Another great outrigger canoe festival

Vaka Eiva, the annual oe vaka (va'a) festival on Rarotonga, was another big success. About six-hundred enthusiastic outrigger canoe paddlers took part this year with open, master, senior master and junior teams from Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Canada and (of course) the Cook Islands fighting it out in V6, V1 and OC1 vaka.
Cook Islands News has always been a strong supporter and sponsor of the festival and once again produced a supplement chock full of information about teams, the programme, personalities and the various extra events that keep everyone buzzing. The supplement, full results and plenty of great photos are on the CINews website here.
The official Vaka Eiva website has photos and videos from previous years.

Manihiki pe'e at Te Maeva Nui

I've recently been taking video of this year's Vaka Eiva (outrigger canoeing) Festival.
It was another big success with teams from Australia, New Zealand and this year for the first time Canada as well as the local paddlers.
Haven't had time to edit the video yet and I'm about to head to New Zealand for a week or so and I won't be able to get anything done until I get back.
So in the meantime here's a look at the Manihiki dance team performing their pe'e (traditional chant) at this year's Te Maeva Nui cultural competition.
By the way, Cook Islands News is once again being updated weekly and the archived papers from this year are now available so if you've been missing out on what's happening in the Cooks check it out now.

The Turama festival on Rarotonga

Turama takes place in the Cook Islands on 1 November each year when Catholic priests bless the graves of deceased loved ones and local parishioners take time to remember and pray for the souls of those who have passed on.
All Souls Day is actually 2 November but it is now customary for Turama to take place on the eve of All Souls Day.
The main focus is of the event is the Catholic cemetery in Panama and in the days leading up to Turama families clean and decorate the graves. In years gone by everyone used fresh flowers and plants but artificial flowers are becoming much more common. You don’t get the beautiful scents that were once part of the ceremony but on the other hand the decorations last much longer and don’t make such a mess later on.
Most people still put candles and tea-lights on the graves but even in this the twenty-first century is making its mark with fairy lights twinkling here and there.
Then as the sun goes down the graves are sprinkled with holy water and the choir sings.
In many places in the world cemeteries are gloomy, sombre places but here on Rarotonga at Turama people come together and remember the good times as well as the sadness of loss.