Our journey South of the North Island 

Author: George Maoate

Thursday 12th – A distant travel to Wellington

On our way down, we saw and  experienced new things like “Lake Taupo” which was very huge and “Mt. Ruapehu” which had a bit of snow at the tip of the mountain. We also saw a few army trucks, soldiers in training and passed the Army Museum at Waiouru. However, I know for sure that we all won’t forget about “Desert Road” which will always live up to its name.  There were a few cars passing us and also a number of trucks, although, seeing the absence of citizens and shops got me frightened because I knew that if we broke down on the bus, there won’t be any help around us.

We arrived at Wellington at about 3:00 p.m. and we couldn’t wait to get out of our sitting positions and move around. By the time we got to mama Akaiti’s house, we had lunch and then unloaded the band gear into the garage afterwards. Unfortunately, I had an infected foot so I stayed inside.

Not long after, we got tired. Luckily we had set our beds so we could fall asleep and so that’s what happened. I fell asleep early because my foot was aching and there wasn’t much to do outside. Therefore I thought to myself “I should get some rest since I’m all set” and so I did.

Friday 13th – Exploring Wellington/ Te Papa Museum

The following day seemed much better starting off with a beautiful sunrise, however the weather reports said it was going to end in tears later on and I wasn’t quite looking forward to it because we had already traveled through a bit of rain.

After having breakfast mama Akaiti, mum and I headed off to the hospital to change the dressing on my foot and knee. As they withdrew the fabric on my foot, I could see the swelling thus they had to pop the bubble so that water could leak out. By the time they were finished, mum recieved some of the medical equipment so that we can change it ourselves.

Once it was done, I went to buy a few snacks for us at Pak’n’Save.

As we pulled into the “Te Papa” parking lot, the little kids were ecstatic as they were jumping in their chairs with joy. Since we had a bus, dad parked in the “Bus Only” parking spot. Dad told us that we were a class and we were on a school trip.

By the time we were inside, he registered us onto the list and one of the staff members there helped us find our destination. When we got to the top of the stairways, another member came to show us around the 2^nd floor. She told about everything on each floor, about all the best stuff to look at and she even showed us how to use one of their mechanisms on the same level. Once she was finished, dad guided us through the N.Z. map, where we’ve travelled and the best places to have fun. He said that Taranaki is the best place to be if you want to surf, snowboard or do both. I guess whoever lives there is lucky to have the mountain and the ocean. So we carried on to the rest of the floors until all was cleared. We saw the colossal squid and how it was put into the museum, some ancient dinosaur bones, different types of ores that were from the center of the earth and also the Maori weapons and sculptures. The same staff member who showed us around the second floor kindly gave us free permission to go on the “High Ride” whilst mum and dad were looking after the little ones. They couldn’t go onto the the ride because their height wasn’t at the required level.

We also met Aunty Kathy there because she was on her way to pick up someone. When we were done, we went outside the museum to have lunch. Afterwards, we headed off to Aunty Kath’s house, though she was still on her way.

By the time she got home, dinner was already prepared and we were relaxing on the sofas watching TV. While we were there, we met Chris and Teresa. We had dinner, watched a movie half-way through, and then left at around 9:30 p.m. We got back at 10:30, prepared the beds, took the little ones in and went to sleep.

Saturday 14th - Uncle Mark’s 50th Birthday

The next morning was a big day not only for us, but also the family because we were the entertainers and the entertainment was for Uncle Marks 50^th birthday. Therefore we had breakfast, loaded the equipment back into the bus and shot off to Aunty Kathy’s. We picked up one of the relatives because she was going to show us where the hall was.

As soon as we arrived at our location, Aunty Jeanne and Uncle Andy were already there as well as Aunty Kathy, Shontae and the kids. Whilst dad was talking with Aunty Jeanne, all of us kids got the equipment out. We even got some help from Shontae. Nevertheless, when it was completed, we had a practice for the sound-checking. While we were playing, there was an unpleasant sound that kept screeching through the speakers. Abera had to modulate, turn off and try everything he could to see what the problem was.

Luckily Uncle Andy knew a bit about the mixer and the speakers and showed us where the problem was. Obviously the chord connecting to a speaker wasn’t in completely. So then the problem was solved and thanks to Uncle, we were sure not to have any issues during the performance. That which we were exceedingly grateful of.

We did a practice run for Shontae and when Samantha arrived, we did a practice run for both. We went through 2 songs a couple of times mainly for Shontae to pick up the actions. We did a final practice for her and then we did a practice for Jordan so that he could join in on the box dance and the Sunderland. After a last practice for Shontae, everyone shot off to go and get ready.

When we got back to Mamas, we had dinner, had a shower and basically got ready for the evening. Approximately 2 hours later, we were prepared and we returned back to the hall.

At the hall was Aunty Jeanne, Shontae, some other guests and some bartenders. A DJ was currently setting up his equipment in the corner for the party afterwards. We had a sound check once more to make sure that everything was set and a few minutes later we were singing songs for a couple of people who had just arrived.

The little kids were running around and seemed very hyperactive when they played with the helium balloons. By the time everyone turned up, the performance was ready to start.

“Can someone hit the lights please?” dad asked and so Aunty Jeanne turned them off. The first dance was “Purotu” which was done by Samantha herself. Everything was alright, except, no-one knew how to turn the lights back on and it wasn’t turned on until half way through the song. The alternative was to have Sam on the floor first, then our performance by the girls, then Sam and Shontae so that all the dancers have time to get changed into their uniforms. Sadly, there were a few delays on some areas because of the hold up with the changing.

However, we did manage to improvise and get back on track.

The next performances were done by our sisters who did “Mei to,” combined with “Tamahine,” then it was “E tai roimata” by Samantha and Shontae. After that was “Orau ra” by the three girls. Not many could see them because they were on the ground, although, there were a few people in the best seats at the front of the hall though. Then it was Shontae’s drum dance byherself followed by the “Box Dance.”

When we did the box dance, I thought that Jordan was going to jump in with the girls, but, he seemed to have changed his mind. Though it still would’ve been great to have someone else to join in with us. One of the twins also looked like a boy dressed in a full-black uniform and a cap which had a navy blue color with text saying “Maoate.” Everyone there was enjoying the show, probably because the portion of Pakeha’s there was bigger than the ratio of Cook Islanders. So we gave them a taste of what Cook Islands was all about.

Subsequently, it was the “Ura Piani” also known as “Around the World” following afterwards. “Left, right, forward, back” dad exclaimed. The only dancers with partners were Shine, Shontae and Sam. Shontae grabbed George for her partner, Shine grabbed Uncle Simon and Sam pulled Uncle Mark and her grandfather onto the floor with her. The first dancers on the floor were Shontae and Shine with their partners. I was looking at George because he said he wanted to do the haka, but was told not to. I think the most laughter for the night was from Papa Kore dancing with Sam. It was a special dance for her because she grabbed both her grandfather and the birthday man.

The final dance to close the entertainment was “Manea” which was done by Sam and was dedicated to Uncle Mark since it was his favorite song. He even sat at the front singing the song whilst watching the dance simultaneously. Sam wasn’t 100% sure about the actions, thus, she concocted some of her own actions which were similar to the words.

So we did half an hour of performance which was really short and we slotted some of Sam’s bits into our time frame.

After the final dance for the night, we began to pack the band gear whilst Uncle James, Aunty Jeanne and Uncle Mark said their speeches. Uncle Simon helped us to put everything on the side and even load it into the bus. Tukuneita and I were the stackers and I had to stow the speakers so that everything would fit as well as the mattresses going on top of the equipment. Unfortunately, after all the stacking, I found out that the green drum stands were unstable and there was a huge gap in the center going from the back door of the bus straight through the aisle. Therefore, dad said to leave it like it was and we’ll just stack it all again the following day. We had a few things to eat before we left like the fish nuggets and the sausage rolls. I enjoyed them very much because I was starving.

So 5 minutes later and we were off. We stopped into Pak’n’Save to get some drinks and biscuits to munch on. After that, we trailed behind Uncle Simon and Aunty Tavern to their house. At first, I thought they were in a big apartment, but when we got there, it was smaller than thought. It was so small that all of us had to squish in with each other and most of the seats were taken.

About 1½ hours later, we got everyone up and we left. At that time, I was so cold that my mouth was chattering and that’s what kept me up the whole time while we were returning back to Mama’s house. Therefore, I grabbed my jacket and made myself warm. As soon as we arrived, we all changed, jumped into our beds and went to sleep.

Sunday 15th – Families get together/ Journey back home

The next morning, all of us were up late as well as mama and papa. In the bedroom opposite us was Aunty Katy who I accidently mistakened for somebody else. We did the usual routine, except, the girls went to help mama clean up in the kitchen. On her way back the night before, she brought a box of food from the hall such as sausage rolls, nuggets and others. I was glad she bought it because I felt like something that would really fill my stomach. By the time we had breakfast, it turned out that Shine, Grace and I were the only ones eating them, though the others had biscuits and milo.

Afterwards, Abera went to set up the video camera to play on the television. Slowly, the family started arriving one by one. Soon the whole sitting room was packed and there wasn’t enough space for the others in the kitchen. We all watched the recording and Aunty Katy was joking around with dad about how she was a TV woman from the TVNZ company. However, I really doubted she was. As soon as it was finished, the kids went to have something to eat while the adults were talking and looking at some old family pictures. Some played on the Iphones, some were listening to music and some were talking about chocolate cakes (which includes Teina and I by the way).

Not long after, we all sung some songs and at that moment, there was a family spirit flowing throughout the atmosphere as everyone sung along. Whilst singing, Abera was transferring the video recordings from the cassette to Uncle Andy’s laptop.

After singing a couple of songs, Aunty Katy requested a family photo so we had it on the porch. There were a number of cameras going off as we stood there smiling for about 5 minutes. Teina decided to get the best spot and be on top of everyone as well. “Wow Teina, you had to take the “hot” spot!” Aunty Kath exlaimed. “Hahaha” I laughed as we joked about it.

Once the photos were taken, Sam, Jordan and their parents had to leave. By the time they were gone, the parents went into the kitchen to chat and have a coffee. Dad was the only parent in the sitting room with all of the kids and so he got the idea of getting us to jam together. We sung Pakeha songs similar to Nesian Mystik, Kolohe Kai and we even sung Bruno Mars songs. While singing and having fun, we got to meet our cousins Manea, Keenan, Teina and Cary.

After that, dad called us to go and pack the bus properly so that we were ready to travel early the next morning. So as the kids played outside, the five big kids re-stacked the equipment and the little ones helped mum pack all the bags. The stacking didn’t take too long because there was a number of hands team-working as one. The final equipments that still needed to be stacked were bigger but easy to slot into the remaining spaces.

After that, we went off to play with the others. We were joking around, having fun and just spending time together. Couple of hours later, they were all leaving therefore we remained outside to say our goodbyes.

Moments later, we had dinner, cleaned up and sat in the living room. Then dad told us that we were going to make a move and made a change of plan. Therefore we played along, said our final goodbyes to all and left.

On our way back, Tere played the music for mum and dad the whole way through from Wellington all the way back to Auckland. However the rest of us were asleep. I kept on waking up unpleasantly a few times because it was either my back started hurting or it was my neck. I know for sure that both were hurting no matter where I moved and how I positioned myself. So I kept waking up every 15-20 minutes which was frustrating. By the time we got home, it was 5:30 a.m. Dad, mum and Tere were the only ones who were exhausted. When we got into our beds, Abera turned the XBOX 360 game on and played “Left 4 Dead.” The little kids thought that it was a movie so they were happy to watch it. “Ah, I miss my cozzy blanket, my soft pillow and last but not least, my mattress!” I thought to myself “Home sweet home at last!” I guess everyone had a smypathy for me because we were all glad to be back home. That’s one thing I’m definitely sure of. So we all had a really nice, long, deep and satisfying sleep.

I’d like to acknowledge aunty Kathy, Sam and aunty Jeanne for the use of photos on facebook.

 

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