Sonny Williams says that we are on track with our schedule and there was a big rehearsal held on Thursday for our schools who are taking part in the opening ceremony.
“The choir rehearsals have been taking place and at the moment we are focusing on the arrivals of VIPS and athletes. We are also in the process of setting up our main operations centre. The outer islands have arrived and we are fine tuning with those that are involved in the Te Maeva Nui part of the opening ceremony. Our people are going to Aitutaki next week to hand over medals and flags and to train those who are taking part.
“In the operations department we have staging and programming. The person in charge is Robert Ioaba. Robert has been working hard in putting everything into place especially with the 86-piece orchestra consisting of 50 choir members, 8 musicians and the rest are traditional drummers.
The medals are already here and currently in safe keeping with the Bank of Cook Islands. The Girl Guides companies on Rarotonga will be taking care of the presentation of the medals to the winners.
With regards to the flag-raising, checks are being made to all the flag poles around Rarotonga as well as in Aitutaki. When the athletes arrive here in the Cook Islands, a special ceremony will be held at the Telecom Sports Arena with the village mayor and culture team. Once that country’s flag is raised at the Arena, it will also be raised at all the other venues in Rarotonga. The Boys Brigades are also involved with the flag-raising.
There are over 200 VIPS including sports officials and the traditional leaders. Miss Cook Islands, Engara Gosselin will be assisting in this department with the Girls Brigade. Nga Teao is in charge of the VIP division.