Seven Vakas Begin Historic Voyage by Bear Bloomquist

These are Vakas

A Vaka is an ancient Maori canoe with two hulls. They are 22 meters long and hold 16 people. There are 7 vakas and 2 support boats beginning a historic voyage. Their path is: NZ - Fakarava - Hawaii - San Fransisco - San Diego. They start in mid-April and end in mid-August. Their mission is to promote the awareness of pollution of the ocean. They use the wind to move and the stars to navigate.

Maori are native islanders from the South Pacific. They came to NZ on vakas. The tattoos on a Maori face (if you can read them) will tell you who their parents are and what skills they have mastered.

This is the Haka

The Haka is a dance the men do before battle. They slap their bodies, stick out their tongues and widen their eyes. Here is one version from the All Blacks rugby team(copied from my t-shirt):

 Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
 Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!

 Tenei te tangata puhuru huru
 Nana nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra
 A upa ...ne! ka upa ...ne!
 A upane kaupane whiti te ra!
 Hi!

To learn this, we went to the Auckland Museum and went to the Vaka send off ceremony.