Award boosts morale ahead of 10th festival

Claiming the Air New Zealand Festival and Events Award at Friday night’s prestigious Air New Zealand Tourism Awards is being seen as a morale booster by organisers, volunteers and supporters of the Vaka Eiva Festival now in its 10th year.

The festival will soon be in full swing as just over 1000 international paddlers begin to flock to the shores of Rarotonga for the milestone 10th anniversary of the festival set to run from November 22 to 29.

This is the second time in the awards 3-year history that the Vaka Eiva Festival has been recognised as a top class event after taking out not only the festival and events division but also the supreme award at the inaugural tourism awards in 2009.

“It’s a great morale booster for all volunteers working tirelessly to make the event a success,” says Vaka Eiva co-ordinator Victoria Dearlove.

“This also gives our sponsors assurances that this is a worthwhile event to support.”

Dearlove says that one thing they do as organisers of the paddling event is make everyone feel like a welcomed visitor to the island and not just as athletes and competitors here to race on the water.

“It’s not just about competitors – we make sure all our visitors are taken care of. We want to share what we have here in the Cook Islands and that’s why we have a great on the water programme and off the water programme too.”

The Vaka Eiva family stick to the mantra, “We strive to host an event with social, environmental, cultural and financial integrity.”

The festival will begin on Friday with the traditional vaka blessing before the attention turns to the Moana for oe vaka racing starting Saturday.