Ngaruawahia High School Yearbooks 2010-2012 Kapa Haka Tour of Western USA 1998 | Page 103

Ngaruawahia High School Kapa Haka USA Tour 1998 - Page 101

On the way into Vegas the bus was
‘escorted’ by two hotdogging jets from the nearby
military base.
Arrived at 7:00pm at Kawana Pohe’s marae
in Boulder City to be met by a welcome, an
evening meal and billet allocation.
A number of the group took early advantage
of the heated outdoor spa and swimming pool
along with the basketball hoop.
Te Whainoa and Sandy were freakishly
allocated Joe Apiti to stay with – Sandy knew Joe
from Huntly in the 1960’s.
Joe lived on the outskirts of Vegas and he

took his charges up the strip to Freemont Street to
see the midnight overhead display of lights and
sound – spectacular!
The street is about 100 meters long, roofed
over by thousands of multi-coloured lights and
swamped by stereo speakers – a gigantic
television screen that played different scenes each
time. The 12:00am show was of some of the
singers of Las Vegas – Frank Sinatra, Liza
Minelli, Sammy Davis Jnr, Dean Martin, etc.
This was followed by a 12:45am breakfast
at a nearby casino and then home for a 2:00am
bedtime!

The groups’ first view of the Excalibur Hotel where they were to spend two nights later in the week.

The bus parked outside Kawana Pohe’s home in Boulder City before it returned empty to Salt Lake City.