The Vimahi family has been running a stall at the Polyfest for just over 30 years. They have done this to help themselves raise 9 kids.
Video / NZ Herald
One family has a food stall at Polyfest that’s so popular it delivers them up to $30,000 a year.
The Vimahi family has used the money to put their children through overseas universities - and pay their mortgages.
The Auckland Secondary Schools’ ASB Polyfest marks its 50th birthday this week as tens of thousands of high school students celebrate their cultures through song and dance.
Gladys Teaupa remembers rushing off the stage after her high school performance to help scoop ice cream into watermelon bowls at her family’s food stall at the Polyfest.
“Lines were queuing up and Mum was at the front calling out the order requests for watermelon ice cream.
“I was in the back over by the deep freezer…trying to make my scoops look nice and presentable - but not at the pace my mum was wanting.
Teaupa is one of nine siblings whose parents - Vaisioata and Makanesi Vimahi - have been selling traditional Tongan and Pacific Island foods at the Auckland Secondary Schools’ Polyfest for more than 30 years.
Vai and Maka Vimahi of the Cocolicious stall have become Polyfest icons after more than 30 years. Photo / Alex Burton
The stall has grown and on a good year the money raised hits $30,000 - which the family told the Herald has helped to pay for all their children’s tuition, school and university fees.
None of the Vimahi children has a student loan and the family has a savings account ready to help with unexpected emergencies.
“The [Cocolicious] market money helped to get one of my daughters to [Brigham Young University] in Hawaii after high school. It paid for her tuition for four years - our money we got from Polyfest” Vai told the Herald.
Gladys Teaupa pictured with her dad, Makanesi Vimahi, on her graduation day at Brigham Young University in Hawaii.
Vai is emotional when she talks about how the funds have helped her children. Some of them use the Polyfest market profits to put extra payments on their mortgages - and pay for their own children’s schooling.
The stall began in the early 1990s when the Vimahis - originally from Tonga - were working at the Bluebird NZ chip factory in South Auckland.
Most of their wages were going towards paying their mortgage, Vai says, and the couple needed a side-hustle.
“Nine kids - there are too many expenses. We [couldn’t] afford to live from this pay to the next pay.”
Initially the couple sold tapa cloth at Polyfest and also the Pasifika Festival at Western Springs.
One year, Vai noticed the food stalls selling traditional island dishes started to run low around lunchtime. It inspired her to start selling her own Tongan cuisine the next year.
Vai says she and her husband were the first to sell Polyfest’s famous watermelon ice cream bowls, after seeing them in Hawaii.
They no longer sell them - their wild popularity meant half the stall space became packed with watermelons. It was no longer practical.
Members of the Vimahi family and singing group The Tonga Sisters pictured at a Polyfest a few years ago. Photo / Supplied
They now focus on traditional Tongan and island favourites - mixed plates including roast pork, lu sipi (lamb coated in coconut cream, wrapped in taro leaves), lamb chops, potato salad, chop suey and rice.
The menu also includes the traditional Tongan fruit drink ‘otai - in watermelon, mango and tropical flavours - and Hawaiian delight Li Hing Mui pineapples.
The Vimahi children have all grown up helping at the stall - which has grown to encompass four separate stalls - learning crucial customer service and financial skills they have taken forward in their lives, Vai says.
Gladys - who majored in Intercultural Communication with a minor in Theatre at Brigham Young University - said her work over the years at the Polyfest food stalls taught her and her siblings good work ethics and gave them cool heads under pressure.
“There were a few times I wanted to quit because of the long hours” she said “But it was worth it because we all got paid well from our parents.
“Now Mum has workers and we get to relax. But we’ll forever cherish the wonderful memories of working at Polyfest.”
