It’s OVER and BEGINNING all at ONCE...: April 2014

Kia Ora whānau,

Welcome to the second to last BLOG – keep in mind that the last blog may happen in retrospect upon our return to New Zealand – SO, this could be the LAST blog IN America, or as it happens right now – Hilo, Hawaii.

Right now, it’s Thursday 24^th April, 2014 – Mum and I are sitting in University of Hawaii ‘H’ Housing parked up here waiting for someone to hook up the projector to the Merrie Monarch festival. Mum and I are staying Keaau and it’s this ‘zen’ type of room – so, first thoughts ‘back-to-Papatuānuku’ type of people.. yeah! Not only is there no TV in our room (which is ok if there was one in the house) BUT, there’s also NO TV in the whare… LoL! So, someone told us they’re watching it here so I walked around the campus asking people where they’re showing it and here we are – sitting in this hall waiting for 6pm for the show to begin.

Before we carry on we must do our VEGAS top 10 (in no particular order)

Mine:

1. Meeting and having kai with Dad’s whānau – Aunty Martina Snow – with the cuz Talbot his wife and kids and the brothers whānau too… such aroha! Awesome..!!

2. Driving into VEGAS over a little hill and seeing all of the lights – Cool, and SO VEGAS!

3. Free VALET parking – that was amazing! Although mum and I still debated tipping the valet delivery guy. LoL!

4. The Upgrade room – it wasn’t free, it was $40 extra per night, but MAN room be MEAN AS! Just the biggest room with the YUMMIEST bed! It had 2 toilets, did I say that before – with a nice view of the STRIP or of Uncle Ross anyway.

5. CIRQUE DU SOLEIL – now although as mum said it was a real ‘knock out’ coz we both fell asleep at some point of the show – it was still a ‘bucket list’ tick!

6. Driving around with Aunty Shirley and Uncle James – they’re lovely and love mum a lot, it was cool to be around them, and for surviving Aunty Shirley’s driving.

7. SINGING on the STRIP – karaoke on the strip was MEAN, did the old shout out ‘I’m singing on the strip’ – LoL!

8. The cheap kai – let’s face it, there was good, better, best – the best was probably ‘The Mirage’ breakfast, especially with the discount coupon we had bought… YEAH!

9. TEMPLE VISIT – Las Vegas temple is beautiful!!!

10. Shopping

Mum:

1. Meeting up with and having kai with the Snows – Martina’s whānau

2. Meeting up with James Murray and going on a tour with him through Vegas

3. Meeting up with Shirley Peihopa, going shopping and surviving her driving

4. Cirque Du Solei – I liked the end, because it was a real ‘knockout’ and put me to sleep

5. Watching the fountain at the Bellagio

6. Walking through ‘The Strip’ at midnight with Dort coming back from the show

7. Going to the biggest ROSS in America (4 floors)

8. Going to the beautiful Vegas temple

9. Breakfast at ‘The Mirage’ – yummy!

10. Listening to Dort singing at midnight on ‘The Strip’ on our first night there – oh, after Uncle Ross kicked us out.

Now, back to our last night in LA…

Sunday 20^th April, 2014

Long Beach Port – La Quinta Suites – Olive Garden

So, I covered up until Mum and I disembarked from the Carnival Imagination – Mum was loaded with our bags – but we had a worker pushing her, so even though she couldn’t see it was ok. LoL! We got to the main road area and I went to pull out my phone to call Aunty Linda to ask where we should meet her when I hear this “Pania!” It was them – her and Uncle Kent waiting for us – aw, blessings! Aunty reckons it was hilarious coz all she saw was this lady loaded with bags on a wheelchair and she’s like ‘That woman can’t even see where she’s going’… Uncle says, ‘Isn’t that Pania?’ and it was! Funny, yet typical…!

Turns out, the 4 rather LARGE suitcases mum and I left at their whare meant that not all of us could now fit in their car especially with our ‘extra’ baggage (2 small suitcases, plus the Ensenada shopping)… So, I jumped onto a shuttle that was going to LAX, coz our wāhi noho was literally down the road from the airport – so that was cool that the driver also took me even though it wasn’t on his route.

Some of our bags we’re bringing home… LoL!

Once we checked in with all of our bags, we weighed them and saw that some were heavier then others, others we under and ok.. yadda yadda, anyway turns out we needed to get an extra bag anyway – so, we went hunting around for an extra bag for us. Poor Uncle Kent he was so diligent helping us find a bag, though I’m sure all the stores being closed wasn’t cool and so we were driving around for a while trying to find an open shop. Before we did that we had a really yummy lunch at Olive Garden – however, mum reckons that’s what gave her food poisoning, although we both shared our lunch and I never got sick. Oh well.

So, after finally finding a good bag – Aunty and Uncle dropped us back off at our room. How grateful we are for loving whānau, and especially at this time Dad’s whānau, more then once had mum identified that the whānau who had been helping us on our trip to the States, and manaaki us are Dad’s whānau. Big HUGE mihi still to Camilla the cuz, Aunty Linda and Uncle Kent, ngā mihi aroha!

Our final pic together - I’m sure they’re glad to see the ‘bag’ of us.. LoL..

I had planned to get straight into the BLOG – but, I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you, especially because I’m sure I posted on FB what happened – LoL.. then again you all did get epistle #8 and #9 on the same day – so, ka pai. Mum and I were up late just reorganising some of our goodies into flying friendly bags and went to sleep.

Monday 21^st April, 2014

Honolulu, Hawaii

My whānau has a terrible, yet appropriate reputation with being late – luckily though, mum and I have been pretty good at our timing. We were up in good time, however, we had graduated from having one carry on, and one large suitcase each to having five large suitcases between the two of us… Did I mention that shopping and –aholic usually goes with the women in my whānau? LoL!

I’m just remembering when I went to Beijing with that Korean tour group before my mission because it was $100 cheaper then going with an English speaking tour group and being the ONLY person under 50 and being the SHOPPER of the group – that was NOT cool.. now, I’m at the other extreme with Mum shopping ALL THE TIME.. LoL!

Anyway, so we had to pay for an extra bag – we asked how much it was to upgrade to business but they were sold out… Eh, so we just paid the money (NO TIP) and we were on our way… Again, someone had a wheelchair for mum so we went straight through pass everyone and felt like we were being fast-tracked. NICE! On our flight from LA to HLU can we just both agree in saying ‘Hawaiian Airlines’ needs to pick up their GAME man! I mean, if I were rating them from 1 (terrible) to 10 (amaze-balls) I’d have to give them a 3.5 – mostly coz we needed to ask a question and so pushed the hostess buzzer and two things happened: 1. No one came… at all to respond to the buzzer and 2. At least 3 or 4 hostesses walked straight passed us without even acknowledging the light… WHAT THE?!? The issue was this wasn’t just when ‘we’ pushed the buzzer – there was another dude a few rows in front of us who had pushed the buzzer – NO RESPONSE – tragedy.. When someone finally came around Mum gave them a piece of her mind.. she calls them kuare.. LoL.. Oh well, we did get to Honolulu safely… ALTHOUGH, I’m not sure if you all heard about it back home, but did you hear about that teenager boy who flew from LA to Honolulu in the WHEEL compartment of the plane and survived? That was the day before we flew out and WHAT on the same airline… LoL! The story has revealed that he was running away from home back to Africa to see him mum? He’s recovering in a hospital somewhere in Hawaii now.

We arrived to Honolulu and got our car – SUV it’s HUGE man.. LoL! But, cool coz then you can ‘influence’ the road coz you’re so big – people will move for you on the road when you cut in.. then again, island driving is pretty friendly – the first few hours I was driving around cutting in where I had to as you do – it wasn’t until the next day that I notice people were waving ‘thank-you’ etc. So, I’ve started doing it too.. it’s nice.. J

Well, because mum wasn’t feeling well as you’re all aware, she had a nap and I did Epistle #9 – ‘Ensenada, Mexico’, that was good coz mum really needed a rest and you all really needed epistle #9.. so, we all won…

A really cool place to stay with really cool hosts - overall it was COOL!

However, once mum awoke and we were ready to go out what happened? It was late and shops all over the place were closing on us as we went on the advice of the reception guy at Vive Hotel Waikiki – can I just say that although valet parking (unlike Vegas) was NOT free, the check-in was LOVELY – they had a glass of cold pineapple juice for us and a cold, wet facecloth for us too.. Did love that! Refreshing after the plane and hot, humid weather that welcomed us here in Hawaii.. So, the receptionist gave us some good recommendations for eating out here in Hawaii – one was traditional Hawaiian food, so we went – CLOSED… take 2 to L & L’s as suggested by Kura – COULDN’T FIND IT.. Uh, got back to the Korean/Hawaiian restaurant across the road from Vive and – CLOSED, people – this is at 8-9pm.. Wow! Early night for these people.. We ended up going across the road to a Japanese restaurant that was pretty nice – then home to be man.. WHAT A DAY!

Looking for the traditional Hawaiian food place - with our Jamba Juice - FAIL it was closed!

Mum at the Japanese restaurant in the end what we had for dinner...

Me with the bonsai in the background - mum LOVES Bonsai trees

Tuesday 22^nd April, 2014

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning – I think we deserved it. Mum was all concerned for when Aunty Mate was to arrive… In any case today we were suppose to spend the whole day in Laie… However, Mum started getting SHOPPING withdraws because we didn’t do any on Monday and when she gets those withdraws like anyone on withdraws from drugs, it can get ugly.. LoL.. So, to appease the shop-aholic in her (sort of in me too) we went to THREE Uncle Ross’s… Oi Aue!! The third one, can I say was a mistake because on our way to Laie we got hungry and decided to stop at a shopping mall for a kai – turn the corner WHAAAT? Uncle Ross staring at us right in the eyeballs.. LoL!

With all the geographical beauty around us and we’re at ROSS?! - LoL!!

See! Look at this BEAUTY!

Wow! Looks just how I thought it would - amazing, stunning mountains!

This meant that we didn’t get to PCC until 3.30pm – Ben’s cousin had organised for us to get a 50% discount on anything that we wanted to do.

We finally made it… it was like 3.30pm… LoL! Shopping and aholic.. it’s a real disorder..

It’s me, finally at PCC.. cool!

Mum outside PCC entrance.. COOL!!

Dinner was at 5pm – we got to the Luau, some people say it’s better then the other dinners on offer so that’s cool! We got general admission first which was only an hour long before we had to go to dinner, but it was enough – we did quite a bit before we went to the Luau. We also did the night show ‘Hā’… so, for 3 different activities it only cost mum and I $45 each… BARGAIN and HUGE mihi to the whanaunga. So, as soon as we had purchased all of our tickets we rented mum an electric scooter – crack up.. she ALWAYS leaves me behind when he’s on wheels that move themselves.. LoL! In any case, we went straight to the canoe landing and hitched a ride to the other end of the grounds – that was COOL!

Mum and I on the canoe around PCC...

“Ah, this is the life!!"

The boys rowing us, one in particular was hilarious!

TINO RANGATIRATANGA at PCC.. this cracked us up…. Ka rawe!

“If you look right family, you’ll see the most visited village in PCC – it’s called RESTROOM”…

The funny one on the right… blimin crack up!

They had to bend in order to get under the LOW bridge…

And coz he was pushing the boat from behind, at the end he’s like “Well family, thank you for letting us talk behind your backs, and pushing you around” oh it was hilarious! Then coz we had two guys taking an pretty empty boat down the river, then around the corner comes this tall, skinny Japanese guy pushing his boat FULL of people.. we cracked up at our two guys, feeling sorry for the Japanese guy and the funny guy goes “It’s ok, he’s got strong engine, he’s Yamaha”.

The Yamaha engine… LoL! Crack up...

She’s off!

Cruising around PCC - just the two of us!

So, we got off and made our way back on foot and scooter.. LoL.. we stopped in Tahiti – that was cool, and the marae that’s apparently only one of three carved wharenui outside of New Zealand. Interesting! One of the guides goes ‘Pania?’ – WOWZERS! I go yup – well, this girl remembered me from some YSA conference YEARS ago in Hamilton – it had to have been MANY years ago, I can’t even remember the last YSA conference I went to in Hamilton. That was random.. J Coz I was thinking that of all the years that I could’ve come to PCC it was at a time when I know NO ONE.. LoL! Over the past 10years, I would’ve always known someone here and I come when no one knows me.. bar 1 random lovely girl.. funny!

A little Matariki - must’ve been younger then her though.. CUTE!

So, we get to dinner and that was really cool! And again, coz of Mum and her scooter we got some pretty good seating. As we were waiting, these people walking around with pineapple drinks so we asked for 2 –

Pina Colada - very yummy!

Mum got a mango smoothie and I got a pina-colada drink – YUMMO, though expensive! Mum hadn’t finished hers by the time the night show started, so we were able to take it into the night show – well, the people we were sitting next to of course had been in a different buffet dinner (no show) and asked us where we got our drink – “Uh, the Luau” I replied – it seems they weren’t offered these drinks in their buffet, we felt a little whakamā having a cool as drink that wasn’t available to them. OH WELL.. J So, the Luau was lovely had boys, girls and little kids dancing and the music was lovely too! Overall, a lovely Luau show, the food was ok.. pretty basic, but nice!

Mum and her ‘mango’ smoothie

Me and my ‘pina colada’ YUM..

As we were sitting in our seats for ‘HA’ the night show, who goes walking passed us? Ko wai atu? Aunty Mate.. LoL! So, we sat apart for the first half of the show and then at half time Aunty Mate came and took us to sit down by her and her roopu. Mum and Aunty Mate sat together and you know what happened – yak, yak, yak… I mean, I had to tell them to keep it quiet.. LoL! As for the show..? LOVED IT.. And that’s saying something that the show I love and stay awake for ALL of it – is the Polynesian/Māori show.. LoL.. Fell asleep in Phantom and Mystere – not Hā! Well, that close to, but didn’t… it was really cool!

After the show mum and Aunty Mate were catching up and having the old yarns.. I think they were really enjoying each others company. That was cool.

We’re waiting for ‘HĀ’ to begin - awesome!

We just went home and went to sleep – our hotel was really cool and nice! People willing to help, we asked them to organise a scooter hire for Mum for tomorrow – they did their best – but, our best got it done.. LoL!

Marjorie, me, ‘Mana’, Aunty Mate, Bubbles - with the star of the show...

The four ladies - fun listening to them… LoL! Take 1...

Take 2...

We also went to the temple afterwards to take some photo’s because we were WAY too late to do anything else… LoL.. beautiful!

Mum stayed in the car - so, selfie again.. me and Laie temple… NICE!!

Love Laie temple.. it’s so beautiful...

Wednesday 23^rd April, 2014

This morning we were up relatively early, our plan was to hit the market at the Aloha stadium at 8am and then be at the parasailing at 11.30am. HOWEVER, when we went down to the reception to ask about the scooter for mum, they hadn’t confirmed it – turns out the shop didn’t even open until 9.30am – that wasn’t gonna work for us.. so, we had to ask the lady to find another one – she did and it ended up being cheaper then the one they had originally quoted for us (very good news). When the man arrived he showed me how to pack it into our SUV and we were on our way. When we arrived it was already getting hot and humid – so even taking the scooter out of the high SUV got me hot.. LoL!

Mum bought that pink t-shirt… I wonder who it’s for?? I know…!!

Any guesses who it might be for??

In any case it was cool going around the market and seeing all of the bargains – better yet, they were willing to give further discounts, even BETTER!! It was good too that mum had her scooter so that we could separate and come together eventually. We were only at the market for just over an hour because of the scooter episode and getting it later then we had planned. We had to leave in order to get to the parasailing in time – I was really looking forward to flying 500ft above the water at Waikiki it was Kura and Shaun that told me about it from Groupon. When mum and I went to babysit for them when they went to Hawaii last year – so I’ve been keen for it that long.

Excited and rearing to go!!

Mum’s nervous… and thinking about the market - I think.. LoL!

Here we goooo!! One of us is enjoying this MORE then the other.. LoL!

So, I’m sure that I had enough of the market, but of course if you know Mum you’ll know she’s not done until she’s seen the WHOLE market even though it had already started repeating itself and the products on offer by the stores. In any case, she was ok with leaving which was very nice of her. And we were on our back to Waikiki to go parasailing. When we arrived, turns out the boat was still out with the earlier group and we had to wait a while for it to return – you KNOW mum was all like ‘Man, we could’ve been at the market longer!’… LoL!

When the boat returned we all got on the boat and out we were going – though they did tell us that it looked like the wind was going to pick up and could possibly interrupt our experience – I was hoping for the best and mum was hanging on for dear life (to the boat that is) she changed her mind on our way out to the ‘spot’ she wouldn’t do it – so, I got the lifejacket on and the rest of the people in our group. Not too long later we arrived to our spot – the boat people hadn’t given mum a lifejacket (given they were ALSO not wearing lifejackets) and was saying she wanted one – she didn’t get one, so she was holding onto the boat – cute!

Poor Mum - we really are alike and SO SO different… LoL!

Coz, this is my reaction to it all… LoL!

And not too long later again, the first couple were up and OFF – how cool! They were here in Hawaii on their honeymoon and man it looked so cool! I was getting amped, at the same time this lady who was going to get to go before me was chickening out – it was a little hōha that she was going before me… LoL! In any case, the second pair went out.. Now, mum and I had bought a ‘tandem’ voucher – and coz mum changed her mind that meant I was going by myself – MEAN!!

Watch them go…! Amazing huh??

About now, I’m getting fully excited for my turn!

There was an older couple before me and the lady also changed her mind. She tried to get me and her husband to go together because she didn’t want him to go alone – I be like ‘No thanks! I’m good with going solo’.. #heckyes! So, I get to skip in front of the man that would now be going solo and I’m like YEEEEHA! Back to that lady getting chicken – she was all like ‘going’ then ‘not going’ all over the place – the wind was picking up and not looking good to going on too much longer and I’m all like, can I go in front of her coz if this is the last ride of the day it should be with someone who WANTS to do this and not someone who doesn’t – she’s lucky that she didn’t get to go too! So, the end of this story is, is that NEITHER of us got to go.. 3 groups flew and 3 did not… I was bummed and was thinking about jumping overboard so that I could at least get wet (as I still haven’t and I’m in HAWAII - #WHAT??)… LoL!

PHOTO BOMB! He wasn’t “supposed" to be in the picture - but we DID both miss out.. LoL!

After pulling back to shore we decided to try and get to Cheesecake factory for lunch – NO parks anywhere so another fail for the day, there must have been like three. Aunty Mate calls and asks us where we are, turns out she’s hōha and wants us to pick her up coz her mates were wanting to go for a swim – so we organised to pick her up from Uncle Ross in Kapolei. So, we went back to our room for a little bit first to drop off our shopping and for me to get changed out of my un-used togs.. #anticlimax.. LoL.. Before we got back on the road Mum panics and asks ‘Where’s my teeth?’ I’m like I don’t know – she’s looking all over for her bottom teeth for a good couple of minutes – NEKK MINIT she goes ‘Have I got them on?’ sure enough, they were in her mouth the WHOLE time.. LoL!

Then we went to get Aunty Mate – the highway was pretty packed by the time we got on the road. We got to Aunty Mate and saw her near the check out, I asked her if she was finished of course ‘No’ was the reply – so, off mum and I go.. for another hour and a bit roaming around Uncle Ross doing some shopping – we then hit Old Navy and mum came in this time knowing now that it wasn’t some ARMY store.. LoL!

Ah, waiting for the Master Shop-aholics to round up and finish off...

“He’s into Ma-kutu” well, what about “Ma-riha?"

They soon got tired of Old Navy and went over to Kmart – so, I carried on and they went on over, I picked them up after I finished at Old Navy – we tried to find somewhere to have a kai and ended up at….. you guessed it: BLIMIN McDONALDS… Aue!! It was fun talking with Aunty Mate – we had put our shopping in the back so I said to Aunty Mate to put her shopping on the back seat and I said to her ‘So you don’t steal our stuff’.. LoL.. we all just laughed. We were recounting part of our trip to Aunty Mate and mum started talking about her and Aunty Pet were planning to come to America together – Aunty Mate reckons she should’ve come with us so that she could ‘balance’ out the personalities – that made me laugh.. too funny! I’m all like ‘as if’, I told her and mum I’d take them anywhere IN New Zealand.. LoL.. Can you imagine it? Me, mum and Dupree (Aunty Mate).. LoL.. We dropped her off, went home and got there late and spent the rest of the night packing – that was CRAZY!!

I’m FAMOUS - on a number plate.. YEAH!!

We didn’t get to be till 1.30am and we had to be awake an hour and a half later! Sleep deprived – needing a holiday from our holiday for reals!!

Thursday 24^th April, 2014

Hilo, Hawaii

Ok, upon waking up neither of us were happy that I had organised for us to fly at this ridiculous hour – 6am. Of course that meant us waking up at 3 and being out of our hotel by 4.15am, to arrive at the aiport and parked by 5am… wanted to hurt myself for doing this to us.. !! LoL.. There’s no need to express that as soon as we boarded the plane – pōmarie!

The moon peeping through on our way to catch the plane to Hilo - YUP, it was STILL OUT!!!

We arrived in Hilo, Hawaii and it was the cutest, smallest airport that we’ve been in over the past month – then again, it was still big considering the tiny Masterton airport – haha!! I’m just thinking in regards to JFK, LaGuardia, Denver, SLC, LAX it was small and cute.. We picked up our car and we were on our way, man we’re both so glad that we bought our GPS back in SLC, it’s been such a good product to have. The only problem this time was that we didn’t have anywhere specific to go. When Harold (scooter rentee in Waikiki) came to pick up the scooter he suggested that we go to a restaurant ‘Ken’s restaurant’ here I was looking up ‘Kenny’s’ on the GPS = no result.. of course.. but, anyway as we were driving around randomly at 8am we found the Merrie Monarch venue and around a couple of corners ‘Ken’s restaurant’… turns out some famous people have eaten there, the most famous ‘THE ROCK’ what’s his name Johnson.. COOL!! So, that’s 2 places I’ve eaten here where famous people have too – Philly with Pres. Obama and Ken’s with THE ROCK.. awesome!

At Kens… where The Rock has eaten before… COOL!

That’s right! It says Airport and Volcano - life AND death on the same board… which is which is the question..

Once we’d finished with kai we went back to the Merrie Monarch venue to try and get us some tickets – no such luck! But, mum asked the ladies in the office if they knew Aunty Lei (the Aunty Lei that looked after them when Dad died)… I don’t think mum knew how common that name would be IN Hawaii.. As well as, Mum didn’t know Aunty Lei’s last name – could’ve been anyone.. LoL! The office lady goes Lei Branco – YES mum excitedly responds, they call her on the phone and mum even speaks with her, this was getting exciting! She said to us that she’d be at the venue in an hour, so we decided to go off to Walmart to pass the time away - #yeahright especially when we turn into the carpark and who’s staring us right in the eyeballs? That’s right Uncle Ross.. Aue! So, of course we spent the time in there, I have to say I’m impressed because both mum and I didn’t buy too much – we probably had the 7 bags back in Waikiki in our mind while we were shopping this time around – LoL..

After the allotted time we went back to meet up with Aunty Lei – coz we couldn’t get in touch with her we both fell asleep and a little while later she called us and we went to meet up with her – yeah, not the same Aunty Lei.. LoL! She was lovely all the same and let mum and I into the venue to watch a group that was practicing. LoL! It was too good to be true and we still don’t know 1. If Aunty Lei is alive and 2. If alive, where she lives/is… In any case, this Aunty Lei did us a huge favour letting us in and watching a group practice – it was really cool and enough, you know coz those seats aren’t very comfortable, so, even now mum and I are watching it on TV with the U of H students in a warm lounge with comfortable seats – and we’re happy with this.

People kept telling us that they would be showing the Merrie Monarch here at the University, so that was our plan to eventually end up at the University of Hawaii somewhere to watch it. Before we went anywhere we stopped in at the Merrie Monarch market, it was pretty cool though expensive.. So, I didn’t get anything, though I’m planning to get something on Saturday before we leave.

At the Merrie Monarch market… WAY expensive stuff.. I didn’t get anything..

Mum had wanted to get her feet done, so we went back to the shopping centre and we both got a pedicure – NICE! Mum got a little picture painted onto her toes that she just lvoes. It was cute! The lady who did her feet told her that she couldn’t wear her shoes for a couple of hours!! Whatever…!! LoL.. So, she settled on an hour while we were in the foodcourt eating lunch – the food court consisted of 2 food shops.. LoL! Anyway, mum bought some L&L’s it was pretty good.. after that we drove to the University to find out where they would be showing the festival. We bumped into some native students and they told us where it would be and I asked if we could come and watch it with them and they were more then happy that we join them.

Our pretty toes…. NICE!!!

So, we parked up and went inside got ourselves all comfortable for the Miss Aloha competition. WHAAT? At some point of the evening we both fell asleep.. LoL! However, being with all of the U of H students was really cool – that whole tāngata whenua link I think – it was a really cool atmosphere to be amongst coz we were warm and they were all into it… they had popcorn and gave us some, then at half time they had ice cream soda’s.. LoL.. and they invited us to have some – so we did! Too funny… anyway, Mum and I left before it ended coz we were heck tired man! Also, we didn’t actually know where we were going because we hadn’t taken the dummy run drive we had planned to… we got THAT close to it, it was out in the sticks – and the GPS didn’t quite get us the whole way to our wāhi moe so we called Bryn and she gave us directions to get there – we both visited the OUTSIDE bathroom (both shower and toilet) in an enclosed rock wall with NO roof – so it was pretty much outside.. LoL! Mum was NOT gonna get used to this in a hurry, as for me I was all like – how cool! Mum went to bed and I was keen for a shower in an outside shower with no lights too did I mention – there were those solar lights, but that didn’t provide too much light.. it was cool though.. I loved it! Mum? Not so much.. Then I went straight to sleep man! It was a nice bed and warm – although the windows were netting and there were these birds that must wake up at night and make noises.. WHAT?? I just found out from one of the Uni students that it’s NOT a bird… it’s a TREE FROG?? LoL and to make matters worse it’s like the size of the old school 50cents.. makes such a huge noise.. did it keep me awake? Nope.. did it annoy mum? Sure did! She wanted me to throw a stone at it to keep it quiet.. LoL riiight.. In any case – pōmarie!

Friday 25^th April, 2014

Bryn at our B&B offers breakfast to her guests, we asked for a 10am breakfast to give us a nice sleep in – well, as soon as we wake up Mum has another sore puku. She had to rush out to the wharepaku (keeping in mind whānau – it’s outside) and it starts PELTING down with rain, so mums out on the wharepaku with her umbrella… Poor mum! It’s definitely a memory she’s gonna keep forever, and me too coz as it was raining I rushed out to see if she was ok – she was NOT ok, but she was handling it – what a soldier! Gotta LOVE her!

The windows were steel netting - it was WARM!!!

When she came back into the room she laughed off the experience and jumped straight back into bed – she wasn’t interested in going for breakfast, she wasn’t feeling well again. So, I went over to the whare and met our hosts who were lovely – had fresh papaya and banana in lime juice fand poached eggs on toast for breakfast. It was really nice having a good kōrero with them, though because mum wasn’t feeling well, I asked them where a doctor was and told them we planned to go pay the doctor a visit.

While waiting for mum...

When I got back to our room Mum was ready to leave, but I had a quick shower because it was so humid, then we were off to the tākuta – when we got there (following the GPS) we turned into the drive and all there was, was this ‘frame’ of a house.. we laughed, then saw the actual clinic behind the frame that was being built.