Tutira Mai Nga Iwi

Three years ago TODAY I left for New Zealand. You can read all about my New Zealand adventures at my blog: Where Toilets Flush the Other Way.
This is a Maori song I learned when I was living in New Zealand. You can find the sheet music here.

A
Tūtira mai ngā iwi                Line up together, people
D           A
Tātou tātou e                     All of us, all of us.

Tūtira mai ngā iwi                Stand in rows, people
B7          E7
Tātou tātou e                     All of us, all of us.

A
Whai-a te marama-tanga            Seek after knowledge
D        A
me te aroha - e ngā iwi!          and love of others - everybody!
D
Ki-a k' tapa-tahi, 1              Think as one,

A
Ki-a ko-tahi rā.           Act as one.

E7          A
Tātou tātou e.                    All of us, all of us.

(Sing it all a second time.)
Then finish with...

D          E7       A
Tā  - tou, tā - tou E!!           All of us, all of us.

Hi aue hei !!!

Message in a Bottle/Ratu

After we visited Manly Beach in Sydney on Friday, April 18th we split up: Stephanie, Brooke, and Mary went back to Paddy's Market for more shopping while Erin, Megan, and I decided shopping was a bad idea because we were out of money. So the other three left us stranded; to our own to get lost. We decided to stroll around the harbor.


"Hey Erin, I think you should jump over the edge and see how deep the harbor is," said I.

"Um...okay," replied Erin.

So we move to a part where the wall is a little shorter and Erin hops over. She starts backwards-rock climbing

Then she loses her shoe. Mean while people are walking by us and wondering what is going on. We just point and say, "She lost her shoe" as if that was what took her over the wall to begin with. I took a picture of them.

Lo and behold Erin cut her foot on a shell on her way up. Yeowch!
Being a prepared girl scout I had bandaids. BUT this job was far too big for a little bandaid. NO, this is a job for tissue and ducktape.


So now Erin had her foot ducktaped together. Awesome. Except the part where she has flipflops. Flipflops with webbed toes=no bueno. Solution: use a different shoe.

Megan is easily 6 feet tall. This means her feet are bigger than Erin's feet. So Erin is wearing one of her own flipflops and one of Megan's too-big-for-her crocs. Megan is wearing her own croc and a too-small-for-her flipflop.

We continued on until we saw some rocks. I said, "Megan, I think you should climb those rocks."

"Um, okay."

So on slick rock (it had been raining that morning) and in a mismatched pair of shoes Megan crawled her way to the top.

Yay Megan!

So we kept walking and when we came to "The Queen's Chair" (a wannabe throne in the rock) we elected Megan to go ask the Asians over there to take our picture. Erin and I waited on the "throne" while Megan, towering over the woman, asked the Asians if they could take a picture of us. The Asian looks at Megan as fear overtook her. Then she got really excited, handed her own camera to her husband and posed for a picture with Megan. After the shot Megan motioned to us and indicated she wanted a picture for us. So Megan hands her camera to the Asian woman and she takes our picture.

But then the woman hands her camera to her husband and comes to be in a picture of us. And then they switched places and the woman took a picture of the man with us. And then I got up to take a picture of the man and woman with Megan and Erin and it was CRAZY! It was like we were Asian celebrities. We were laughing SO hard about how many pictures we just got taken of us.

No sooner had we walked twelve steps when this other Asian comes up to us, putting his arms around our shoulders and in a thick accent says, "Thank you! Thank you!"
"You're welcome?" And then we look up only to see ten other Asians all with their unsheathed cameras. Someone took a picture of us with the Asian and then they switched places. We must have been standing there for a good 5 minutes with Asians just swapping in and out. We laughed SO hard, trying desperately to hide it behind our fixed smiles

We continued to walk around the harbor and came to some rocks jetted out into the sea. Megan says, "I want a picture like Ariel." So off she goes to find a rock and pose like Ariel from Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Well that was good, but not good enough, so Megan continued to find the perfect rock. She ended up with this:While she battled the rocks Erin found Pride Rock and I found sea glass.
If you don't know much about me, know this: I hate litter. I hate the way it ruins landscapes. I hate the way it ruins pictures. I just hate it. And I know as well as anybody else that hating something does nothing to make the situation better. So I put my hatred to good use and I make an effort to pick up rubbish everywhere I go. This is me picking up rubbish in Sydney Harbor

And in my efforts to pick up trash I found a PERFECTLY GOOD VODKA BOTTLE. It was empty. It still had the lid. More importantly, it wasn't broken in the least bit. And what do three Mormons in Sydney do when they find a perfectly good vodka bottle? They send a message in a bottle. Duh.We carefully crafted a letter. This is what it read:

Getting the message actually in proved to be a bit tricky. We kept it rolled up with a hairtie, threw in an Idaho Spud pin and stuffed a trashbag in the neck so as to help prevent the bottle filling with water. We ceremoniously threw it off and watched it drift further and further praying it would make its way to Madagascar or New Zealand or at least Melbourne.

Our time together ended with us enjoying an intimate moment with the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. Don't worry, when we met up with the other half of our six-some we bragged about our AWESOME day: first aid, celebrities, and sending a message in a bottle.

-----------------------------------
In Fiji on Tuesday, April 22
I think I got even more bug bites in the night. After the temple today I think I'll count. We ran to the bus to go to Suva but then realized it was the wrong bus. So we sat in the lobby in the while and waited. When the correct bus finally came we all moved toward the back. I sat next to a guy named Ratu. When I asked his name I wasn't sure I heard it right. He said, "Ratu. Romeo. Alpha. Tango. Unicorn." It means chief. He's going back home to Suva. He's been gone 4 years because he's in the army in the Midlands-not London.

What I learned about him:

• He's in the army...the British army
• He's been travelling straight for 24 hours and he's so excited to see his family he hasn't been able to sleep.
• He dives, surfs, and harpoons his own fish
• He likes Backstreet Boys and Timbaland
• He's the best looking Fijian man I've seen

This picture makes it look like he has braces. I assure you he looked better in person.

Conversations we had...and just plain awkward moments:

• My favorite food is chicken fettuccine alfredo. He didn't know how to make it or what it is so I told him, "First you get chicken and you grill it. Then you cook noodles and you cover it with white cheese sauce. Eat it. And you smile for a week.
• His favorite birthday was his first...even though he can't remember it
• How to say "if you like chicken raise your hand" in Fijian
  'Kevaka o vinakata na toa laveta va ligamu"
• He showed me a British pound. I showed him my American dollar and he kept it
• Ratu told me he has a cell phone. I pretended to sound impressed. (Who doesn't have a cell phone?) Then he asked if I had one. I said no. (Who brings a cell phone to Fiji?). He asked if he could have my number. I told him he would need a calling card. He offered to give me his number. I told him I didn't have a calling card. He asked what I was doing on Friday. I said I was going to the beach with my friends. He asked if I had email. I did. I gave him my address and said maybe we could do something on Friday because he'll be down there anyway.
• He grabbed my braid and said I had long blonde hair. I rubbed his head. He has fuzzy black hair.
• When I put my hand on the seat in front of me to brace myself when the bus went over bumps he was quick to embrace my arm
• I took hold of my forearm and asked if I had good muscles. I flexed. SO naturally I did the same thing to him. Wow. The man has muscles, what can I say?
• He plays rugby and showed me the house of some Fijian who now plays for the Brisbane Broncos.
• We were talking about scars and I showed him the one I have on my lip. He touched it.
• When we stopped he put his arm around me, pulled me to the window and pointed out his mom and sister.

We got off the bus and he greeted his family while I sat with my friends. We snuck this picture of him.

I was telling the other girls how good looking he is when suddenly he appeared behind me and introduced me to his mom-who hugged me when I was going for the handshake. Then he introduced me to his sister. I went for the hug. She kissed my cheek. Then I gave him a hug and he totally kissed my cheek.

Stephanie told me he was aiming for my lips. Everyone agrees he's the best looking Fijian. They all want him to come to the beach with us on Friday.

We went to the temple and when we got back to our hotel I emailed Ratu.

The next day I checked my email.....

NOTHING! Nothing but a returned email. What? Oops. I had sent it to yahoo.com instead of yahoo.co.uk. Silly me. I quickly righted that wrong and resent my message.

The day after that (Thursday) I checked to see if Ratu was coming the next day. I opened my email and started screaming hysterically. It sounded a lot like this: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Everyone within earshot thought they knew what just happened.

"Guess what!"

"Ratu's coming!!" Oh, they were so hopeful.

"No! Even better!"

"Ratu's coming and he's bringing friends!"

"No! Even better!"

"Ratu's coming and he's bring his family and you're getting married!!"

"No! Even better! SOMEONE FOUND MY MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE!!"

Time Warp: April 25th

This is a direct excerpt out of my journal. (Good thing I am a meticulous journal-er)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday, April 25, 2008 10:25 PM
I'm in the Nadi airport right now. I'm wearing my carefully planned going home outfit. I'm wearing a teal Sydney Opera House shirt, red boomerang earrings from Australia, my orange bandanna, a multi-colored sulu from Fiji, and my pink turtle necklace from New Zealand. MOst of us are in sulus. Kathy and Taylor are in Aladdin Pants. Steph is sleeping. Jacapo is talking to some random person. (Kathy and her Aladdin Pants)

Everyone is in their own peace. We're all trying to grasp the idea that we're going home.

Today we packed up and put our luggage in the storage and went in the van with Christ. First stop: ATM. KPax unfortunately lost her card to a hungry ATM machine. It took us 40 minutes to get it back.

We did some souvenir shopping down the main street. KPax got a sweet wooden mask for $6. We met up with Chris and started to the Indian temple. It's very colorful-I think every color of the rainbow. We found out it cost $3.50 so we decided against going in and just went to Natadolla. On the way Chris pulled over, ran to a sugar cane filed, chopped down a stalk, pulled the leaves off, and gave us raw sugar cane.

Who ever thought of using sugar cane was brilliant. It looks like a hard stick. You have to peel back the bark with your teeth before you gnaw on the white, chunky middle. Kira Elliott would be jealous.

We got to the beach and Johnny "horse man" was there. He talked to Chris for a while then Chris called to me, "Marzie, here is yor freend" and pointed to Johnny. I thought this was weird because last time we were at the beach I barely talked to Johnny at all. He mostly talked to KPax. Maybe he just remembers me better because I'm blonde.

The beach was great but more crowded than last time. Erin and I took pictures with my snorkel, mask, and flippers and BULA written in the sand. Two native boys Gina and Tima were selling things and we got them in our pictures.

I ate my can of soup-chicken noodle-(which I let warm up in the sun) and tried my pineapple that I bought on Sunday. It was so gross I couldn't eat it.

I brought my snorkeling gear because Mary said she was going to. I decided to use what I brought and went snorkeling. I had a heck of a time getting past the breaking point. There wasn't much to see. Just sand. But it had cool patterns. I took pictures with my waterproof camera. I had gotten back to the breaking point. SMASH&CRASH. I lost my goggles. I had 'em on my arm because Myron (my SCUBA instructor) said to keep your mask on your neck or on your arm-never on your forehead. I went under the wave, felt it moving off my arm, and came up. It was gone and too sandy to see. I had managed to save a $10 camera but not a $100 mask and snorkel. Dang.

(This is the last of you will ever see of this mask and snorkel)

I was so mad that I was so close to shore, knew when I lost 'em, but couldn't get 'em back. Brooke asked me how it went. I looked out at the sea and yelled, "Damn it!"

That's the first time I've sworn. That's also the first time I've written a swear word in my journal. I don't like it.

I was way mad. I blew bubbles for a while until I could be positive. I consoled myself by thinking ....

-I can buy new ones

-I was lucky to have lost it on the last day, not before my scuba dive

-some little fishies will find my mask and love it

After that I went skinny dipping...in Fiji.

That was also a first.

I had to pee so bad I went in the ocean. Don't tell Brooke because I always get mad at her for that.

That is yet another first.

We came home and stopped at McDonald's to get 55 cent ice cream. That was amazing. I got pictures with Chris and gave him a thank you card I made last night.

We all showered in the outside showers at the hotel and took pictures with Mala.

I played Nertz with KPax. Then I played Uker (spelling?) with Kirsten, Ramsay, and KPax. I still don't get that game.

We had to go to the airport in two shuttles. I was in the first group. The shuttle was the last one from our hotel that night so we had to take the 6:30 shuttle even tough our flight isn't until 11:20 tonight. Check in isn't until 8, so we found some couches and sat to wait for our check in time.

"In two hours, we'll be home."-Jacapo

Isn't that crazy the way time works? I'm leaving in the future and arriving in LA in the past.

While we were in line to check our baggage I talked with KPax. I asked what she was most afraid of going home. She simply said, "Being replaced." I thought that was a good answer. Poetic, even.

My fear is that everything I want to be consistent will have changed and that I'll revert back to the mundane ruts I so willingly abandoned on January 10th.

We went threw baggage and found our way to the airport luggage. And there we sat.

I feel like I did when I was getting to leave the US and go to New Zealand: I don't know what I'm getting myself into. Going to Australia and Fiji was different-those were just fun jaunts. I don't feel like I'm going home. I feel like I'm seeing my family and that's it. I don't really have a home anymore. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

(Continued after boarding the plane)
Air New Zealand has the best meals. Real dishes, (blue bowls for salad & desserts, orange tea cup, wine glass, and the best plasticware ever.) This meal was chicken and rice, potato salad, roll, New Zealand cheese <--so happy! and blueberry crumble-seeds of which are currently wedged in my teeth crevasses.

Anticipated Adventures for Utah
- job -$ -room -$ -concert -$ -scholarships -money
and that about sums it up.

Friday, April 25, 2008 4:53 PM

I went to sleep after I wrote in my journal yesterday...I mean today. This time travel thing is weird. Right now I'm just getting out of the outside shower in Fiji.

Well after waking up at 8AM Fijian time and 1PM L.A. time I had a breakfast of scrambled eggs with a gravy, sausage, a tomato, apricot yogurt, orange juice, and a raisin roll. I got an apple juice and some Milo :) Kirsten, Haeree, Caity, Erin came to visit me up front. Steph sat in front of me. Ramsay in back of me. I talked to Erin and I said, "Remember that one time when we were in Fiji and saw Polynesian fire dancing? My next door neighbors the Tiatias did Polynesians dancing and would practice in their back yard. My brothers and I would watch from the bathroom window. That was a long time ago. The End. Thank you for caring."

Erin said, "Didn't you say that yesterday?"
"You mean.....today?"

I've been planning that for a LONG time.

We landed. Coming in I got a glance out the window. LA is gross. It's all city. I haven't seen that much city in a long time.

Customs went unusually fast. I didn't have to get anything checked. The line to get our passports checked was long and I have never been so racially confused. USA is a melting pot. In Invercargill everyone was New Zealand. In Australia they all look like Aussies. Everyone in Fiji is either Fijian or Indian. Here there are Mexicans, Africans, Germans-or so they all look, but they are all Americans.

I'm in the LA airport now. This is the longest day of my life-quite litterally.

I didn't give anyone a goodbye hug. I didn't realize it. It didn't occur to me that I won't see them. Taylor is staying in LA for a while then going to Hawaii. Haeree is going to Devner. Kirsten to Indiana. A bunch like Caity, Ramsay, and Jacapo are going on Delta instead of Southwest.

So here we are: Brooke, Kathy Jones, Mary, Stephanie Richards, KPax and me keep waiting for more of our group to walk around the corner.

But no one else is coming.

(I finished the following after I got home)
We finally boarded the plane from LA to SLC. It was delayed 20 minutes. That wasn't so fun. I was number 47 in group B. The way Southwest works is you get to choose where you sit.

The plane ride was short. I sat next to KPax and we made our LIVE SIMPLY list (click on the link). I was antsy the entire flight. I wore my sulu and took off my shoes and socks because I wanted the full island effect when my family saw me. I saw snow on top of mountains and I got teared up when our wheels touched the ground of Salt Lake City.

We were the last ones off the plane. I walked rather briskly through the airport to the baggage claim. KPax kept pace-even with scuba fins and a didgery doo flopping out of her pack. I got to the escalator and saw a blonde head in the distance. Then a bunch of people started jumping up and down. THAT'S MY FAMILY!

I pushed KPax aside and ran down the escalator in my bare feet and I didn't stop running until I ran smack into a hug. I cried a little. I saw Brooke, KPax, and Steph's family though I didn't talk to them. Sadly, Taylor was still at a play instead of the airport. Jordan had a rugged poster for me. We picked up my luggage and got in Mom's purple van. I walked out of the airport and clung to Dad because it's so cold here. They showed me pictures of the family trip to Manti. I'm sad I missed that.

It's been a long time since I've seen so many temples or mountains or a lot of things. It was weird to see bilingual Spanish signs in the airplane.

We picked up Taylor on the corner. Everything is still under construction.

It was 10PM when I got home. I made a taco for lunch...well, lunch in Fiji time. We have new glasses, we use BYU creamery milk with an orange lid instead of the familiar blue or green lid. Dad doesn't buy ranch packets any more. He gets that pre-made at the creamery as well.

Oh how things change.

I handed out gifts and told some stories. This is a busy week because Dad is running for school board, Taylor has the play, and Sarah has the soccer tournament. Mom says she could really use a 3rd driver and she needs me to take Sarah to soccer in the morning.

My room is still messy. The toilet still takes talent to flush. The shower still has no cold knob. Some things never change.

Fiji: April 19-24

We arrived in Fiji around 8 o'clock Saturday night and met Ramsay and Jacapo at the dinky airport. We went through a joke line they call customs. I swear they would have let me bring in a rabid pit bull if I had one. Mostly we were just happy to be greeted by some more of our fellow Kiwis. Nothing is better than seeing a New Zealand friend you haven't seen in more than two days

We went to church Sunday morning (the 20th). Well, what I meant to say is that we showed up at the building and waited for three hours. No church today. (We later heard a rumor that they met up with another building but I have my speculations.) So while we waited we ate coconuts. You can easily find one in a gutter and not-so-easily open it. Fresh coconut is pretty good.

Fiji is just like I imagined it except with more litter. The road has old cars and palm trees and coconut trees overhang the edge. Everyone wears a sulu (a skirt like a lava lava) and tropical shirts. I thought only cheesy tourists in Hawaii wore those. I was wrong. They are very much worn by the local population. We stick out like soar thumbs because there's a lot of us white kids hanging out together. Locals pass by and say, "Bula! Bula!" Bula is the Fijian word for hello. That's the literal translation, anyway. What it has come to mean is, "Hi! You look like a tourist. I think I'll swindle you into buying some jewelry or a horse ride." I later learned to hate the word Bula but in the beginning I loved how friendly the people were.

And boy is it humid!

This is what our bunk room looks like. Imagine you are taking this picture and right behind you is another bunk bed and to your left is the bathroom and to your right is the door.

Remember that one time when I saved a bunch of granola bars? Well, they're all gone now. So I have to resort to buying food. Luckily things are cheap here. The exchange rate is AWESOME! But we didn't have any facilities in our backpackers hut to cook. So I ate lukewarm oats with some bananas for breakfast every day. That wasn't so tasty. Some things really should have sugar.

We ran around near our place and caught newts and frogs. I had never caught frogs before.

Monday (21st) rolled around and we spent the day at the beach: Natadola Beach, to be exact; the 7th best beach in the world!

Just for your information, in Fijian words, there is an imaginary n before a d. So words like Natadola are pronounced Natandola and the Nadi is pronounced Nandi. Got it?

(Note: I really did take this picture. It's not stolen from a calender)

Tuesday (the 22nd) was cool because we went to the only temple in Fiji. This took a 4 hour bus ride. I sat next to a man named Ratu. You'll hear more about him in a later post. (Ratu and I pictured below)

So after a 4 hour bus ride we went from Nadi to Suva. Then we took a taxi to get to the temple. We met this adorable lady outside. Her name is Sister Bale. She was quite the lady! Her smile STILL warms my soul. She was just so thrilled to "see so many young people coming to the temple." We did baptisms for the dead in the temple and go figure, most of the temple workers were senior missionaries from the States. We learned interesting facts about the Fijian temple. The land was actually owned by the Australian government and then the US government wanted the land for an embassy. Because of how long it takes the bureaucracy to get decisions made the Church was able to snatch it up. Also, the temple is so prominent that ships coming into the harbor look for the light from Moroni. I'm sure this information could be used in a lesson some time.

We went in to the temple and it was sunny. We got out and it was cloudy. By the time we got on the bus to go home it was pouring.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Breakfast: Three delicious rolls.

We met at 7:50 am at the front of the hotel and waited for the bus that would take us to South Sea. On the bus we met a guy from Michigan. He called us "Stormin' Mormons" and we shot down a lot of stereotypes and told him the truth about polygamy. *sigh* Oh how I love preaching the truth!

We got to the port, boarded a big yellow ship, and headed off to South Sea Island. The island is about the size of my home church building+parking lot. It's tiny! As we got off the boat and on the island a Fijian band greeted us with their ukuleles.

There was SO much to do on South Sea Island! We ate REAL food (not rolls or oats) I went on my first REAL scuba dive and I held a REAL starfish and touched a REAL sea cucumber. It was incredible. We dove near a sunken ship and saw Moorish idols (fish) and banner fish and I touched a soft coral. (It looked like an anemone but it wasn't'. It kind of stuck to my fingers.) I touched a giant clam and some weird jelly thing on the reef. One gigantic cod fish lurked around and I saw a sting ray and the fattest starfish I've ever seen. The colors were fantastic! Fish in every nook.

(Me, Erin, Mary, Stephanie Richards, KPax, Caity Smith, Brooke)
(Tiennus, Jo, Erin, Me, Eddie)

Thursday, April 24

Shh! It's a surprise. Today is Kirsten's birthday and she has been hanging out around the hotel because she has no money to do anything. So we are kidnapping her and paying for her ticket to join us on another day cruise.

At 7:52 we walked into her room (and by room I mean the bunk room where 6 people sleep) and we sang Happy Birthday to her. She thought we just came in to sing to her and say goodbye for the day. WRONG! We better believe we dragged her into the bus. I think she's pretty excited about it.

Next stop: Robinson Crusoe Island.

I love when they greet you in song!We went snorkeling an I had a nifty underwater camera.

(Above: Erin Below: our snorkeling guide)
Then we watched Ziggy climb up a tree and get everyone a coconut to share with a buddy

Then we ate and watched a dancing show. Here's a segment from the fire portion. Oooo!

If that doesn't make you want a Fijian man, I don't know what will.

After the show we had a bunch of activities like crab racing. I'm proud to announce that my crab was number 1. (That's right, raise the roof!) And that is why I am wearing a necklace and flower in the picture below. I won them fair and square. My favorite part of the day was the dance Ziggy taught us. I wish I could remember it because it's probably the most awkward line dance you will ever do.

When we got home we threw a party for Kirsten. Mala helped us out. Actually, Mala helps us out a lot. (Mala works at the motel. She's pretty much amazing.) Mala managed to find candles to go in the cake (which we purchased for $2 Fijian).

Side story: Last night the hotel had crab racing. Winner got a free drink. Taylor Porter in our group won but since she doesn't drink they gave her orange juice. Mala told us that all the staff was absolutely shocked that there were 12+ Americans all together, all college age, who did not drink. We gave her a Book of Mormon.

To finish off the night some of us had kava. Blech. Kava is a drink made from a mushed up root. No, it's not tea. No, it's not alcoholic. We checked before we had some. It tastes kind of chalky.