Junior paddlers tackle Cooks challenge

Vaka Eivas junior paddlers were out of the water yesterday and racing in a few Cook Islands favourites.

There were stilt races, coconut shot-putting, husking races and a variety of relay races involving coconuts and awkward positions for the junior paddlers.

Local and visitors aged from 10 to 19 took part in the events, dropping their national allegiances and competing within their age groups for the day.

The Cook Islands Challenge took place in the lead-up to the junior prizegiving night at Muri, giving an afternoon of fun and an evening of umu kai as the juniors full-stop to Vaka Eiva for 2011.

The Cook Islands kids helped out where they could, offering tips and advice to the trickier tasks of the day.

Its the first year that the Cook Islands Challenge has been held with Vaka Eiva organisers testing out a new format for the end-of-festival activities.

The juniors prizegiving has traditionally been held on the same night as the adults final fling, but splitting them up this year was meant to give the kids a bit more fun and the adults a bit more breathing room.

And it seemed to work the juniors were raving about the games and freshly-cracked coconuts always taste that little bit sweeter when youve done it yourself.