Winiata’s Blog

Te Awamutu Intermediate kapahaka roopu went to Rarotonga on the 14^th of June this year. We left on a Saturday and we returned on Sunday the 22^nd of June. We stayed for 8 days at The Edgewater Resort.

We arrived at school on Saturday at noon and we all got into the van and one other car. There were four adults going, Mr McCabe, Tracey Paekau, and two of the mums, Aunty Mel (Kataroa’s mum) and Aunty Linda (Anahera’s mum).

We got to Auckland airport at 4pm and we did a final repack of the luggage. We had to weigh our bags and get then to the check-in. Everyone had the maximum limit on weight because we were also carrying most of the food we would eat while we were there.

After check-in, we went upstairs and spent almost an hour, eating dinner – McDonalds – and looking around at the expensive shops. My brother Etere put his wallet down while he played in the arcade, and that disappeared so already he had no wallet and we weren’t even on the plane yet!

Then we said goodbye to the families that were there, then we finally boarded the plane. I sat with Etere and Pania, and we played cards and listened to music on the headphones.

We finally got there at 1 am in the morning. My first impression when I looked out the window was of how small the island was, judging by the lights I could see. When we landed they put on the brakes straight away because the runaway was so short so it was a fast stop.

We got out luggage from the conveyer belt and we got it stamped and checked. There was a man in the corner with a guitar and he was sing a welcome song, and wearing traditional lavalava and a lei around his neck. We got a lei each from some big cook island local, then we loaded the bags and were off! We could just see the beach as we were driving past to Edgewater resort.

On that first morning we just went into the villas and crashed out in our room. It was so hot that the boys all took their shirts off, even to sleep. It was so strange because it’s winter in NZ and it was hotter than a NZ summer over here, even though it was their winter too.

We were also having another Saturday all over again, because we had crossed the international dateline on our flight. So on Saturday morning we ate a tropical breakfast of all sorts of fruits as well as normal cereal.

Then went to the markets and had a look around at all the local crafts. I bought a slingshot and some food. I loaned $20 to Etere seeing as he had no cash, and he bought the same as me.

After lunch we went on an island hopper, a tour of Rarotonga. We saw all the main attractions like historical sites, the hospital, town, and schools, and some other smaller islands that were part of Rarotonga.

On Sunday we ate another delicious breakfast and then at 9am my aunty Turama came to get my brother and I. My aunty is from Wairoa and she grew up with my mum. In Rarotonga she is a lawyer for an American company. Mum had arranged for her to get us and take us out for the day.  First she took us to the Mormon church in Rarotonga, and everyone else in our group went to another church. Then she took us back to her house and we had lunch there with her and her husband. After that we rode on her scooter around the lawn, and watch a DVD. The best thing about her house was her BIG TV. Later on she took us on a tour of all the back roads and we asked all these questions about living in Rarotonga and about everything else she showed us. That was awesome.

Back at the resort that evening we had dinner with everyone else, then we went for a walk on the beach. The adults were talking and making plans for the rest of the week and aunty Turama was helping them with some ‘inside info’ on what to do and see.

On Monday we went on the highland paradise tour, where we saw the sites like the old marae. The tour guide pointed out all these other places where the Cook Island gods had made sacrifices on a big rock. A lot of their gods were the same as our maori gods, like Tangaroa. We saw the rock that pointed the way to Aotearoa New Zealand. We were told about their early life on the island and other historical information about their tribes.

 Then we had a big lunch with taro and coconut and more fruit. In the afternoon we went snorkelling, and I saw lots of tiny fish.

On Tuesday we were supposed to hire pushbikes and ride around the island but that got cut off the itinerary. So instead we went to the shops all day. That night we had island night at Edgewater Resort. It was held in the restaurant on their stage. There was exotic dancing and drums and performances from the locals. We had a big dinner of roast meats and seafood and curries and lots of salads. There were loads of desserts and cakes and pavlova and chocolate so we ate a lot that night.

This is part one and part two will follow!

On Sunday, the 13th of July my mum, my cousin Bronte and I packed a bag each and left home for Mt Ruapehu. We drove for two hours to Pukawa, to the chalet where we were going to stay for the next two nights. Pukawa is near Turangi, and my dad helped to build the house that we stay in  over there.

When we finally arrived, we went inside and were greeted by some of my dad’s uncles and aunties. Mum started talking to them, while my cousin Bronte and I sat on the couch and ate biscuits. Then we saw another car arrive outside. We rushed outside to see who it was, and it was my cousins Maurice and Clint from Wairoa. They had finally arrived, and they were spending the next two days with us.

While they were talking, my cousins and I caught up. I was buzzing with joy because I love being around all my cousins. When they come, mum usually gives us money, and we go places and have fun. The last time they came, my older cousin Eden had a baby, and a lot of people came to stay our house, which was really fun. 

After mum had finished talking, we went upstairs, unpacked all our gear, and started cooking dinner. I was really excited about being with my cousins because I thought one of two things would happen. Either mum would give us lots of money, or we would go somewhere fun and exciting. We chatted for a long time that night and discussed what we were going to do the next day.

We were going up to Whakapapa to go skiing, but we couldn’t decide if we should do skiing or snowboarding. I am the only one of all my cousins who has ever skied before. We couldn’t make up our minds, and we went to sleep that night still uncertain about what we were going to choose.

The next day I was awoken by a light right above my eyes. It was 6 o’clock in the morning, and we were having a very early breakfast. We were in a rush, even though it was really early. We got changed quickly and loaded the car with our supplies and hit the road.

We travelled for about half an hour, then we pulled in at a rental shop. We all got out and raced inside. I looked around for the coolest gear, and I found lots of snow gear, but I couldn’t get it because that wasn’t what we had come for. 

I had all my own gear, but my three cousins had no proper clothing because it was their first time on the mountain. One of the staff showed them where to find the right gear, and then they tried it all on for size. After the fittings, we went to the counter where we were going to hire them. While we were there, mum also bought us the lift passes that we would need on the ski slopes, so we wouldn’t have to worry about lining up again when we got up there. By now we were 30 minutes behind schedule!

We drove the rest of the way and we parked at the top of the Bruce road. There was snow on the ground alongside where the cars were parked. We leapt out of the car and began playing with it right away. Mum told us to hurry up because we still had to get snowboards and boots at the rental place in Happy Valley.

By the time we got everything, it was 9am. We had a snowboarding lesson at 9.30am, so we had to whip through rentals. I was really excited when I was given my gear because I felt like a professional using a snowboard. After we had geared up we were sent to the flag, where a group of other snowboarders were waiting. After joining the group we were given an instructor, and then we were off. In the lesson we were taught how to turn and all the basic moves. It was really fun because I was excelling and getting better and faster, while my cousins were falling behind. 

After 1 1/2 hours of being taught, we just wanted to get down those slopes and try out what we had just learned. I was powering down the hill, and I had to wait for ages down the bottom while my cousins came down. We spent the whole morning having races, trying some new tricks, or just sliding down on our butts just for the fun of it. 

After lunch we met our other 3 cousins and an uncle from Pirongia who were also skiing. They were staying the night with us at Pukawa, so we were even happier to see them. We spent part of the afternoon with them, then we tried going down really fast, and going backwards on the boards. 

By the end of the day, my cousins and I were soaking wet, and really tired. We couldn’t wait to get changed. On the way to our accommodation, we grabbed snowballs and bombed my uncle’s car. That was a great laugh, my uncle didn’t look too happy, but we didn’t care.

When we arrived home, we stripped out of our snow gear and sat in front of the heater. We talked about our day and if we were going to snowboard the next day. My calf muscles were aching, so we decided to go to the hot pools. We packed all our togs in the car and left.

When we arrived at the hot pools, we looked into a nearby river for some fish, but it was too dark to see. So we went in and got changed into our togs. We could see the steam rising up, even though we were outside. I tested the pool water by sticking my foot in first, and the water was so hot that it felt the opposite, it felt freezing cold. The temperature was so diverse that at first my body couldn’t tell whether the water was hot or cold! 

After a while, I slowly lowered myself into the pool, and the pain seemed to go away. It was really relieving, and I wanted to stay in it for a long time. We stayed in the pools until we got tired, then we got dressed and drove back to the chalet. 

The next morning, we knew what we were supposed to do, so we got straight to it. After packing the car, we zoomed off towards the mountain. We had decided to snowboard, but we also wanted to toboggan, so we thought about doing half a day of each, but we couldn’t make up our minds.

After rentals, we went down to happy valley, and we snowboarded for a while, until I started to think about going higher. I asked my cousins, but they wanted to stay in happy valley. After going down a few times, I just gave up on my cousins and went up to the rock garden on my own. It was the next trail up, and it was steeper and more challenging than happy valley. 

As I rode up on the chairlift I studied the trail, so I knew where I would be going. The Rock Garden was awesome for the first time down because of all the steep parts, so it wasn’t boring. When I got to the bottom, I was reunited with my cousins, who had finally come up.

We spent most of the day in the rock garden, learning some new tricks and getting better at snowboarding. We went over bumps, and sometimes we tried doing some jumps. One time, we even went off the track and onto another track which lead straight down to the car park. 

After lunch I wanted to go tobogganing, so we got the gear, but we had to walk all the way down to the car park, then walk all the way back up, then we had to walk even further up to get to the tobogganing area. 

The place was just a hill with a marked out area where people were sliding down. Once we saw how fast they were going, we raced up that hill, got on our sledges, and zoomed down the hill. One time, my cousins and I rammed in to the side, and crashed! We were laughing our heads off, because we had both set each other up to crash. 

We went down that hill several times, until we finally got tired, and slid back down to happy valley. We spent the rest of the afternoon snowboarding again. I did my best jump that day, and landed without falling over. I was so rapt that I kept falling over the rest of the way.  

That was the best day of my holidays, and I sure made the most of it. A great day spent up on the mountain left us so tired that we couldn’t even be bothered putting our clothes away, we just dropped them in the hallway, which didn’t please mum very much. 

That night was long and relaxing, but we were too tired to go to the hot pools, so we just rested on the couch and watched TV. As we ate dinner we thought about all the wonderful things we had done that day. I was really keen to do it again, but I knew we weren’t going up again tomorrow.

The next day we slept in so long that my uncle had been fishing for over an hour before we actually got up! But apart from the moaning the morning was pretty good….NOT! We had to clean the whole place up, which meant sorting clothes and packing our bags, vacuuming the house, sweeping the deck, doing the dishes and loading the car. We just couldn’t be bothered, but we still did it.

As we got into the car, I was really sad because I knew I wouldn’t be seeing my cousins again for a long time, and we had had such great fun together. But we had to say our goodbyes and leave. My cousins were going back to Wairoa and I was going back to Te Awamutu with mum. I was hoping that I would be able to do this again this season, and I can’t wait for the day when I will be able to go all the way to the top of Mt Ruapehu on my snowboard. 

Oh I just can’t wait to till Saturday. All this work and preparing has finally paid off. At 7-15pm on Saturday a plane is departing Auckland International Airport for Rarotonga! And my brother and I are boarding. We’re spending 8 days in Rarotonga, and here are some of the activities –   

Sat 14th – arrive Rarotonga 1am, sleep. At 9am, Punanganui Markets. After lunch, full island tour with Island hopper vacation.

Sunday – Cook Is. church service – Afternoon free        

Monday – Highland Paradise tour till noon, then afternoon free.

Tuesday – going to Fruits of Rarotonga for swim/snorkel.      

Afternoon free, then Island Night dinner & show at Edgewater.

Wednesday – Capt Tama’s lagoon cruise at 11am.

Thursday – mountain trek, climb to needle and Wigmores     Waterfall

Friday – whole day free. Go to airport at midnight; fly out    to NZ at 2am.

 It’s going to be such a cool experience and I hope ill be able to do it again.

In the weekend, my family and I packed the car, ready to depart on our journey up north just past Whangarei. We were attending the wedding of my cousin and her fiancé. Once in the car I knew it would be an uncomfortable ride, and I wasn’t wrong! I was stuffed up in the back with all these groceries around me. They were annoying me, especially the bread because I had to take extra care with it or else it would have been squashed.   After driving all the way through Auckland, we arrived in Whangarei after dark, and just couldn’t wait to get out and stretch! But the trip wasn’t over then. We still had another 40 minutes to bear until we arrived at our true destination. As we were travelling we went through a long and winding road. As we turned one of the corners, I looked out the window and I just caught a glimpse of a poster with a dark mask on it, like Phantom of the Opera. That sure gave me the creeps, especially when I couldn’t see anything else. Finally the trip was over, and we unloaded the car, dumping our gear anywhere we could. We were staying at my nana’s place for a couple of nights. Straight away I lay on the couch and drank my Milo. About ten minutes later, more people arrived but I didn’t have a clue who they were, whereas mum seemed to know them all, so I didn’t have to worry. That night my nana was in pain and mum had to take her to the hospital at ten o’clock at night, but she didn’t get back till five in the morning! This made the baby really upset. He had been crying for about half an hour when we finally gave up and let the baby out of the room where we were trying to put him to sleep. We stayed up with the baby for a long time, until finally he fell asleep. Next morning I woke up with major bags under my eyes. That morning we got dressed into our good clothes and went out for breakfast to find the bride in her white dress, with her hair all straightened out and all her make-up and stuff, ready for her big day. And next to her were the bridal party. I couldn’t believe that we spent the whole night with the bridal party and I didn’t even know.That was a surprise! After a while, we packed up our beds, and got into the car. Mum was really tired, and she was having second thoughts about driving. But we got there anyway. The wedding was being held in a field in my auntie’s paddock. As we arrived we saw a big marquee pitched in the middle with all these cars parked in rows in the front. Once we had parked the car, we noticed that it was raining down, so we got the umbrella out and went around, greeting all of our extended whanau. We got to the entrance and stood, with a crowd of people, under a shelter. There were some boys emptying puddles off of our shelter, so my brother and I decided to join in. We gathered all this water in a big puddle on the roof of the marquee and moved it to the edge. Once everyone had stepped back, we pushed the water over the edge and we watched it splash all over the ground. We found it so amusing that we repeated it several times, each time making it bigger and bigger. Suddenly, the crowd were silenced, then I heard them talking about a pink Cadillac. I was wondering what it was about, then I peeked around the corner and saw the answer. A pink Cadillac had just driven through the mud on the driveway and stopped beside a walkway (which I had only just noticed). A moment later, the bridal party got out of the car. The bride was wearing her white dress with a long train out the back, which was held up by the maid of honour – her sister. She was leading with the bridesmaid by her side. The path they were walking was decorated with plants and flowers. There were three people standing at the end of the path, waiting for them. Then they proceeded to the big totara tree that was between the path and the entrance to the marquee. There was a man standing under the totara tree. He was the bishop of a church. He was going to marry them. As the bride arrived at the tree, she was joined by her fiancé. They smiled, and the bishop started to talk. Everyone came in closer to try and listen to what he was saying. He was pronouncing the vows. Everyone was happy as they watched them get married. When it was finished they were all cheering. People started proceeding to the big marquee. As I walked in, I could see all these tables lined up nicely, with all these chairs placed around them. There was a long row of seats with people standing around them. The Master of Ceremonies announced that it was time to take photos. One by one, group by group, people started to come up and either take a photo or have their photo taken. About half an hour later, everyone had settled down, and the MC stated that it was time for the speakers. People from the bridal party stood up to express their feelings for the new couple. Other people talked about the bride and groom when they were kids, how they had met, and how happy they looked. Mum had a speech and talked about our great grandfather who has been dead for 16 years. He was the Patriarch of our family. After that we just stood beside her when she sang her song. Finally it was my favourite part – time to eat! There was a long table in the middle of the marquee and it was covered in food. Seafood was crayfish, kinas, pauas, raw fish, smoked snapper-heads, mussels, and really big oysters, as big as fried eggs. In the hangi there were huge trays of mutton, chicken, pork, kumara, pumpkin, stuffing and spuds. For dessert we had ice-cream, steam pudding, fruit salad, and chocolate logs. The wedding cake was a german chocolate cake. When all the eating was over they had a huge party and the DJ played music which was loud as. Everyone had beers but by this time it had been raining so hard that the ground was really churned up with mud and people had to go home to get changed and put gumboots on. After we went home they said that the paddock flooded and all the cars got stuck trying to leave! We stayed there for two more days. Then at 3 am on Monday morning my brother Etere got a bug from the other kids in the house. He was vomiting and felt sick. So then mum decided it was time to leave and go back home, if everyone was going to end up vomiting. On the trip home we only got as far as Whangarei and I puked all over my uncle’s lawn! I was just as sick as Etere. We drove to Auckland and just as we were leaving there, my little brother Jordan vomited all inside the car. Now he had the bug. The smell was unbearable, and we all felt like throwing up again. Mum was the only one who didn’t get sick. We arrived home safe and sound later that night. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the trip even though it rained most of the time and everything was either soaking wet, or covered in mud or vomit! The good part was being at the wedding and seeing all the whanau again.