Kia ora ano

Wednesday went extremely well...I took Samuele, Antonio, Caleb and Matuku up to Otaki about 11 am and we all met at kura. The boys then helped to prepare the hangi for dinner that night.

2nd step was to burn the fire in the hole...we helped put the iron and wood on the fire and then watched the fire blaze once Manaia's uncle lit the fire

3rd step was to peel the potatoes...we had 2 bags to peel and we completed them pretty quickly. Meanwhile the rest of the whanau were cutting up the pumpkin, kumara, cabbage and preparing the stuffing.

5th step put the basket in the hole and cover with dirt in order to cook the hangi...the rest was up to Manaia's uncle who watched the hangi to ensure the heat did not escape from the hole. Then we had to wait for 3 hours for the kai to cook....

The boys then had a game of soccer....team 1 was made up of the italian boys, Matuku, 2 kids and Erena (Manaia's cousin) against the rest of Manaia's whanau...and there alot of players in Manaia's whanau...and yes, team 1 won....it was a great game to watch, Stefano had gumboots on and Samuele had his boots on but they could still control the ball. Unforturnately Antonio rolled his foot on the ball and sprained his foot. He spent the rest of the afternoon resting his foot....

5pm we moved to Tainui Marae to set up for dinner and as time moved on the rest of Manaia's whanau, Caleb's whanau and Wiremu turned up. The kai and atmosphere was awesome. Manaia is soooo lucky to be surrounded by a awesome loving whanau who not only made the Italian boys feel welcome but they also extended their welcome to me, my whanau and Caleb's whanau. It was amazing...something I'll never forget.

Manaia played some of the Italian video from Roslyn and explained the activities with some help when required from the Italian boys and me. Then Stefano spoke on behalf of the boys in Italiano and Samuele translated Stefano's speech into english. They both thanked everyone present for looking after them all and expressed how much they were enjoying their visit to NZ. Stefano talked about all the places they had been to and all the activities they had done while in NZ...this included their visit to Whangarei, Rotorua, Hamilton...and Stefano's trip to Napier where with Manaia's whanau. Then after their speech they sung an Italian song to us....they were awesome...they are great boys who appreciate everything we can give them.

This gave Wiremu, me and Ella (Caleb's mum) the opportunity to also thank Manaia's whanau for inviting us to spend this time with them as well. I was able to give a brief overview of our trip in Italy...I talked about all the places we went to, how long we stayed in Rome, Florence and San Remo, what the weather was like, how amazing Italy was and how wonderful the Italian families were to all of us.

Then by 10pm we were all packed and ready to return home. Matuku and Samuele talked most of the way home about their time in Otaki...by 11pm we had arrived home.

Thursday we met up again at Te Papa at 12 noon...the weather here in Wellington was terrible, rainy and windy at the same time...we spent 2 half hours walking through Te Papa...but quickly ran out of time so we only managed to see the Forces section (about earthquakes), native creatures (birds, sea creatures) and the maori section on level 4 (including the Marae).

By 2.30 pm to 3.00pm we all left Te Papa and went our seperate ways again. I took Samuele to the indoor kart racing in Kaiwharawhara but we ended up playing mini golf instead. Samuele had never played the game before so we gave it a go. Surprisingly, the course was really really hard...everytime you hit the ball against the wood the ball would bounce back towards you.

Samuele was missing his coffee in Italy, so after mini golf I took him to Starbucks to try the Espresso, finally he was happy...so looks like we'll making a few more visits to Starbucks before he leaves NZ. Last night we played cards, we showed Samuele how to play 7's and he showed us a few of his card games but the one we liked the most was UNO. Different to the way we play it, but we enjoyed it alot...