Ngaruawahia High School Yearbooks 2010-2012 Kapa Haka Tour of Western USA 1998 | Seite 215

Ngaruawahia High School Kapa Haka USA Tour 1998 - Page 213

Pokaia and Kameta during the meal and entertainment at Medieval Times!

Only four appeared for breakfast at 7:30am
– Tom, Sandy, Malana and Robyn. The rest slept
in and only appeared in time to catch the 10:00am
shuttle bus to the Mainplace Mall that had been
recommended by the hotel.
It was learned later on that the Hotel gets a
22% gratuity from the mall for sending tourists
there (just 22% of what was not obvious).
The mall itself was well appointed and
looked a little ‘upper class’ with not as many
stores as the group had expected. However there
were a number of purchases made and the group
fed themselves at the mall.
At 3:00pm it was back on the bus after the
inevitable wait for those who liked to keep others
waiting.
The tourists were seldom able to get away
to venues on time throughout the tour due to
members who were unable to keep to schedules.
This was not restricted to any one or two but was
shared in general amongst the boys.
The bus stopped off at a Levi’s outlet on the
way back where more purchases were made. The
store had a large size pair of jeans on the wall that
appeared to have a waist measurement of over 12
feet!
Some of the adults found their credit card
balances getting a little too close to their limits.
The pupils were using a little cunning and guile in
their purchases, not accepting anything at face
value and willing to shop around for value for
money.

Jesse continued to be under the weather on
the trip but perked up considerably after a good
bout of shopping in skateboard and surfing stores.
The group had a 150-minute break at the
hotel before being due at the Medieval Times
dinner 250 meters up the road.
By the time the group had walked the short
distance up the side of the highway they had
spread themselves out over 100 meters! Riki Lee
stopped to photograph some fire ants that were
streaming out of a crack in the footpath.
Upon entering the Medieval Times castle
everyone had their photos taken with the King
and Queen (which rather embarrassed Motuiti),
given red & yellow hats with which to identify
‘their’ knight, and then escorted to the arena.
The seats were arranged around a very large
sand-filled arena where the jousting and battles
took place and each section of the crowd was
encouraged to verbally support their knight and to
boo the opponents. Ngaruawahia High School
chanted the Mooloo Rugby song!
The red and yellow knight was defeated!
The meal was half a barbecued chicken,
potatoes and pepsi, with no knives or forks –
finger lickin’ stuff.
On arriving back at the hotel the group was
put upon to give a few items to a large group of
teenagers from Saskatoon in Canada. The group
performed creditably despite no practice for six
days, and was enthusiastically applauded.
All in bed by 11:30pm.