And it was also my sister's birthday that day.

The day we went to the Te Papa Museum, June 18th, was rather busy. We had just come from meeting the very colorful Ambassador, and knew that we would be doing our last full performance in New Zealand later that evening. We performed in the Marae on the top level of the museum. We'd been in two Maraes before, each absolutely beautiful in their own right, but this Marae literally pops. The traditional carvings have a modern spin and were more 3-dimentionall. It was an absolutely sunning venue. Before our mini performance we did a flashmob in the atrium of the museum to let people know we were there and that we would perform within the next 15 minutes. 

It was really cool to walk up to the top level with some of the audience members. They were excited about what they had heard, they were astounded by the beauty of the building and by what little they had already heard of and about us. Some people knew of our performance and had planed to be there, but there were quite a few that were pleased as punch to be there. One elderly gentleman that I talked to said that he and his wife were getting a late start on their day off together, so instead of going for a walk they decided to take a trip to the museum, just on a whim.

There was a Women's Barbershop Quartet from a local High School that performed before we did; they were really good, it was fun to hear that style with their own Kiwi twists.
It was a very personal performance for many reasons. We were able to see the audience, as it was mid-day and, and able to mingle some before and for a good while after. After we had done our bit, some of the elderly Maori in the first couple rows started to sing back to us, thanking us for honoring their Marae with our voices. I remember before we left on tour we were a little nervous about the pronunciation for our Maori songs and we worked to make sure we were saying things properly. It was such a comfort to perform and get that validation of our effort and our offering, because sometimes--especially on this particular day-- it felt like we were heaving up our souls in song.
I got to talk to a lady who was sitting in the front row and found out that she is coming to BYUH this September for the 50th anniversary of the PCC, because she was one of the labor missionaries who came to build it and was in the first group of performers in the Aotearoa village. It was really beautiful to meet her and her family, knowing what a blessing she helped to create. There were others there that were impressed by our spirit and the cultures that we were able to represent.