Jack and Katrina's Place

Yes we finally had to leave Rarotonga but not before we did some more kayaking, Long lunches and running naked on the beach (Guy I mean). In the photos above yoou can see Guy and I having a little talk and deciding I should take him back out into the lagoon so he could play with the soft warm waves as we surfed back in!

We have been back from Rarotonga for nearly three weeks, not that there has been much blog activity, there has been all the clearing up to do after the wedding and Jack has been away for a week in Auckland learing how to design repairs for the carbon fibre parts of Boeing aircraft, so there has been lots on. Nice to look at these photos and think of that wonderful week at the end of March.

What else did we do in Rarotonga? Well there were all these scooters for hire parked outside our motel unit, every morning when Guy saw them he got quite excited, and he was even more excited when he saw them buzzing past with locals and tourist alike. He would wave and point and make his little motor noise "pprrmmpprr" with his lips. Eventually we had to hire on to go out on a fresh vege buying mission. It was nice to be zipping along in the balmy breeze, getting soaked by thunderstorms but not feeling cold as you do in New Zealand rain. When I got back ,even Katrina had a go, and then we had to let Guy have a go too. Here he is climbing on by himself, fiddling with all the controls and having a wonderful time.

Of course it wasn't all motorised mayhem, Guy still got to indulge his passion for flowers and things botanical, here he is the one the natives call 'Runs with Flowers'.

Our wedding went beautifully on the day, due to the careful and thorough planning that was mostly done by Katrina, for various reasons but perhaps because she is just that much better at planning details than me. However, planning the Honeymoon is traditionally the groom's responsibility and I determined it would be so for ours. It was really fun keeping the details of the destination secret from Katrina, who usually knows everything about everything she is involved in. Actually I didn't quite manage to keep it a complete secret, wives should not be allowed to interrogate their husbands-to-be while they are driving in traffic, I just didn't have enough RAM to drive the car and guard my answers (and at least I devoted the available memory to driving the car!)

Anyway we had a fantastic week in Rarotonga, capital of the Cook Islands. Did nothing much but rested and played in the lagoon with Guy. The lagoon was the most beautiful translucent blue, as I said to Katrina you could imagine you were swimming in Bombay Sapphire Gin,,,mmmm.

Guy thought the beach was fantastic and spent a lot of time running around naked sticking his finger down the holes made by hermit crabs in the sand. Lucky his finger is so short as he didn't seem to get nipped.

We made good use of the Canoes at the resort to paddle out to the islands across the shallow lagoon. We were cooking for ourselves in a two bedroom unit. I had to go out each morning on the motorscooter to find fresh produce which was suprisingly hard to find. Anyway coming back across the lagoon one afternoon, I was paddling and Katrina was sitting down the back with Guy bundled up in a towel. As the sun went behind the mist shrouded peak of the main island I turned to her and reminded her we must "put the taro in the oven' as soon as we got back. As I said it I laughed, contemplating how many thousands of times that scenario must have played itself out in the thousands of years of polynesian habitation of the island, it was an odd moment of resonance as if the words echoed back through the years.

Well here's one of the reasons there has been a long pause in postings to this Blog. On Saturday 24th March 2007, Jack and Katrina got married. Witnessed by friends and family the ceremony took place on a brilliant autumn day at the William Fergusson Massey Memorial on the Miramar Penisula. There are so many wonderful memories and photos to share that Katrina has set up wedding blog, (click the link on the left hand side of the page) but here are a few to sample. Krista did an absolutely superb job, bright sun, black suits and white marble memorials do not make for easy photography. We were so lucky, in many ways, with the weather, and with the attendance of so many friends and family members.

Sadly Katrina's Granny, Phyllis Elder, great Grandmother of Guy, passed away peacefully on the 16th March. She was 90. Katrina was so proud to bring Guy to meet his Great Granny and kept her updated with his progress. Although Guy won't remember her, we will treasure these memories of the happy hours Katrina and Guy spent with Great Granny.

Ok Wellington's not exactly a big city but it is if you're only 14 months old and out on your tricycle. Guy couldn't go to creche on Friday (he had been 'explosive') and Katrina had a seminar for work at Te Papa. So Jack took the day off to be a stay at home Daddy. We took Katrina to Te Papa for her meeting, and then as it was a nice morning, we decided to take the trike down onto the waterfront while we were there. Guy was pleased to have such a lot of flat ground to trike around on and he went for miles. He has two speeds, left foot/right foot alternately to trundle along, and then both legs together in big thrusts when he wants to get somewhere.

Since Guy has learnt to walk he has loved getting out and about under his own steam. He will walk all the way down our street given a chance, but it is so steep he needs a hand nearby to catch him. Further down the road the local school has a big playground so I took him down there for a run around which he loved, slept well that night too.