It’s been almost 2 months since leaving my family at Christmas and here I am sitting in camp thinking about how I ended up here... I thought about how long we’ve been working towards this, little by little... It started with our “5 year” plan which, funnily enough, is approaching the end of its 10th year...
Planting lots of fruit trees but no fruit yet, know what I
mean?
This month though, looks like we have the first fruit on our
fruit tree...
When we started this
blog, we mentioned things like “fulfilling a childhood dream“and Temaeu took a
big step towards that this month. Here’s
what she has to say...
Temaeu:
When I graduated from Cowichan Senior Secondary School in
1987, my write up made mention of the fact that I would love to be a beach bum
in the Cook Islands. Back in 1988, after
meeting Ina and finding out that he was a Cook Islander, it seemed like I was a
little bit closer to realizing that dream.
When we moved here in September, 2011, I was 98% of the way
there but there was still the issue of my residency. On Friday, 17 February, I went into the
Immigration office and after meeting with the director, who had a couple of
questions to ask me, my patience was rewarded. My N.Z. passport was returned with a residence
permit stamped inside.
This allows me to live and work here for a year. It needs to be renewed annually but that is
relatively simple compared to the application process. To be eligible for a
residence permit, I needed to have a full medical examination done; including
blood work and chest x-rays and reports on the results, (which I had done at
the Rarotongan Hospital). I also needed Ina's birth certificate, his parents'
birth certificates, our wedding certificate, a letter of support from Ina and a
police check from Edmonton. The police check took 2 months to get as first the
application form had to be mailed to me. Then I completed it and got it signed
by a notary public and sent it back. Of course, this was happening around
Christmas so there were holidays to take into consideration. I got my report in
January and a month later finally got my passport stamped. In spite of my
frustration at times, it was well worth it and I am so happy to be a
"local" now!!!
Next step, build a
house on Atiu. How hard can that be? ha ha ha
Anyway, here are a few words from the other beach bums...
Alina
This year all my classes are at the bottom of the hill which means less walking around. In the art room, there's a painting of one of my favourite bands on the wall. There's an Aleena in my form class. Looks like a good year.... (would that there was no maths class).
Tere
This is my first year at Tereora and my classes are all over
the place so it's annoying when I have a class at the top, then a class at the
bottom of the hill. But, my classmates are good, probably the best I've ever
had. The only problem is I can't find 'em at interval and lunch. That aside,
seems like a good year awaits.
Morganne
My first year at school and I love it. I'm with my two out
of four best friends, (Kolina and Minona) and the teacher is on the ball, (very
on the ball). The homework assignments she gives are a little hard, but I'll
manage. If only I understood Maori better. I'm looking forward to the year
already.
Morganne is finding some school subjects are pretty
challenging, like learning how to make a broom from a coconut tree frond...
The Sunday before school was to start, (29th Jan), the kids
and I had planned to do the over the island trek with a good friend, Karlene
Taokia, and her daughter, Astarlii. Unfortunately the rain set in and we ended
up going to a couple of beaches instead with the rest of the Taokias joining
us, Mii, (Ina's mate from OMAC days and Karlene's hubby) and their two boys,
Oxyon and Rocklyn. At the first beach, which is in Tikioki, Titikaveka. I swam
out to the raft. When I dove back in to swim to shore, I tried to avoid this
big black thing in the water, (I wasn't wearing my contacts). Just thought it
was another brain coral or something. Wasn't until we went to the next beach,
which was by the Queen's Representative House, that I realized it was a boil of
little black fish. We watched quite a few swim by and even managed to get in
the middle of a couple of them. It was kinda freaky.
Connor used his beach time to create things in the sand and
Tere did the same.
The photos of Tere's didn't turn out but he made a Golum and
then a sandman, (both rather creepy). Alina made a family of turtles but that
photo didn't turn out too well either. Mii made a shark, which was mistaken for
a plane, and his island, Aitutaki. Karlene made a spider. So, in spite of the
miserable weather, we had a good Sunday afternoon. We are still planning on
doing the trek but are waiting for school holidays and drier weather.
The four kids are currently learning jiujitsu from Mii. Tere
and Morganne have class on Saturday afternoons and Connor and Alina have
classes on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. All of them love it! Alina was
saying yesterday that she wished she had learnt jiujitsu when she was ten as
she reckons it would have been very handy at school.
While back here in Canada things are, well... about what you
would expect for this time of year
Anyways, it’s my last night in camp and the good news is a
week from now, I’ll be with my family in New Zealand for my nephews wedding and
my Dads unveiling... can’t come soon enough for me...
Nuff said...
