoyed the experience of the Turanganui Kapa Haka Festival because it was a fun time and I tried my hardest.