Rarotonga busy with festivals and preparations

Wow! Talk about busy – both me and the country.
At the moment Rarotonga is in the midst of Te Maeva Nui as well as preparing for the mini games.
The outer islands teams all arrived in the end. The government chartered a vessel from Tahiti to visit northern group islands and pick up teams.
But there was still controversy because the first two islands loaded too many people which meant Pukapuka was left with only thirty or so places instead of the fifty promised. Rather than leave behind team members who had all been practising hard for months, they decided not to come at all. This naturally caused a fuss back in Rarotonga and in the end the government stepped in again and chartered some flights to get them here.
How they’re all going to get back home goodness knows!
So Te Maeva Nui is underway and is the usual popular and spectacular affair. I haven’t been able to go – too busy with mini games preparations. Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, people aren’t allowed to take videos which I find annoying. I’ve got some footage of Nikao practicing their drum dance but I’m not putting it on the web until Te Maeva Nui is over because the team don’t want to give any secrets away. I’ll tell you what, though. The costumes are fantastic.
But back to the mini games.
The weather has improved so let’s hope it stays warm and dry for the next few weeks. Last week the national stadium was renamed the BCI stadium at a fun event with Team Cook Islands marching in, races between mascots, kids and athletes to test the new track and a mass fitness session – the zumbathon – to get everyone warmed up.
The stadium is looking good and everyone had a great time as the video show.
Don’t forget to check out the mini games website to see what’s going on.