BERGHAUS GIRLS - AMSTERDAM – KRUITBERG GROUP – 50^th YEAR REUNION-HONOLULU

By Henny de Zeeuw
Winnipeg-Canada
October 22, 2018
 


Honolulu - September 23-30, 2018 : It all started back in 1969 when these young ladies spread their wings and travelled overseas to a country which they had only seen in pictures. The land of the windmills and wooden shoes – Holland. We all know by now what they did and were they worked during a three-year period.



But during these three years and living together in one building and sharing flats (apartments) between the seven of them in each flat, bonds were made and who would have known then that these bonds would never be broken.

The Kruitberg group celebrated their first 20 Years group reunion in 1992 in Winnipeg. In 2004 they celebrated their 35 Year group reunion in Vancouver. Now 2018 it was time to celebrate their 50 Year reunion and the destination was Honolulu- Hawaii.  Although 2019 is the official 50-year celebration, with everyone now in their senior years and the majority still able to travel it was decided to do the travel in 2018. Even this year many were not able to attend due to personal illness or family illness.



The planning started in 2017 and travel was planned for September 23 to September 30, 2018. We left Winnipeg with the 24 of us including husbands, sisters, children and friends and we would meet the others in Vancouver. Dolly Bautista, Lydia Burgos - Villa and her husband Gabriel came from Toronto. Faye Lapaz and her friend Norrie Licardo came from Calgary and Tarcila (Tessie) Dela Cruz-Wong and Edith Azuela-Pajar and her husband Rey from Vancouver. Needless to say, that the noise level started to go up a few decimals when everyone saw each other in Vancouver. Some had not seen each other since the 2004 reunion 26 years ago.

Upon our arrival in Honolulu we were greeted on the airport by the shuttle company with a Lei greeting.  After we all picked up our luggage we followed the guide to our shuttle busses. The first bus was to hold 22 people and the second 10, of course at first all 32 wanted to get in the first bus.  When I saw this, it reminded me of the group when they were in Holland and were shuttled to Berghaus every day, all on one bus.

Our hotel the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani on Kaiulani Avenue was perfectly located between Kuhio Avenue and Kalakaua Avenue, the two main shopping streets in Waikiki. All our rooms were located together on the eight floor with pool view and partial ocean view. Unbelievable view to wake up to! Waikiki Beach was a stone throw away from our hotel. Although our hotel was not located right on the beach,  a short 3-minute walk across the street put you on the beach. The first day we did some city orientation, we picked up our Waikiki Trolley passes and took a three hour bus tour of Honolulu.

We saw beautiful beaches and if there was a shaded spot it was welcomed.

The evening was planned for a group dinner. Lots of picture taking and recalling “those days” 50 years ago.

 

Day two the group was of to Pearl Harbour. The weather was fantastic.

 

Wednesday day three the bus picked us up from our hotel at 10:30am and we left for the day to the Polynesian Cultural Centre.

 A 42 Acres Park, which represents the Polynesian Islands in the South Pacific, like Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji and Hawai’i, bringing to life the traditions, history and hospitality of each island. 

 

The weather did not cooperate this day and it started to rain. One of our guides had to run to the visitors centre and got us all a “kapote” and we continued watching the shows. Rain or Shine.  At 6:00pm we all went for the Ali’I Lu’au dinner and after dinner we walked over to their award winning evening show: “HA: Breath of Life”, Hawai’i”s only Broadway style show. We were awed by the cast of over 100 fire dancers, performers and story tellers. If you ever travel to Honolulu spending a day at the Polynesian Cultural Centre and attending the Luau and the evening show is something we highly recommend and you won’t regret.

 

It should be mentioned that the majority of the people working at the PCC are students including those that perform at the evening show “HA: Breath of Life”

The Polynesian Cultural Center (the “PCC”) was founded and is controlled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Days Saints. The Church operates the PCC for the purpose of preserving the cultural heritage of the Pacific, educating the public regarding Polynesian Culture and the Church and providing employment for students to finance their education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii (BYUH).

Our day ended at 9:00 pm and we boarded our bus for the return trip to Waikiki and our hotel.

Thursday, we made a more relaxing day with a trip to the Waikele Outlet. Power shopping if you want to call it. 

Friday, we had our own private chartered bus and the driver, a big Somoan by the name of Cousin Coco drove us around the whole day. We visited the Dole Pineapple plantation and had the Dole Whip and Dole Ice Cream.

We went to the Macadamia nut farm and tasted and bought macadamia nuts. Some even cracked their own macadamias.

We visited the famous North shore beaches, Sunset beaches, Hale’iwa town, Turtle Beach, the Mormon Temple and the Byo-de Temple. 

Another unforgettable day spend together.

Saturday was a free day and everyone did their own thing. Bought their last-minute souvenirs, macadamia nuts, Honolulu cookies, t-shirts and key chains.

Sunday was our day to check out of our hotel. We didn’t know if we would have time to say goodbye to our friends from Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver because of the different connecting flights when we would arrive in Vancouver, so we said our goodbyes in Honolulu while we were still all together.  New bonds and stronger bonds were made. Tears were shed – when would we see each other again.

 

Seeing and being together even though for a short period of time is far more important and creates far stronger bonds then all the social media in the world can do.

Until we meet again.

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The Kruitberg group, 50 years ago !!!





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