Whānau wānanaga at the French Pass/Nelson

August 27, 2021

Whānau wānanaga at the French Pass/Nelson

June 25-28

Friday- June 25

Okay this was such an exciting trip ahead hehe! We woke up early to head up to Auckland to catch our flight to Nelson, and when we landed we had a bit of prep to do for our windy drive to the French pass.

This is a bit of what our drive looked like:

Although it was getting a bit dark and foggy like, it was still so gorgeous. We powered through the drive and made it to the French Pass!

We met and caught up with lots of family. Boil up and fry bread was made up for dinner. It was perfect for the cold and rainy weather that we were greeted with hehe.

This was us by the end of the night haha. Onesies, oodies, socks, and all. We were in a room with a bunk bed, and a spare twin and we ended up squeezing five of us in that room for the night. That ended up being one of my favorite nights. We sat up for quite a bit talking and laughing together. It was real late by the time we all finally were ready for bed. We were all so delirious and giggly, we were all in the goofiest mood until the last one of us finally fell asleep hehe.

Saturday- June 26

Emma, Toro, and I ended up going out on the pier after getting ready for the day. As you can tell, it was rainy as heck but it was still so pretty out! We enjoyed looking at the view before our day started.

Love toro.

Love these two hehe. They are hilarious together.

Anaru Farm.

We had Te Reo classes through out the day. Those were so fun. I was in the beginner classes and we were able to learn the basics in a fun and interactive way. That was a really neat experience for me.

It was also fun being able to get to know people better and create relationships.

Here's our dinner from that night, and it was so dang good. Some of the guys had gone out during the day to catch the fish fresh! It was the yummiest fish I ever ate. We were really blessed with the meals that were planned and made over the weekend. One of the best parts of the entire trip was the food hehe.

After dinner I spent time with the kiddies! They were my absolute favorite part to the weekend. They were all such good kids and I enjoyed the time that I had with each and every one of them.

Taiāwhiorangi and Ava.

Waikauri.

Ava is such a talented gal hehe and she also recommends some of the best music! She got to show me some of the songs she knows on the guitar, so here's a bit of one of the songs she got to play for me.

Sunday- June 27

We started our day with breakfast and then went into our classes. After an hour or two, we had a break from classes and a lot of us went out on the pier again for a wee walk around. It was again, gorgeous as ever but as you'll be able to see from the pics, it was also rainy as could be haha.

I couldn't imagine it being possible to ever get sick of these views.

This pic is straight up chaotic haha, but I enjoy these three hehe.

How cute is Aunty Dina!? Gumboots and all hehe.

Strantzy boy.

Aunty Dina was feeling the 'singing in the rain' kind of vibes haha. So please enjoy haha.

This was our last day of the whānau wānanaga. It was such a great experience that I will never forget, and I can't wait for the next one coming up!

After another long drive, we finally made it back to Nelson.

It was Em's bday, so we celebrated with a yummy cheesecake and dinner. It was also nice being able to see Aunty Dina and her family. I love those kiddies of hers and we all had such a great time being together.

I had to share this haha! Emma has such a great range of vocabulary hahaha and says 'shawty' quite a bit and so this Aunty of hers was intrigued and was taught by her nieces just when and how to say it.

I ended up staying the night at Aunty Dina Maries. It was really nice because her and I were able to stay up till 4 am just chatting and gossiping hehe. She's also one of my go to's when I want to learn about any whakapapa. It was also nice being able to chat with Uncle Micah.

Monday- June 28

We woke up bright and early to get ready for the flight back to Hams. Anya Lei was getting ready around the same time for kohanga. She is honestly the sweetest and I love these pics of her and Aunty Dina.

Aunty Dina was so lovely and got us bfast from McDonalds before going to the airport. I love her and am grateful for the time her and I get to spend together.