The main reason for going was to attend a family gathering in Wellington, at the graveside of Viriamu's great-great-great-great grandfather, a certain Paora Parau, who died in 1892 and was buried in Lower Hutt, a respected maori leader, but as it turns out also a French Polynesian chief, once holding the title of King Teuruarii the III of Rurutu (and no he's not a member of the current Teuruarii lineage)! In New Zealand he was thought to have died without descendants. However, he had left three sons in the Austral Islands, when he left the island to go to the Cook Islands, and finally NZ, around the time it became a French Protectorate - his alliances remaining with the chiefly families that supported the British! Now, the genealogies demonstrate that he has a huge family across the Pacific.
Some three hundred of these made the journey to Wellington on December 23rd, 2017. A new and renovated headstone was unveiled and the family was received on a maori marae, an important acknowledgement of this family history by the New Zealand's indigenous population.
We tagged along, with the kids, my mother-in-law, one of my sisters-in-law and a nephew too! It was a remarkable event.
But, it was also a great excuse to get out and about with the kids. I've been to New Zealand several times now, but was great fun to see it through my children's eyes. The novelty of big cities, escalators and lifts! It's true you can get a taste of it in Papeete, but NZ is on a larger scale altogether. Next time Tokyo!!!
On our last day (New Years Day) the kids chose to go to a shopping mall (everything was open! In Rurutu not even the bakers make bread on the 1st!), to the cinema to see Pitch Perfect 3, the girls also got their haircut and styled for the first time(there's no hairdresser on Rurutu). It was girly heaven!
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