A HIGH school dance group from Hawaii – Pūpūkahi I Ke Alo o Nā Pua – has paid its second visit to Wellington, performing at Te Papa.

Pūpūkahi, whose full name means “united as one in the presence of the flowers”, is a high school dance group established in 1988, dedicated to the art of hula, and led by Kumu Hula Michael Lanakila Casupang.

The group visited Rotorua and Huka falls, and later performed at Waitara High School in Taranaki, staying a night just north of the town at Urenui Marae.

Their final destination was Wellington, where they stayed at Tapu Te Ranga Marae in Island Bay.

This journey to Aotearoa is not their first. In 2004 Pūpūkahi came to Wellington to perform as part of the Culture Moves festival at Te Papa.