Here it is November and I'm thinking, I should update the blog so, here we go!!
National Math Quiz.
Ok, chronologically, this is a little bit before the last post but I was thinking, better late than never!. Anyways, in the week before World Cup, the National Math Quiz was held at the Auditorium. It involved schools from Rarotonga as well as schools from the outer islands such as Aitutaki and Atiu that were flown in to participate. The schools provide teams from the relevant years (grades) and they are pitted against each other in a timed competition with a set amount of questions. Both Tere and Morganne were chosen to represent their school, Arorangi Primary, in the usual exhaustive process whereby their teacher informed them the day before, "Oh, by the way, you two are in the National Math Quiz", followed by quizzical looks and comments such as "what did he/she say??".
Anyways, after a bit of scrambling around by the parents to figure out what was going on, then getting there to support the kids, it turned out to be a great night!.
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| Tere and Morganne brainstorming it |
Morganne's team finished in the middle of the pack and Tere's team were just pipped for 3rd place out of 18 teams. Way to go Tere & Morganne!.
RWC 2011.
WHAT THE !!!!!… Who would have predicted that result!!!… Anyways, its was our first World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere in 17 years so we wanted to do… something special??!?…
Well, John Carter, the High Commissioner for the Cook Islands & the Government decide to create a Cook Islands Fanzone for the final so when we see that in the paper, we figure "Its All On!!!!…." They set up the National Auditorium for the big night with a huge screen, admission is free, schools are invited to the "Haka" competion, local vendors are invited to provide refreshments (and make some money for themselves), face painting stalls are set up, its advertised on National T.V. and newspapers as a "family night, come along, dress-up and have fun!" and they make the venue alcohol free (awesome). Heres a few pics of the kids getting into the spirit and blurry shots of the haka competion and Richie hoisting the cup.
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| George Kapa Haka group of Arorangi |
Sweet Victory!!
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| HAKA!! |
What you won't see in the photos is Tania hiding behind my shoulder and peeking out at the screen for most of the second half..., or myself mentally preparing myself for "Four More Years" in case we lost..., or the palpable tension in the Auditorium that you could cut with a machete, then the almost agonizing relief as the final whistle went… I have to admit to "getting a bit of dust in my eyes" at the end of that game but now that I look back, I think, what an awesome win for the AB's!. The French brought their 'A' game (and we all know what can happen when they do!), but at the end of the day, we stood fast and shut 'em down. I absolutely think that on the day that mattered the most, we were the best team IN THE WORLD! and it was awesome to share it with over 1000 like-minded C.I.'s…
It was such an awesome night that, when we left, I didn't really mind it when our rental broke down in the middle of a rugby field (temp car park) and we had to run to catch the "clockwise" bus to get home… The next morning we went down to the rental company and gave them the key and told them "maybe you should go get your car, they might want to play a game on the field soon!!"
Whanau in Paradise.
We've been going to church regularly as it was something Tania and I thought we should pick up again. We attended in Canada, but drifted away from it a bit when we were in Edmonton. We attend Arorangi CICC and a week after RWC, we were enjoying the service there and as we were leaving, a lady passed in front of us, I nudged Tania and said " Boy, that lady really looks like your cousin Moeawa (nee Tamanui)". A minute later we were outside and that same lady was standing next to a man that looked familiar. I remember thinking how much he looked like Moeawa's husband George Masina. After thoughts of doppelgängers passed through my mind I realized the obvious, they actually were Tania's cousin & husband. They were here for a wedding on the following Tuesday along with a bunch of other cuzzies,… turns out, Moeawa's sister's son was getting married to a girl with Mangaian ancestry. After greetings we said we had to rush off to collect another rental as we were going to a 5th birthday that afternoon, but promised to hook up in the next day or so.
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| Moeawa |
Cut to 5th Birthday…
We show up at the appointed time and as we are walking in, I met a friend I haven't seen since the OMAC (Otara Music Arts Centre) days, John Peyroux. He was in a band called 'Thats Us" back in the day. He is also closely related to Mi'i Taokia, the father of the birthday boy. Mi'i lives here and he and I go back to the OMAC days also. After a bit of chatting, we find out Johns here for a wedding too, on Tuesday!!. So, within 2 hours, we run into Tania's family, who are here for the groom and my old mate from OMAC who are here for the bride at the same wedding… What a small world!!!…
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| Mi'i and John |
Cut back to whanau…
Anyways, we got together with Tania's whanau later in the week and she was very happy to be able to visit. By the way, if you see people that look Polynesian but you're not sure, they're the ones that go swimming with their sunglasses on…
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| Zena & Tania |
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| "I wear my sunglasses......inthelagoon" |
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| WHANAU |
Nuff said for now...
