Festival spices up city centre
Amid the sound of Irish folk music and the smell of freshly made meals, two women sat for lunch.
Nooauri Mataora and Kyno Ruatita spend the morning preparing food for the Cook Islands stall at the Palmerston North Festival of Cultures in Temarae o Hine-the Square on Saturday.
The city centre was transformed into a place of food and entertainment as thousands flocked to the ever-popular annual showcase of the city’s diversity.
While Morris dancers skipped in circles behind the food trucks, the main stage threw out dancing, music and entertainment to watching festival-goers cramming into whatever shade they could find on a sweltering summer day.
Mataora and Ruatita had spent the morning, and Friday evening, making potato salad, a raw fish dish, doughnuts, poke and banana pudding – all done ‘‘the island way’’.
Once that was over, they could relax and take in the entertainment.
‘‘I enjoy looking around other cultures and to learn what you can, to observe different cultures,’’ Mataora said.
Near the tents selling food and housing information about New Zealand’s Pacific neighbours, two visitors from Wellington were proving popular with selfie seekers.
John Nathan, the Papua New Guinea high commission’s first secretary in New Zealand, and John Kemeza, second secretary at the Solomon Islands high commission, were making the most of the ability to mingle with a crowd.
They said it wasn’t something most countries around the world could do – and if it were a day later the festival couldn’t have happened.
Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands had some restrictions on movement and public health measures in place, the pair said.
Part of a delegation to Palmerston North, they were making the most of checking out the city’s cultures and its evening entertainment, having attended the lantern festival on Friday night.
In a shady spot under a tree, Olivia Mackey, from Palmerston North, was waiting for the IPU Kodama Drum Team to take the stage.
She enjoyed the festival, which she was attending for the third time, because of its variety of culture and food.