A trip to NZ!

In july I made a trip to NZ with junior, actually with my mother-in-law and some of her family, trying to find their family in NZ, and do some genealogical research. I took the time out to make sure Amaiterai met his great-aunt and cousins too.

Amaiterai was a little bit shocked by all the changing faces, the cold and all the bustle of life in NZ, but it was an interesting interlude for me, and a chance to speak some english!

A Rurutu yokel in Tahiti!

I made a quick dash to Tahiti last week, to get Amaiterai's passport application in, unfortunately children's passports can't be done here in Rurutu. The idea even of getting a two month old baby a passport seems slightly ridiculous, particularly as eye color and height are obligatory. 

It's now been nine months since I was last in Tahiti, and I'm definitely losing the knack of  city life. The traffic jams and heat have lost their attraction, even supermarket shopping wasn't that exciting - even though we did find some craisins - one of the funny little things that I really miss from CA, and it looks like I'm not the only one to appreciate them.

 

Poor Amaiterai's eyes were like saucers the whole time we were in Tahiti, he clearly didn't quite know what to make of it all, and was all smiles when he got back home to his sisters, though fortunately he was good as gold on the flights.

 

Navigating a hot sweaty smelly city single-handed with a baby wasn't much fun, and running to and fro from the passport office was a real drag, though I was treated preferentially in the post office and supermarket line, which was a small and rather unexpected comfort. It was all a bit of a rush, but I did enjoy a quick stroll through Papeete market, it's such a vibrant place and always full of beautiful flowers, fruits and veg and an array of great characters.

 

I also enjoyed the views of Tahiti's majestic peaks, even from a school car park! I also enjoyed catching up with my wonderful friend Tracey and family, living the high life in Mahina!

School photos

Yes, it's that time of year again, and now I have two heis to make (it's worth it for the cuteness factor)

Easter extravagances

The easter hols are coming to a close, and we're still very much alive after two weeks of guests, girls at home and breast-feeding 7 week old babies......it's a lot to juggle, but we're doing it, and whatsmore, actually enjoying it, in a frazzled sort of a way.

 

Over the Easter weekend we went gourmet  with an excellent passion fruit cheesecake (thanks to the highly unexpected appearance of large quantities of delicious cram cheese at our local store, miracles never cease!)
  Still on a fermented food high, I tried a sourdough fruit brioche (an interesting idea!). Brioche is a traditional French easter thing, so the guests enjoyed it, though my jury's still out, sourdough maybe shouldn't go here!

We did even get some easter chocolates, thanks to some ultra thoughtful guests, the local store had let us down on that one!

 

In anticipation of a chocolate free time I had even gone  the extra mile to do some real painted easter eggs, blowing eggs is too much fun for young and old alike!

Then we had a brief break from guests, enough to have a restorative weekend off, and get gussied up to head off to our first dinner dance en famille (this makes it all sounds rather posh - but it was just poisson cru and chow mein served in mass under a lot of tents with some local dancing and drunkenness)

 Then we've been back into guests, but we all seem to be finding our equilibrium. Amaiterai certainly has figured out where he likes to be best......

 ........and Matotea and Heimana have been enjoying some impromptu horse-riding lessons.