He Honore He kororia. In our hearts we humble ourselves, in honour, in grace, in glory. He maungarongo ki te whenua.
When there is peace in the land, there will be peace among the people. He whakaaro pai ki nga tangata katoa. We give homage to good words, good deeds for all people. Amene.
Kia ora Rotorua. My, it has been a while eh? First, can I acknowledge those who have passed since we last stopped for a korero - to the Bennett whanau and the Yates whanau - all of our condolences. And to our loved ones who were remembered recently - Uncle Putu Mihaka, cousins Manunoa Tule and Zoe Rikiti, you'll forever be in our hearts. We also heard there was a beautiful baby born on February 29, the leap day, and that our sister in Oz is hapu (yay Nui and Leanne), so lots of whanau aroha to all.
After returning back from the States, we settled back into life here at home - the kids went back to daycare and school, we returned back to mahi and the tower of bills kept us busy for a few weeks. As always, even the best plans have a habit of being hated on, forcing us to dig a little deeper and work that little bit harder. Lucky we have had a few days of warming sun to keep us moving on jahs positive as we roll into winter.
As you might recall, we spent six weeks with our family in California, supporting our mother as she recovered from cancer surgery. Looking back, it does speak to what we do as young people and things to think about as we get ready for our later life. For one, being surrounded and supported by whanau is essential; added to that comes the responsibility of paying for excellent health insurance, high quality care facilities, home help and being in contact with the best people. We definitely pay a lot more attention to this area now and will write later about some of the positive hauora advice we received.
