A conversation with the coffee bloke over the road gives us the idea to see the arrival of a major ocean going vaka coming back from restoration in NZ.
We manage to get up and moving with the goal of seeing the 8am arrival in the northern channel at Muri. As is the way, we find on our arrival at the Muri channel that no one is there apart from a parked up taxi. Alissa, refusing to let the minor matter of no vaka stop our day, investigates and discovers the vaka is arriving in Avarua as we speak so back on the bikes at top speed.
We arrive as the speeches are in full swing and its quite a big deal! The Prime Minister is there, and the arriving sailors are treated with the highest dignity. It’s great to see. A dance performance for the benefit of the crew gets underway much to Toms interest, the drums and high-speed hip swaying hold his attention tightly.
Time for a mid-morning brunch of coffee and waffles and then we slide back to Matavera for homemade lunch and for me a nap. Its hot work out here.
The neighbours grandchildren appear and Tom is encouraged to play with them, he has a lot of fun. So does Max really, entertaining children is right in his wheelhouse. Snap and go-fish are taught, Tom takes great delight in sharing his books with the younger girl. Smooth operator.
Eventually enough motivation is gathered for another snorkel down at Fruits of Rarotonga, even with the wind picking up there’s still some great sports to poke around in. Sea cucumbers are abundant.
The boys are still adjusting to the different pace of being here I think, some grating with each other. So many new attempts at different activities are going on they are still trying to find some sort of pecking order with each other if that makes sense? It’s trying everyones patience but we can stay the course and everyone will find their place. Max was gunshy to try his hand at creating video blogs of his trip so Nate took his opportunity with both hands. Now a few days in and seeing the progress and method Nates employing I think there’s a lot on envy there so there’s a lot of policing between the two to keep them supporting each other rather than sabotaging. It’s a job.