High on Life

THREE NEW BLOG POSTS  BELOW...

I think things happen for a reason.  Do you ever look back on a life event and ponder about how each and every aspect unfolded to make that event possible?  I’ve been noticing more and more here in Bali, especially since Ry and I have been “slowing” down a bit from the craziness of the life that we both share at home…  It’s funny when you take a moment to analyze how an event happened.  I mentioned to Ry before and during the trip, “I hope that when we get to Aotearoa we can stay with a Maori family to experience the real New Zealand!”  It has been a dream of mine to travel to Aotearoa and to be able to experience the authentic Maori way, to learn of cultural similarities in language, dance, history.  I thought to myself, if this would be possible, it would truly make the trip unbelievable!  Could this be possible I wondered?  Only in my dreams right?  Well…just so happens…if all works out…Ry, Hil, Jason and I will have the ultimate Maori experience!  Here is how it “unfolded”

Event:  The meeting of Anaru Horua, the Maori man of mystery

1.  Ryan had his three boards made by famous Bruce Hansel, North Shore shaper.  When we went to pick up the last board and we noticed a very large surf board with the New Zealand flag painted on the back.  Bruce said that he made the board for a very large Maori man.  I wondered, “Would we possibly bump in to him?”  “Would be an amazing experience to meet a pure Maori.” Nah..yeah right?  In my dreams… 
2. Ryan and I in the “slowness” of our time here in Bali decided to go jump on the internet near Padang Inn.  We had to post a blog, research rib injuries and facebook (well, I facebook, Ry refuses to have facebook).  After about a half hour, I take a look outside and…there it is, the board! The beautiful New Zealand board, but where is he…the Maori man of mystery.  Pearing down the line of facebookers, one, two, three, FOUR!  There he is!  He definitely looks Polynesian.  Cultural tatoos all over his arms and leg.  Should we go up to him?  “Ry…” I whispered, “Look! There he is, the Maori guy, go talk to him, ask him about the board!”  We finished our internet session and Ryan with all out confidence (my sweet haole boy) went to introduce himself to this huge, muscular mass of a man.  Being from Hawaii I was expecting him to say in a gruff Hawaiian, pidgin accent, “Whoa, what you like brah!”  But instead, Anaru humbly and in a heavy New Zealand accent replied, “Oh, hallow, yeah, that’s my booard, eh, Bruce, yeah, he’s the man! Great guy, really great guy, so you two from Hauwai?  I’ve neva meet any Hawaiians befoor eh.  My fierst time really.  Everyone hea in Bali think I’m a Hawaiian and I’ve neva mat a Hawaiian befoor.”  Stunned, Ryan and I looked at each other. This man was a gentle giant with such a soft demeanor.  His body language was the epitome of Aloha.  (Later on in this event, Ry and I learned that the word “Aloha” or “Aroha” for Anaru was the most important word to him, one that he believed, believes should exist in everything that we do.) 
3.  It was a few more times that we happened upon Anaru at the internet café that led up to a night of Mexican food and Bintang beers.  Anaru stopped by our homestay asking to have dinner with Ry and I before he would leave to head back to Australia for his work.  It was a good four days or so and I questioned Ry about when this dinner would take place.  “He said he would come by, don’t worry okay.”  Nervous and a bit paranoid, I didn’t want to miss such an amazing opportunity, “It’s okay I thought, if it is meant to be, it will be meant to be.
4. Ry, Hil, Jason and I head to the Edge, a bar overlooking the surf break Uluwatu for the 2^nd “opening party.”  No free pizza or Bintang this time and the band turned out to be obnoxious, loud and out of tune.  Margaritas were completely sold out and Jason wanted to eat good Mexican food.  “Let’s go to the Surfer’s Wadang, they have good burritos there,” Ryan suggested.  So we headed to our mo-peds, geared up and rode swiftly down a huge hill to get to the restaurant.  “Dang it!” Ryan exclaimed, “They’re closed! This is usually the happening place!”  We decided instead to go to a place called Chacho’s Sunsent Grill.  Chacho, “the man,” from North Shore O’ahu opened up a pretty good restaurant near Padang.  It was expensive ($50,000 to $75,000 rupiah for a plate), but the food was delicious.  “I need gas,” Ry exclaimed and so we all stopped at a Homestay called “Tete’s Homestay,” one of the original on the peninsula and the one where I knew Anaru was staying at.  We pulled up to the petrol station and low and behold, who was drinking a large Bintang, cruising outside with a group of Balinese and Mogli the dog, Anaru!  I couldn’t believe it!  I ran to him, shook his hand, his grip was so strong and his gentle eyes looking at me was a deep greeting.  This type of greeting was an introduction into what Ry and I learned later from Anaru called the “Hongi,” a formal greeting for the Maori.   Greeting for the Maori means so much more than the western swift hand shake or the kissy cheeky thing that we all sometimes do.  Greeting for the Maori is an exchange of energy and Aloha. 
5.  After formal introductions of everyone, I invited Anaru and his other New Zealand friend to come to Chacho’s for dinner.  “We would lav to eh, what you say Isaac?”  Isaac, the South Island New Zealander nodded his head in agreement and we all piled onto our motor bikes.  “Wait Anaru, I need my motor bike,” Isaac exclaimed.  “Nah man, just ride with me eh!”  Off on three scooters we all headed to the restaurant.  Dinner was now finally set.
6. Super delicious food was ordered and the six of us settled in at Chacho’s.  “You are all gonna lav New Zealand eh, New Zealand is awesome.  Hea’s my advice, don’t look at it as a suerf trip, granted, thea is grate surf for sure, New Zealand is so much more than the surf, at every moment, each and avery wea you turn, look, it’s like a post card, it’s truly amazing really.”  “Really,” Isaac said, sipping his Bintang, “And we have a lot of connections for sure, so if you need…”  “Yeah, if you need,” Anaru continued, “I have so many sistahs and they will lav you to come stay with them, I live in the country, the real country where we all still speak Maori.  You know the movie Whale rider?”  “Of course!” I smiled wholeheartedly.  “Well, that is wea I am from, thea in the bush, you’ll lav my sistah’s place.  Once you go to her house they will greet you with the traditional Haka, all my cousins you know, nieces and nephews, than she’ll take you all on our horses to the marae weah the hangi will be prepared and you will eat traditional Maori food and they will perform the haka again and play music, we lav ukulele’s, we play them all the time, you know the band Catcha Fire?”  We all nodded, “Yeah, thea big in New Zealand,” “And Hawaii,” Ryan replied with a smile.
7. The conversation continued.  Hil and Jason spoke with Isaac, getting to know the in’s and out’s of South Island and Ryan and I spoke with Anaru, getting to know of the North Island and Maori culture, history, lifestyle and the “mana.”  “Mana, you have that in Hawaii?”  “Yes,” I said, “It means power.”  “Yes, power to for the Maori also, but it was obtained through the acts of warriorhood.  The Maori, we’re warriors, Hawaiians too yeah for sure, other Polynesians as well, but the Maori, we’re strong, we are a warrior people.  Hawaiians, you have the Aloha and it is Aroha for us.  Aloha is the most important word in this woerld.  It is the lav, the embrace that unifies us all, so important, without Aloha, we fail to truly live and experience, eh.  Life is like your earings,” Anaru exclaimed looking at the round, circular shape that my earings made from the inside out.  “It’s like the curl of a fern, it begins coiled, like your earrings, and then uncurls to become a large fern, that is the representation of life, the energy, like in the Ha, the breathe of life exchanged during the Hongi.”  He took Ryan’s hand, heavy grip in place and brought Ryan’s face near to his to where their noses touched.  He placed the firmly gripped hands near his heart and Ryan pressed his heart there as well, while their other hands were placed on each other’s shoulders.  They stood in connection for a good minute, breathing in and out, noses pressed, eyes closed, feeling each other’s energy.  They then withdrew, hands still firmly gripped, Anaru looked at Ryan and Ryan at Anaru and they exchanged the warmest of smiles between one another.  A few tears ran down my cheek and at that very moment I understood what Aloha really meant, a unity, a harmony, a love that touched deep in the soul.
8. Anaru continued to talk of his people, the history of the Maori and the similarities of Hawaii and our history back home.  “I used to hea stories you know, from my grand parents, stories of Hawaii, that we sailed thea to Hawaii and at a special place on one of your islands, we let down our sails and bowed to that particular place, in honor of Havai’i.” I thought of a place that Aunty Grace Kupuka’a explained to me once, a place in Kona where there are individual stones, set near the coastline and each one of those stones represented all the different Polynesian islands, it represented the arrival of the Polynesian canoes, the wa’a, a symbol of ‘ohana, that we are all cousins in Polynesia.  “We all come from Tahiti, too much warring however and so we all went our separate ways, we are all connected, we are all family, when you come to New Zealand, I promise, you will feel at home,” Anaru explained, looking deeply into Ry and I’s eyes.  He spoke of the history of Captain Cook, of the diseases that ravaged the Maori people, of the loss of much, but that the Maori people have stood strong throughout the ages, the years and have continued, “We are a strong people, we are a warrior people, I have heard stories of Hawaii, you as Hawaiians, the Hawaiian people have lost so much, but I want you to remember that the Polynesian culture is too strong to ever be lost or forgotten, we continue as a people, we are all warriors at heart,” Anaru said looking at all of us now.  He looked at Isaac, “He is a Pakeha, one who is not Maori, but he is my brother, in New Zealand, we have come a long way, there still may be a little tension, but you see this man here, he is my brother, we have to have unity, we all have to find a way to co-exist, it is the way things are now, we didn’t ask for Captain Cook to come to New Zealand, but he did, we didn’t ask for the British to come, but they did, so how do we survive then? Continue…”  Isaac began to speak, “Yes, thea can be tension.  I mean come on, the Europeans came in and *&%$#@# over the Maori people!” Isaac proclaimed, “We did such horrible things to the native people!  It really comes down to respect.  There are strength and weaknesses in my European culture, and they’re strength and weaknesses in the Maori culture, as long as we understand and accept each other, we be okay.”  Isaac and Anaru now looked at each other, a Pakeha and a Maori exchanging smiles with utmost admiration.  “There is still tension of course!” Anaru smiled, “But, you see this Pakeha here, he is my brother.” They both continued to explain the situation in many other countries, but the worse of the cases they agreed was the situation with the aboriginal people in Australia.  I’ve heard others talk of the horrendous treatment of the aboriginal people, in fact one Australian blatantly exclaimed “There are no more aboriginal people left, I don’t see them around anymore.”  It is a tragedy that continues today.  
9. I promised to take Anaru to a taro patch when he makes it out to Hawaii on day.  He was very thrilled, excited to pull weeds and plant huli in the ‘aina and experience Hawaii and our culture.  He definitely is a surf fanatic like Ryan and we would be so honored to show him to the various surf spots back home.  Anaru’s hero is Eddie Aikau.  “Eddie is known throughout Polynesia.  He is a hero you see.  Hokule’a gave so much pride, not just to Hawaiians, but to all of Polynesia,” “All of the Pacific,” Ryan replied, “Yea, all the Pacific.  It gave us hope that we as the Maori could also build a canoe and sail to Tahiti.  Hokule’a was the pride of all of Polynesia, but especially to the Hawaiians.  You know why Eddie decided to paddle out when Hokule’a was in need of help?  It is because he couldn’t see his Hokule’a go down, the pride of and for his people, culture was too great, he paddled out to continue the hope and strength for his people and that inspired all of Polynesia.”        

There was so much insight and advice that was given in this rich conversation, so much hope for Polynesia, especially for Hawaiians.  Anaru mentioned the same words that Aunty Peggy Ha’o Ross once said to me a long time ago, “You still have it, you have always had it, it has never been lost, and with it, you’re people will come together and be as one.”  Aloha.  Aloha means so much more then hello and goodbye, it is an emotion, a formal Hawaiian greeting like the Hongi (“alo”= face to face, “ha” breathe of life), it is a unifying cry, a way to peace and not to suffering, a word that must encompass all that we do, it is what is right and righteous, it is about being humble and embracing differences, it is about forgiveness and acceptance, it is about a love that touches deep within our na’au (being, soul), it is about the positive energy and not the negative and it is also a strength, a strength that helps us all to continue.  So let the strength of Aloha continue to guide us…Mahalo Ke Akua mana loa o Iesu Christo…