We made it!

I'm writing this while sitting in our hotel room in Hamilton New Zealand! We finally made it Saturday around 1pm New Zealand time. Sadly, all four of us are not together anymore. Dad was not allowed to fly with us because he doesn't have a visa to get into New Zealand. Because he uses a Tongan passport he needs a visa. SO, we flew on without him and had no trouble with our international flights. Don't worry though! We left Dad in good hands. His friend Bernie, who is such a nice, calm man, took him in, and that's where Dad is now. He will fly out to Tonga in a day, and get to spend two extra weeks there. It's nice that he and Bernie get to catch up as well. He keeps telling us not to worry about him and just enjoy our time here with our family.

As for us, we were picked up in Auckland by our aunt Langima'a, her husband Sekope, and some of our cousins! Langima'a looks exactly like dad! They are so loving and friendly, and I know they are going to take good care of us. It was so great to finally meet them. We will probably go to dinner at their house tonight and meet the rest of the family. My dad's brother, Hekodi, lives here too with his wife. We will post pictures of our beautiful cousins, aunts, and uncles as soon as we take them.

The cutest thing so far was our little cousin Siosiana singing Ave Maria to Sarah and me in the car. She is Langima'a's 5 year old granddaughter. I'm sure you will see a lot of pictures of her! Until then.... malo e lelei!

-Maria