Pasifika festival

So, I've been really stoked for the Pasifika festival for a LONG TIME. I haven't hung out with Abby, one of the AustraLearn girls, in a while, so I arranged to go with her.
Then last night Scott came over and told us the big 10 were going out! Since I've sort of fallen out with that group, I went along.
So, I did not wake up early enough to go to Pasifika at the appointed time.
A few texts later, everything was sorted - Abby went with her boyfriend, so she was fine anyway, it's not like she was there alone. (But I still felt really guilty.)
I ended up going much later. They'd set up sort of areas in the park - a big, winding park, each area representing a different nation in the Pacific - like Epcot, but not so organized. There were tons of booths, and most booths were selling sort of the same stuff - fake flowers to put in your hair, woven purses and hats, shell earrings. Andrew, Isiah, you may never read this, but I thought of you - the same goods being sold in tons of different places, with the facade of being authentic. I didn't want to buy any of them after I saw that they were all the same.
I walked all over the park, got lost, heard some cool music, and saw some interesting people- old and fat, young with mohawk/mullets that are really popular here, teenage guys taller and wider than me, dark-skinned babies with big eyes, roving packs of teenage girls giggling like mad... I really wanted to do some portrait shots, but didn't know how to without being weird (and i didn't have my good camera anyway).
I bought prawn curry and a pork stick (pork eggroll on a stick, more or less) and then split half a pineapple covered in 3 scoops of ice cream with Liam. We sat on a hill overlooking the water and swarms of people; music was playing behind and in front of us, and the seagulls were looking at our ice cream very hungrily, and a thick sheet of clouds was swirling around. These kids with mohawk/mullets were playing frisbee and they kept almost hitting me, but it was one of those soft frisbees, so it was all good, and I guess some famous New Zealand netball champion walked by, or Liam is a rotten liar.
So far I have five moments in New Zealand that I want to remember how they felt.
1. Star gazing in the thermal pool in Rotorua with the loud noise of the bar in the background
2. Walking out onto Oneroa Beach on Waiheke Island
3. Star gazing in Bay of Islands and hiking through the mangrove forest
4. When Laura, Rachael and Liam brought in my birthday cake
5. Eating ice cream and pineapple and watching and hearing everything at Pasifika