Dancing the day away at Pasifika

75-year-old Niuean Tifa Ikitoelagi dances with other ladies at the Niuean village at this year's Pasifika Festival at Western Springs. Picture / Martin Sykes

Nothing can replace Niue in Tifa Ikitoelagi's heart, but being at Auckland's Pasifika festival was almost as good as returning to her home island.

"I love Niue and I love our culture, and I have that here today," she said at this year's event on Saturday at Western Springs. "I think of going back very much, but this is the next best."

The 75-year-old spent six months weaving baskets and nylon flax hats for the occasion, which police estimate attracted a record 210,000 people.

Her handiwork almost sold out by mid-afternoon, and helped towards savings for a visit home at Christmas to get to know her 5-month-old great-granddaughter.

The exception was a dazzling white feather hat which she kept for herself to wear in a festival contest with other Niuean matriarchs.

Mrs Ikitoelagi, who also has 26 grandchildren, followed several of her children to New Zealand with her husband on his retirement in 1997 and has been a devotee of the annual Pasifika festivals ever since.

She said her wish to spend more time on Niue was tempered by fears that the lack of a hospital to replace the one destroyed by Cyclone Heta last year would make it too risky.

Although saddened by the plight of Cook Islanders hit by four cyclones so far this year, she and her compatriots had an upbeat time at the festival, buoyed by the presence of the Niuean winner of Miss South Pacific, Sinahemana Hekau.

"She has really lifted up the people's spirits," said Mrs Ikitoelagi.

Tifa Ikitoelagi said Niue's Miss South Pacific was a "gift from God" after the hurricanes that have hit the tiny island.

"Even though we had a very bad strike from Hurricane Heta, now he has sent us that beautiful girl," she said of the 24-year-old, a lawyer.

Also keeping her culture alive in a new country was Samoan-born Mary Jane Schwenke, who led the multicultural troupe Pacific Xpressions with husband Freddy.

Her striking head-dress was in honour of her birthplace's endangered national bird, the manumea.

Mrs Schwenke, a producer for Radio 531 PI, danced solo at Pasifika after moving to New Zealand three years ago but has since built a troupe of 16 members aged from 3 to 30 and sees her Samoan culture as something to be nurtured like the treasured bird.

"It is important to bring out the culture here, among all this globalisation and westernisation," she said.

Old favourites

The ubiquitous giant inflatable replica of a can of corned beef drove a roaring trade, as did more indigenous Pacific fare such as pandanus fruit from the far-flung equatorial atolls of Kiribati, and coconuts from just about everywhere.

Two pigs baked in the Tuvaluan community's umu sold out in half an hour, even though that was double last year's porcine ration, and prompted organiser Beadon Tuisani to promise the demise of four beasts next time.

His people even got Prime Minister Helen Clark into a traditional dance, after the Niueans served her fresh coconut milk during a three-hour tour in which she spoke on every stage.

How many this year?

The police estimate of 210,000 festival-goers was a staggering 40,000 higher than last year's event. Officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Leilua (Lou) Alofa said the figure was amply confirmed by an aerial survey.

Cloud cover during an otherwise fine day helped to keep the number of people treated by St John Ambulance workers down to about 60 compared with the usual hundred or so, but six were taken to hospital, including a boy who broke a wrist falling out of a tree.

Trouble free

Despite the huge crowd, equal to more than 5 per cent of New Zealand's population, movement around the Western Springs site seemed freer than at previous festivals.

Auckland City Council organisers of the free event put this down to a better layout of stages and villages, and a cut in the number of stalls, to 390 from more than 460 last year.

It was the second consecutive year in which the police did not have to make any arrests.