New Year's Resolution

2015 is here, twelfth night (la galette du roi) and the TERE are all over and done with so there's really no excuse not to get back into the blog, a year of post-maternity (read toddlerhood) leave is enough, not that we are over it yet, but every day Amaiterai is getting more independent and more capable. He talks away nineteen to the dozen in three different languages, he really is quite a big character (and that's saying something in the wake of my two girls). To start back gently into blogging I've decided to back-blog for the last half of 2014! A story for each month.......well it'll be a good start!

The annual Tere (traditional island tour) a test of my flower lei and car decorating skills!

December backblog

It was the run-up to Christmas, and school holidays and our first december horse-race, organized by our association. The girls were practicing for the school concert.

Heimana, a blossoming star, even seems to be enjoying herself on stage!

Matotea concentrates before the performance

Matotea got a quick trip to Tahiti (and mum went along too and got to visit tattie Tracey, yippee!) for a medical check-up, but also had time to take-in the Christmas village and lights at Papeete's townhall!

Viriamu was busy putting the finishing touches on his first horse-cart, it was quite a hit with the kids on the day of the race, though sadly heavy rain made the whole thing a bit of a washout - but even so the race went ahead as planned.

 

In true form, Viriamu's horse won the heat (below), but hurt it's leg and wasn't able to run in the final - so Viriamu continues to seek his elusive race win!

November backblog

November ended up ticking over quite nicely on the guest front. It also heralded an important decision for the Austral Islands, there has been an official commitment to create a Marine Protected Area across the Austral Islands, an initiative put forward by the Pew Charitable Trust, who are looking to preserve the world's oceans and more specifically save the world's fisheries......http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/global-ocean-legacy-french-polynesia
 Here in Rurutu we await to see how this project will help us, but I feel it can only be beneficial in creating an awareness of the fragility of our ecosystem and educating us all on the need to protect and preserve our environment for the future.

October backblog

 October kept us busy with guests, the island and our tourism committee welcomed the cruise ship Silver Explorer, Matotea turned eight and we harvested some more bees and deliciously fragrant wild honeycomb, our previous colonies hadn't quite survived the wet winter, fingers-crossed for this lot.