Have arrived in Nuie for a week long family holiday. Aloha is not the word for hello here, incidentally. It’s not even bula as it is in Fiji. Unfortunately it’s an entire phrase: fakaalofa lahi atu (or fakaalofa atu for short), which doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue.
Typically for me, it has been raining all day and is predicted to continue doing so for the foreseeable future – not that I expect any of you to feel sorry for me.
We have been up since four am, to catch our flights Wellington/Auckland/Alofi. At least we don’t have jet lag to contend with as there is zero time difference between here and home although, bizarrely enough, it is a day behind. So, we left Saturday and arrived on Friday. Luckily Simon was switched on enough to realize that and book us into our resort on the appropriate date. I wouldn’t like to be out there trying to sleep on the beach in the rain, especially as there is no beach – it’s just coral. Very uncomfortable. For this I will forgive him for some of his holiday nazi behaviour that has already manifested itself, such as abandoning me in the Koru lounge while I wait for my coffee so at least he wouldn’t miss the flight (which we all made very comfortably in the end).
At the welcome drinks at the resort this afternoon, one of the tour guides struck up a conversation with us. He had seen us arrive with our two daughters and there had been much discussion between him and his friends as to how we were going to fit all our suitcases in one car. It seemed this interesting dilemma had been the dramatic high point of his day. I’m guessing that life is generally rather uneventful here. (We hired a people mover.)