Goodbye
My final blog (this time around...) from Solomon Islands. Adam and leonie have wonderful friends they met in Tonga who have invited us to stay with them en masse for a couple of nights. Marcus and debbie have two children, Herb and Ned, who are similar ages to Mees and Pete. They have a lovely home high on the hills facing north, with beautiful views of the ocean and islands are hazy in the distance.
My final blog (this time around...) from
Solomon Islands. Adam and leonie have wonderful friends they met in
Tonga who have invited us to stay with them en masse for a couple of nights. Marcus and debbie have two children, Herb and Ned, who are similar ages to Mees and Pete. They have a lovely home high on the hills facing north, with beautiful views of the ocean and islands are hazy in the distance.
Its like an oasis from the grime and edge of tension in the city centre. People were not overtly aggressive while we were walking around town, but a bit belligerent. Adam had a betle nut thrown at him when he went to customs which wasn't very friendly.
One of the lights at the top of the mast had stopped working so leonie got to do her "favorite job" (note the sarcasm) of being hauled up the mast. As light as she is it was still a tough grind and Adam and I subbed out a couple of times. I was glad that Adam hadn't needed to go up since leonie and I might have needed to ask Saed to do the business. Saed is a nice guy and once he found out I was from NZ He said, oh you're an islander too and we were soon chatting away like old mates. he was talking about his family but he's not sure how old his daughters are. Age doesn't seem to be a high priority here or in
Vanuatu.
Before we left Elena Leonie had hustled up a traditional Dutch apple tart that she had cunningly adapted to a not-so-traditional banana tart. She had got the idea from her mother in law who has spent a lot of time in
Africa, where apples are a bit scarce.
Once at Marcus and debbies we had a swim in the pool. Mees's swimming lessons obviously ppaid off and Pete was amazing, he loves diving down to get 'treasure' from the bottom of the pool. He needs a bit of assistance to get submerged and it's very counter-intuitive to push a child under the water. the shower after the swim was a highlight of the day. Being able to stand up while showering and not having to count each drop was a real treat. When I was washing the dishes from lunch Debbie told me I was allowed to use more than an inch of water. Good point.
The sunset lasst night was awesome. There was a family of geckos hanging out on the lounge wall while we were indulging in a BBQ dinner of chicken, Mexican sausage, charbroiled Kumara and pumpkin.
We're heading out now to a Ww2 museum this morning and then I'll be boarding a plane home this afternoon. So many memories, lots and lots of photos and very special new life-long friends. I'm grateful for this amazing opportunity and the fantastic experiences I've had. Haere ra Elena and crew.
Aroha nui.
Renee
