Walked around with Jenna. Tried some foodie things and made a visit to Sky Tower.

This building also housed wēta workshop, all blacks rugby team store, and a casino (didn’t go to). It rained, so I picked up an umbrella from Dangerfield.

I had some fantastic baked goods and lunch at Amano. It was so yummy.

This was just the airplane ride New Zealand from Tahiti but we changed days via time zones and the international date line.

So ‘tomorrow’ will actually be today.

I love the couch seats on Air New Zealand.

So Tuesday ‘hit’ as soon as we landed and the hotel was too early for us to check in for so we just dropped our bags and went to check out the area.

We met Paige in Gormans, she managed a few locations of this store and their other brand Dangerfield. This store is only in Australia and New Zealand. It was fun and everything feels so cheap because the dollar is strong here.

I feel like my tired made me want to shop more. It was so much fun. This place was so dangerous. I bought a ridiculous amount of stuff so far, just for me!

Jenna went to Moorea. I hung out here again 😀

So happy. This is my jam. My speed and my way of enjoying a view and bungalow that is not an every day occurrence for me.

The nōio make me happy because they remind me of Hawai’i.

They are also used in navigation and a sign of land on the distance. They are also a sign of good luck.

I saw some familiar faces today and met some new ones, Claire sold some crafts and I purchased a pareau from her. She was a treat. She loves Hawai’i so I gave her a treat and she gave me a discount. She asked if I was Chinese and another of the hotel staff asked if I was Polynesian. I just said I was from Hawai’i because they were both correct and explaining my mix can be confusing in another language.

She was fun,she talked about legends, she loved me using the Hawaiian equivalent to the Tahitian. She kept hitting me and it makes me smile and chuckle because it wasn’t sore but meant to be familiar. She told me to kiss her on the cheeks and I shared breathe with her. It made my day fuller having met her.

I tried the Tahitian Brunch Buffet, the food was yummy and they had an assortment of local foods. They also had a show. It was neat to see how the dancing styles differ from island to island to island. The speed, footwork, and male and female dance styles all have something unique to each area. I am not sure why, but it is fun to compare and wonder.

Flying out on Air New Zealand, this seems to be a common flight with an awful time that the staff knows by heart. 3 a.m. leaving one day and arriving a whole day later but two hours earlier. I think. I suck at time zones.

On my birthday this year, the question was asked, what is my favorite, sunrise or sunset? People assume morning sunrise because I wake up early but i actually miss the sunrise because I am busy getting ready or already even at work. So typically I get to enjoy sunsets. The moons I enjoy though.

In the mornings on Raro, I tried to catch the sunrise because the view was so good of it.

In Fāaa, it was the morning moonsets that I saw each morning and the view of it … ridiculous.

And then finally, on our last night in New Zealand as we were going to the airport after we found out our flight was delayed to see about next steps, I saw this or of the Uber window …. My last local sunset. It was pretty perfect and the right way to cap off this trip I think for me.

This feels like a fishing community. They still spear fish and drop it in containers or vaka (wa’a or canoe, boat). The locals keep their land, they may give 60 year leases but after that time any businesses would automatically revert bcak to the family. Must of the outer rims around the island is where you find the churches and the marae is located on the inner rim. The marae = heiau = sacred site. I missed this word in Rarotongan but it is most like ahupua’a, land division, and it is still true that the land ‘slice’ stays with the legacy family. Piko started at mid point/center and slices were given to the families so the whole family lived in that marae from mauna to mauka previously.

15 separate islands make up Kuki Airani (Cook Islands) and depending on which side you came from your influence and language was colored by it (Tahiti, French Polynesia or New Zealand).

A lot of Aussies and Kiwis visit. Fijians were also very prominent.

We met a pair on honeymoon from Norway. They were so much fun.  A teacher and businessman. He was a romantic planner and did some amazing things to make her honeymoon and birthday special.

We met a father and son from New Zealand and the wife/mother had left to return home the day before owns a bespoke Māori experience business. They offer Māori dining and natural tour experiences.

I love that everyone knows Hawai’i here. There are a lot of local and aboriginal connections.

• By the way, I sprinkle Hawaiian and English also into my blog when describing certain language connections because they make more sense to me. It is very general but if I were to explain it these were the closest comparisons I would see or felt like was contextually similar. No disservice or over simplification was meant to any population. And please forgive any misinterpretation, it was my attempt at understanding the meanings translated.