Far Now

My Dear Fellows and Dear Princess,

Today we got taken for a drive around Wellington by Paula, a school mate of Er Indoors's who she hasn't seen for 27 years.

That's right. Er Indoors and Paula haven't seen each other since Rhythm Nation 1814.

Obviously, there was a fair bit of reminiscing about their school days together. They were both together in Mr. Kingsford-Smith's class.

"We called him Mr. Kingsized-Stiff," explained Er Indoors.

Paula took us to the south coast of Wellington. We had brunch at the Maranui Cafe, a very cool place with a retro-kitschy surf vibe. Now then, "nui" means "big" or "a lot" in Maori. I remember that word because Er Indoors's mum once called me "Pukunui". And Er Indoors explained that "puku" means "tummy".

RUDE.

So I guess "maranui" means a lot of mara. I'm not sure what "mara" is. It is possible it means "eggs and bacon". Their breakfast was HUGE.

Actually, Maori words and phrases pepper New Zealand English. I suppose it's a bit like French phrases in UK English. Pourquoi? Je ne sais pas.

But I'm going to have to learn a bit of Maori. Because even though the Kiwis throw them into the conversation and I can get the vibe of what the words mean by context, I don't think I'm quite getting it properly. Like in the short time I've been here, I've learned that "taonga" means "treasures" but that's not quite it. I think it's also like cultural gifts. Or something.

Then there's "mana" which I think means "honour" or "reputation" or "standing". Or like a combination of all three. And an important Kiwi word is "whanau" (pronounced fah-now) that pretty much means "family" but I think it is probably closer to the Scottish "kin". Kiwis use that one all the time.

Paula talked about her whanau as she drove us around the bays of the south coast. It was stunning down there, the sea and the sky were so blue and the air was so fresh. Paula was delighted. She was so pleased to see Er Indoors again after all these years. "Exc-iiiiiii-TED!" she sang. She gave us the tour guide thing all around the city and pointed out areas where we might like to live, what restaurants were recommended and what sort of demographic was in what neighbourhood.

"You might like to live here," she said of the Aro Valley. "This is an area for urban young professionals. And yes we ARE still young professionals shut the f*** up."

So we got lots of valuable information today. Notes taken. Both on Wellington regions and Maori language. Er Indoors and I got big hugs at the end of it all. And I felt the aroha ("love").

Arohanui, dear Princess and arohanui to my dear fellows too.

S.