Tonga: Crying for a Hot Shower

Tunitau and Sepa - they sent us to Tonga with the keys to their house

After a couple of hours of scrambling and expensive taxi rides to the Tongan Embassy, we were able to resolve the problem.

Tongatapu International Airport!  Small!  A baggage claim and a couple of customs desks

Airport welcome

2 nights in a village called Houma

Something cool to drink

Kava, feeding coconuts to his pigs

We got our first taste of local Tongan generosity and kindnesses.



We also got our first taste of drinking coconuts instead of water, breadfruit, lu, and even "horsie."

one door is the toilet, the other door is the shower

Kitchen.  The freezer/refrigerator is in the foreground.  The next picture is a look inside...

chicken and coconuts

bedroom

Joyce on a swing in the backyard.

Backyard from a different angle

We drove around the entire main island in a day, seeing some of the main sights.  You pass 36 LDS church buildings, 2 LDS intermediate schools, 1 LDS high school, and an LDS temple on the main loop around the island!

outdoor baptismal font

Green school uniforms of the Liahona High School

Random people on the street

We enjoyed talking with this missionary couple, serving at Liahona.

Lunch stop.  Our boys and Villiami in the truck.

Breadfruit and fish

Remind anyone of the story about Great-grandpa Miller?

Villiami came with us for the day.
He'd been sent home from Liahona because his hair was too long.

cemetery 

That's all the pictures - now there's just writing...

I have never found myself crying before, because of a hot shower.  But, there I was, warm tears running down my face and mixing with the warm water of the shower in our 1-star guesthouse on the main island of Tonga.  We had just spent 8 nights staying with local Tongans who use outdoor showers, and the warm shower made me feel sad that our adventure was almost at an end.  We were just hours away from boarding our flight back to New Zealand.

The idea for this trip started a couple of years ago, when Elder Hamula, our LDS area authority was at our house for dinner following a local conference.  He has visited every corner of the South Pacific as part of his responsibilities.  I asked him what he would recommend to me as top destinations in the South Pacific, keeping in mind that I have more limited time and money than he's had.

His answer was, "Go to Tonga to hear the people sing, and go to Papua New Guinea, because it's so different than anywhere else in the area, it's unlike anywhere else on earth."

So, the idea for our Tonga-trip was planted in my mind.  When we had a two-week school break, and no big commitments; I took a leap and bought tickets to Tonga!  Although it was expensive, it felt cheap to me, because it's so much cheaper than flying to Tonga from the States.  It's a 3-hour flight, and cost about $370 per person.  My plan was to take our backpacking tents, swimsuits and Sunday clothes, and make the flights our main expense.

It turned out so much better than expected!  When we mentioned to Tongan friends from our branch, the Leas, they connected us with people all along the way!  Most significantly, their parents, who live in Auckland most of the year, offered to let us stay in their home in a little village on one of the Tongan Islands (Vai Malo, in Vava'u).

The first part of our trip was the 5-hour car drive to Auckland.  The Lea's parents house was just five minutes from the airport, so we stopped there to meet them and pick up the keys to their home.

John Lea has been a good friend to our boys, and even stayed with us for about a month at the end of the last school year.  His mom got teary-eyed as she thanked us for helping to take care of him.

I remember thinking their Auckland home was quite humble - quick construction, small, hodgepodge flooring.  How my perspective had changed by the time we returned from Tonga, and stopped to drop off the keys on our way back home!

Our first adventure was checking in to our flight, and being told that our little Joycie would have to stay behind!  Her passport expired in less than 6 months, so they wouldn't let her check in with the rest of us.  They asked if we didn't have friends or relatives that could come and pick her up from the airport!  Of course we weren't leaving her behind, but Mike and I started coming to grips with the idea that one of us might be staying home with Joyce.

After a couple of hours of scrambling and expensive taxi rides to the Tongan Embassy, we were able to resolve the problem.

We arrived in Tongatapu airport, the main airport on the main island of Tonga.  This airport seemed the same size as our local airport in New Plymouth!  One major difference though.... SINGING!  A small welcoming group of men was sitting on a bench and belting out a song in that wonderful Tongan-style harmony.

Kava and Vaiua, a young couple, met us at the airport.  Kava served his LDS mission in our area, so it was especially great for us that he spoke English.  They took us to their home for two nights and showed us around the main island.

Their 2-year-old boy was staying in Auckland with relatives, but they had 7 or 8 (?) other kids staying with them, who were relatives or friends of relatives.  Teenagers, Lupe and Villiami, were especially keen to practice their English with us.

We got our first taste of Tongan generosity and kindnesses. We also got our first taste of drinking coconuts instead of water, breadfruit, lu, and even "horsie."  We had our first experience with an outdoor kitchen and outdoor bathrooms.

Villiami came with us for the day.   He'd been sent home from Liahona because his hair was too long.

Kava took the boys to play volleyball with some friends in the evening, while Mike and I went to the temple.

The next morning we boarded a little plane for the island group, Vava'u.

We landed and were picked up, once again, by a friend of friends.  She dropped us off at Tunitau and Sepa's house in the village of Vai Malo.

John had told us, "It's like a New Zealand house."

Well, true in some ways.  It had paint on the walls, a roof which was not made of banana-leaves, and it had a couple of sofas and 4 beds.  Many of the houses around us didn't have sofas, chairs, beds OR front doors.  Outdoor kitchen and bathroom/shower now seem more normal to us.  It was a beautiful setting!  A tiny little village, next to the sea, no facilities.  3 little churches and a school.

We didn't have anything to eat when we arrived, and nowhere to buy it, so neighbors helped us get some coconuts and pull down a few breadfruit from a tree.  Dinner!  They helped us string up one light in the kitchen, and another light in the main house, and pull out the tank of gas that powered the stove burners.  I have to say, at this point, we wondered what, exactly, we'd gotten ourselves into.

To be continued...

South Island

Fun trip to Kaiteriteri for the Go-4-12 adventure race with Oak...


Loading up MAVY.  16 kids, 10 adults.


This is how the bikes travel...


We stayed at a campground across the from this beautiful beach.  Water beautiful, but not warm.

12 hour race started with a few hours of kayaking, then biking, then initiatives,
then running rogain, then more biking.  6AM - 6PM, with major point penalties
for every minute overtime.  

Nathan Fa'avae gave a speech at prize giving. 

packing up again.

a little kayaking with Sue

Queen Charlotte Drive on the way back to the ferry.  Oak's team and Annabel and Poppy
- lots of Loaded Questions,  card games and laughs in the back of MAVY on the way home.  

Books of the Week

What's in the Cupboard?

I would guess that anyone from New Zealand would know what is in this cupboard....

Cupboard in the camp kitchen, Mercy's Year 8 School Camp

HOME BAKING!

My kids - in primary, intermediate and high school - are asked to bring HOME BAKING to lots of events:  school sporting events, school trips, picnics, orchestra rehearsals, camp week, basketball exchanges, field trips, adventure races, bus rides, class parties, etc.  Home Baking is usually packed in blue or gold ice cream boxes (see photo above).  Home Baking is often shared with the group during morning or afternoon tea, along with something to drink and an apple or some other kind of fruit.

Is it similar in Australia?  UK?


FLAG REFERENDUM




Flag referendum - the New Zealand flag will remain as pictured on the right.  Many people think the current flag is too closely tied to Great Britain, is almost identical with Australia's flag, and leaves no space for Maori contributions. . . but it's hard to give up something with which you've grown up, and which your grandfather carried into WWI and WWII.  Besides, Kiwis are proud of their country "as is."

Vote was 57% to 43% in favor of keeping the current flag.

Oh well...I would have voted to change. As Nathan Fa'avae said, "[It] is a flag...we do need to change...people fought hard for our freedom and we should respect them by exercising it."

Love,
Holly

Lost in the Backcountry

When I dropped Oak off for an adventure race on Saturday morning, deep in Taranaki farm country, I heard people talking about how many different rural roads led to the race start.  The race start was about an hour from home, on gravel road some of the time.

I didn't worry about looking at the map when I started to drive home.  I knew that I was generally headed in the right direction, and guessed that all roads would eventually lead to the main road.  Spotty coverage.

I rambled home, stopping to take pictures now and then, enjoying the quiet.  Surprised now that the gravel was lasting so long.   Passed 2 cars with farmer-looking men.  Another car parked by a stream - fisherman?  Where was everybody?  When would I get any internet coverage?

Over an hour later, I had NOT come out on any main road, but had reached a DEAD END!  I was SHOCKED!  It was someone's house!  

The END of the road

The homeowners were in their yard - man, woman and child - each dressed in a bee suit.  They said they would never want to live anywhere else.



There was no connecting road between my dead end and any other road!  The bee-suited family told me that I needed to drive 45-minutes back down the road to the next road that actually connected to any other road.  It was back to the little town of Eltham, and then another hour drive back home to New Plymouth.  

It took me about 2.5 hours of driving to get home, instead of 1 hour.   A major navigation error. Needless to say, I didn't stop and take as many pictures after reaching the dead end.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for teaching me to always keep my gas tank over 1/2 full-

I watched a farmer, his young son, and 7 sheepdogs
move their sheep through several paddocks.

white sheep on the hill

I'm thankful for a good audiobook, good weather, and awesome scenery.

New respect for Taranaki Backcountry

2015: A Year in Quotes

These quotes bring back a lot of happy memories for our family!  Possibly less hilarious for everyone else...[long post alert]

Joyce

Workday back at home:  Joyce washing windows

"I had a forehead today."  
-Joyce's abrupt contribution to the dinner conversation.  She meant that she had had a headache.

"So are you just going to see her skin...or her?"
-Joyce tries to understand why I'm traveling to USA when Grandma Great passed away.

"Don't!  Under here is my warmness!"  (Joyce pushing Sage away from tickling her armpits)  "Actually I have a lot of warmnesses..."

6AM in bed on a Saturday morning, I see the dark silhouette of Joyce's head inches away from my face and feel her hot breath on my face.  She whispers urgently,
"Mommy!  I can count to one hundred...and twenty...nine!"

"That's not shopping!  That's buying!"  
- Joyce accuses me of deceiving her after running errands with me one day.

If all your family dies when you are a missionary, would you drink coffee?
(What?!  Joyce is trying to process Noah's mission call, and obviously needs more details...)

"It's a pretty great view, eh, Mom?"
-Dec. 2015.  10K into the Pouakai Crossing.

"If I have my birthday at my house then Madeleine will be mad at me.  I don't have enough friends without Madeleine.  Only Paige."  
-poor Joyce

"It USED to be blood."
-pointing at dried blood across her ankle and foot

Sage

"A lot of people here are wearing racing shirts."
-observation at the Hancock Flat reunion.  Awesome group of people, in many ways!

"Who would want to give him $1000 just for playing a piece?"  Sage skeptical of Danny's piano awesomeness.

"My heart was pounding when I was playing my Czerny.  I didn't know if I'd be able to play it perfectly to the end.  I think today was the best lesson I ever had."
 -Czerny Op. 599 No. 2 - never thought of this exercise as a big milestone before...

"I've gotten very interested in Shakespeare.  Can I read it?" - thanks, Grandma!

"I don’t think I’ve EVER been late for church.” 
-said with a big sigh.  Sage is curious about how it would feel to belong to a family whose mother wasn't always playing organ prelude.

"But I haven't heard about Joyce's day!" 
-Sage protests when I tell girls to be quiet in their beds and go to sleep.  Joyce isn't all that forthcoming with me about her school day, but gives the full version to Mercy and Sage at night.  

Mercy

Mercy's school teacher, prompting Mercy at parent-teacher conferences:  How can you tell if it's a good question?
Mercy:  "If Google comes up with the right answer when you type it."
 -hmmmm, that's not what Dr. Riddle taught us in Epistemology class...

"This one is red-orange-y."
Mercy tries to describe one of her Mozart variations.

"What's that white thing?  It's an egg!  It's white!"
Mercy in USA

"I've NEVER seen Mercy leave her clothes out like that before!"
Joyce is amazed to see Mercy's skirt on the bedroom floor.

Oak

Joyce to Oak:  "You're a Buff Man Scrub."

"One of my teachers says to act our age not our shoe size.  But for me, it's the same.  I'm 13 and my shoe size is 13.  Most kids in my class are 14 with 10 shoe size."

"It was cold...but we've done colder."
Oak after jumping into Lake Louise on Hancock Flat Reunion.

"LGBT?  It sounds like a kind of sandwich."
hmmmm...

"The best part of Christmas Eve is the banter you have with your brozos once you get in bed."

Mike to Oak, after Oak returned from EFY:  "Did you make some good friends that you'll stay in touch with?"
Oak:  "Yes, I made some good friends.  No, I won't stay in touch with them."
(Oak faces reality with no Facebook account, no smart phone)

"We are at the top.  Been here for about 45.  Weathers sick beans as"
Oak, Text from top of Taranaki.  Jan 20, 2016.

Sam Weise to Mike, when Mike complimented Sam, Annabelle and Jason on all the distance they'd covered in a 2-day training weekend:
"If Oak says we can do it, then we can do it."

“Jeans are so uncomfortable!  They must weigh 3 k-g!” 
– Oak's reaction to wearing jeans for the first time in about a year.  

Danny

volleyball moment

Holly:  Am I a strict mom?
At the same exact time, Danny, "yes," and Oak, "no."

"It's like a belly!"
Oak or Danny discussing why it is so fun to punch a plate full of crepes.

"I was just reading this poster about a concert and found out that my name is on it."
- Danny reports on his day at school.

Sr. Rudd to me:  "Danny?  Isn't he the one that is so disciplined on the piano?"

Dr. Peery-Fox to Danny:  "You need to get a girlfriend."

Danny on high school debate rules:  "That's not fair!  Whoever goes last would win!  That's how real arguments work."
-Danny, after hearing the rules for high school debate competitions

Danny to Noah:  "You're wasting my time!  What am I supposed to do with 5 minutes?"
-Danny is sincerely perplexed and frustrated as Noah delays getting out the door to go to a painting job.

"I hear tickling!"
Danny had been anxious to have FHE finished and bolted out the door as soon as he could.  However I heard him say this just a few minutes later as he headed BACK into the FHE room...

Danny to Mr. Leath, school counselor, "That would be a hell'uva schedule..."
-oops, time to refresh our kids' understanding about what I would consider proper language for a Kiwi vs. an American kid speaking to his high school counselor.  

"I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom...and Danny was practicing!!!"
- Sage.  Danny has been known to get up very early to practice the piano before school.

Holly:  I’ll be out running errands, if you need me to bring anything over.  (before a long day at school)

Danny:  Food.  Always food.  

Noah

volleyball moment

"Your shower doesn't get cold!"
-Noah, complaining about having to use the shower in the master bath.

"We're going to keep doing our morning workouts ...for the big breakfasts and the swims."
-it seems that Hillary trainings must go on.  Early morning training and then a swim in the ocean.

"What?  There was a new Avengers movie?"
-A week after release date.  One of my favorite things about living an expat life.

"It's sick!"
Noah, about the disco ball in MAVY, the dress shirt he had fitted, ball props, and basically anything to do with the ball.

"I had the BEST day of school today that I've ever had or will EVER have!"  (I was just being arrogant...ten bucks that I can throw this frisbee into the basketball hoop from sitting in the front row of bleacher...twenty bucks that I can make it in the other hoop.  I did it!  And everyone saw it!)

"Where's my knots book?  I always tie a new sick knot before I go to bed."  9:47PM, Nov. 17, 2015 

"People will think we're a bunch of bogans, with all the junk food on the sugarplum tree right as you walk in the door."  -Noah, worried about his image

"We had pizza and then we had yarns."  -Noah about spending the evening with Sam and Josh.

Nice little girl at the YMCA said to Noah:  "Do you want to see my pukana face?" She passed a piece of paper in front of her face...and everything changed... and then she passed the paper in front of her face again, and went back to being a nice little girl at the YMCA.  

"It's too late to go up the mountain, what about going skydiving instead?" -Noah, 6 days before leaving on his mission, wants to go out in style.

Mike

"The thing Daddy REALLY likes is SUGAR"  -Joyce, as we're discussing what to get Dad for his bday.

"What's that book again - "Go, Kill a Mockingbird"?  -Mike, trying to reference "To Kill a Mockingbird"

I've been learning all kinds of interesting things about our lives by doing finances.  -Mike doing finances after extended period without paying them much mind.

I reckon Dad might be a sneakier version of Danny.  -Noah, when Dad went to let out the chooks and missed most of the dishes...

"Ewes?  I didn't quite get to that."  -Mike, after spending a lot of energy defending "ewed" in a Boggle game ("ewed" as in, being hit by a ewe, or "you know when you've been ewed" ) Mike wrote down "ewed" but failed to write down "ewes."

Holly:  "What should we have for dinner tonight?
Mike:  Mush!
-a great fall-back for the nights when nothing else sounds good.

Holly

Noah:  "You CAN'T miss!"  When I said I didn't know if I could get to college friends reunion this year.  

How can I be so stiff and we didn't even beat the walkers?  -newbies at navigation!  First rogaine, ran as hard as we could but still finished last place with Mercy, Aug 2015.  

"Luckily, I'll probably be dead by the time any of you get skin cancer...." -directed to kids who resist sunscreen admonitions from Mom.

Links to Quotes from 2013 and 2014:   here and  here