Our hero takes a fall!

Bastille day, the 14th, always heralds the horse races here in Rurutu, as you already know this is the pinnacle of my horse-loving family's year. There were no tricolor fly-bys or injured parachutists (as in gay Paris), but there was excitement enough. Sadly, Tuati, our raining champion, let slip the title this year, coming in third, after a tumble in his first heat, and some debate about Oviri the wonder horses' form.

Even Mani, Viri's brother came in second, allowing the title to leave the family after 8 years consecutive wins!!!! It does seems like our poor horse has some hoof problems........ and oh well, fortunately no serious damage done (except to my men's pride), we'll just have to come back next year........

14th of July

On a fabulously sunny 14th of July Tuati became the new horse-race champion of Rurutu! He beat his uncle by a good two seconds and set a new course record in a thrill filled final, on the beach in Avera,
under an azure sky and the shadow of Manureva!

It's been quite a year for him, and he will be heading to Tahiti to continue his schooling in August, after getting his junior highschool Diploma here in Rurutu.......well done Tuati!

An afternoon at the beach

Cowgirl Attitude

Where did september go?

I apologize to those of you who have been waiting for the next installment all this last month. We've been busy with the september rush, and somehow I just never got 'round to updating. So now I'll give you a bumper edition. September is always a fun month, the start of the month is full-on whale season and as it's not yet the school hols so we get an interesting variety of international guests, here especially for the whales, among them Dutch, German, Czech, Japanese and Canadian visitors, it gives me a welcome opportunity to practice my English! Not to mention the metropolitan French and Swiss contingent. We celebrated Tuati's birthday with a BBQ with Pascal the Dutch anesthesiologist and Marek the Czech mathematician. Towards the end of the month we made a quick dash to Tahiti for the salon du tourisme to meet our public (three-quarters of our guests are already based in Tahiti, so it's worth the hassle of a 48h stop-over before we get back into the half-term fray), we bust a gut trying to get some rosewood bowls ready for display. I also launched my new soaps and sold out of jam whilst there!
In between, Matotea got a chance to hang out with some other girls at the guesthouse, and even did a horse-trek with Papa.

 

Heimana is transitioning into a 'terribly cute terrible toddler' (who said anything about two years!). We have the tantrums and everything, we're pulling Matotea's hair and giving as good as we get, if not better!

Father-Son Horse Races

Father and son wait for the start of the final horse race

As usual on july 14th, aside from celebrating liberté, egalité and fraternité, we also celebrate the horse races in Avera. Last year Viriamu missed the birth of his daughter to race, this year it was the first time that Tuati has been allowed to race, as well as Viriamu's would-be champion horse 'Oviri'. The last few days have been pretty tense, there has long been rivalry between Viriamu and his little brother Mani, the reigning champion, but the tension was palpable yesterday. To cut a long story short, Viriamu got fifth and Tuati got third in the final, but Tuati gave Mani (the winner for a 7th time in a row) a good scare, he overtook him and was ahead for part of the race, but Tuati took the wrong line on the final stretch and was overtaken at the last moment......next year, next year! Tuati still dreams of gold!

The final stretch, so close but so far! Tuati (far left), Mani (far right). 
Tuati did a great job in his first race, he's just a slip of a thirteen year old lad!

School hols!

It's Whitsun week, so Mato's been off school, living it up at Meme's with her cousin Meisi.

 ....on the neighbor's slide and trampoline (I know what we'll be getting for Mato's birthday and Christmas pressies now!).

In the meantime Viriamu's been busy with the horses......

......and Heimana's taken up entomology!

She just can't seem to find Clatterpillar in the handbook!

Heiva de Rurutu 2008

The heiva is a month long cultural festival celebrated every year across French Polynesia. In Tahiti it's a large and rather professional festival, but in the islands it remains charmingly rustic. This year was the first year that I've really done the whole heiva in Rurutu. The festival includes a huge variety of competitions ranging from sporting events like paddling,

stone-lifting,

and, of course, the bareback horse race along the beach.....

(Viriamu got third this year, but his little brother got first! It's supposedly a friendly race, but there's definitely some pride at stake)

There are also dance, singing, music, flower-arranging and weaving competitions, as well as the country-fair sort of things, the longest/heaviest bunch of bananas or taro root, coconut husking and taro-pounding competitions, all in all it's a lot of good fun for the whole family!!

manioc (tapioca) roots (above left), varieties of bananas and taro (above right)

a prize-winning bunch of bananas weighing in at >40kg

poi-poi making (taro-pounding)

Our big fat Polynesian wedding (part III)

The wedding day
As if three simultaneous weddings were not enough, each of us brides and grooms had six attendants, so including our chaperons and flower-girls we were 54 people in the wedding party!

The grooms side of the wedding party processed to meet the brides and their attendants, then we all set off to Avera (Viriamu's village) for the civil and religious ceremonies.



The ceremonies were pretty short and sweet. (Viriamu and I didn't get married at the mayors office, because earlier, upon inquiring what documents I needed to get married there being a non-French citizen, they told me that they would not be able to marry a non-French citizen and that maybe I should first seek French citizenship!!!! Fortunately the mayor in Moorea was able to help us out....)



The absolute highlight of the day for me was our arrival at the reception on horseback, complete with conch-blowing horsemen and drummers. Traditionally all the couples would have arrived on horseback followed by each pair of groomsmen and maids of honor (each on horseback, so for us that would have been >21 horses), which must have been quite a sight to behold! Now I understand why it's just once in a generation....

At the reception we had our own private Tahitian(or Rurutu) dance show and lots of food (check out the cakes), which was good because there were LOTs of guests!