Covid stops play for a while…

On the one hand, not much has happened the last few weeks (covid finally caught up with us so Roo’s birthday was cancelled and we were confined to quarters for a while). But, on the other hand, loads has changed (I got a job in NZ (woo hoo!), we found a place to stay in Wellington (double woo hoo!) and we’ve enrolled the boys in a local school with a great reputation (triple woo hoo!)).

Not sure where we got covid – we thought maybe at the cinema seeing Top Gun 2 (totally worth it), or maybe the following evening at the Heiva (traditional singing and dancing competition at the annual Polynesian cultural festival involving much bottom shaking and knee wiggling). But Selkie didn’t catch it, and it started with Charlie, so perhaps he got it while being tattooed (not many folks get such big tattoos or tattooed on their chest (it’s the most painful thing that Charlie has ever done apparently), so he had a steady stream of onlookers for the two days it took to finish. Roo coughed twice and that was him done (he has inherited my cast iron constitution), Kit had a day and night of a sore throat and blocked nose and acted as if he was going to die at any minute, Charlie was sick for 4 days, and I, of aforementioned cast iron constitution, was out of action for nearly two weeks, if you count the days of debilitating back pain as well as the shivering/sweating/throat on fire/headache/blocked nose days (I don’t get ill often, but I often get a weird post-viral muscle pain thing. Ugh.) Anyway, a silver lining from all this was that, with no parents to entertain them, the boys took the opportunity to start being more independent – they went to the park by themselves, skateboarded by themselves (avoiding the security guards who kept telling them to stop!), and even went to the shop to get bread by themselves (involving a 10 min walk each way, crossing a road and paying a cashier, none of which they’ve ever been allowed to do alone).

We finally celebrated Roo’s double digits on Moorea, at the zip line park. Kit was a little apprehensive at the start, but by the end they were whizzing around with huge smiles (and if the good-ness of the time had can be measured by the size of the melt down afterwards, then they had the best time ever.) Moorea is stunning – jagged mountains everywhere you look and such lush jungle that we could smell the earthy, moist greenness from way out at sea. It’s great to be back at anchor after so long (over 3 weeks!) at Papeete Marina. Huahine next and then on to Bora Bora and Samoa after that.

Right, I’m out of battery, and I should start stowing stuff for our sail this evening… Lots of pictures this time to make up for lack of words!