280 Days to go!!

Well its exactly... well not exactly.. but its 280 days until we head to the US of A!!! The plan so far is to hang with family in Utah.. especially Dad and Mum as they are huge contributors to the trip and also see Wade. It will actually be Kitas first time meeting  Wade and his family. After Utah we will head to New York City. We plan to see everything in New York in 3 - 4 days.. to round off the trip we will head to LA to spend a couple days at Disney Land. Thats our trip.. Im starting off a list of things to do in New York.. Please add to the list if you want to... Only Crystal will most likely add though but her thoughts are much appreciated haha.

1. Street Hot Dogs
2. Statue of Liberty
3. Empire State Builing
4. Ground Zero
5. David Letterman Show (fingers crossed)
6. Catch a Yellow Taxi
7. Go to a late night Jazz Club

Nice Photos KIMMY!!!

Yes.. two posts in two days but we have to catch up. We recently had photos with the Wairepo family ( I know..two Wairepo activities.. step up the cool activities Arderns). Our cousin Kimberly Farthing took them and this is Paulys favourite. Mainly because hes at the front, but he says because it looks like a 'Twilight' photo. Does anyone else have 'Paramore - Decode' playing in their head when they see this photo? I think it must just be Pauly!

Haere mai te Pikitu Marae.

Haere mai te Pikitu Marae.

Our Queen’s Birthday weekend celebrations were highlighted by a trip to Pikitu Marae in the heart of the Waikato; the land of pork bones and puha and the home marae of our Nanny Wairepo.

It was great to have all the cousins, aunties, uncles (and a few extras including our BFFs Mandi and Tala) make the trip out to the marae which is located halfway between Putaruru and Tokoroa near Waotu.

When we arrived it was raining which meant we couldn’t explore the adventure-filled surroundings like the haunted house or gully but we were determined to make the most of the experience especially as it was Paulys first time there.

The reason for the trip (and we only found this out when we got there) was to celebrate the 21^st birthday of our cousin Peter Dehar. Don’t think I’ve ever met the guy in my life but it was choice to share in his special day.

We started off with a welcome by the kaumātua and then Aunty Ruthana proceeded to explain our whakapapa. It’s amazing we all didn’t all turn out with extra fingers and toes with all the cousins marrying cousins that went on (well, some of us got off luckier than others anyway). Big ups to Uncle Gary who, after Aunty Ruthana was done, made sure we were all aware of the importance our ancestors and Pikitu Marae played in the early days of the church in New Zealand. Chur.

It was fun going round the mattresses saying our names and who our dad was or who brought us along for the ride. Mandi was too much saying his little spiel in Maori impressing all the nannies and kaumātua.

After that we collected our shoes (big mistake wearing white sneakers on a rainy day to a marae) and made our way into the whare kai for dinner. All our crew took up a whole long table and swapped the dozen Lion Reds we were allocated for Jolly soft drinks – we did have a long drive home after all. The kai was pretty av as I’m not the biggest fan of the smoky infusion of hangi food but the custard and steamed pudding for dessert was amaze.

Uncle Rex did us proud as the impromptu MC for the evening. Even though his jokes ultimately failed he did a great job keeping things flowing and making sure the aunties didn’t go overboard with the waiatas.

We ended the evening on the dancefloor (yeyeya) getting down to a live band and even made an appearance in the conga line.

Kia ora Pikitu for a choice night out. We’ll definitely be back soon.

P.S – Thanks to the drunken man who nearly drove into us on the way out. I hope you parked in mud so you couldn’t drive home.