15 minutes of fame....

About 3 months ago Pacific Resort was lucky enough to host the crew from Maori TV’s Hunting Aotearoa program. The crew were in the Cooks to visit Aitutaki, Raro and Atiu to film a couple of episodes for the program. I did an interview with the surprisingly charming Howie Morrison Jnr which lead the episode on Aitutaki (episode 26 just screened). The crew had a blast, saying it was one of the best trips they’d ever had.

They hooked up with some local characters including the hilarious Peckham Maoate who took them spear fishing for eel, coconut crabbing and CHICKEN TRAPPING – yes a bizarre Aitutaki sport where you put an onion on the end of a very long pole with a noose attached and then try to snare the sleeping chicken 15 ft up in a tree!! Even more bizarrely on Raro the crew went shooting for Fruit Bats, which Howie actually eats bbq’d !!! Taste’s like pigeon apparently.

There’s been lots to tell and I know many people will have already heard the news. I was delighted to get an early morning text to tell me that I had won the South Pacific General Manager of the Year Award at the HM Awards in Sydney. The HM Awards are the premium awards for hospitality and Accommodation excellence in Australia, NZ and South Pacific.

There were as record 1300 nominations for the 35 awards, which were presented at a dinner for 500 in Sydney, with Ray Martin as host. Sadly I couldn’t be there but one of my colleagues accepted the award for me. Sounds like he was almost as excited as I was, with the table of industry folk he was sitting at offering a huge cheer when my name came up.

It is a delightful to be recognized in this way. My fellow GM in Sydney Marcus Tait suggesting this adds 10 – 15% my future salary – now that’s the money!!

Jen and I got the chance to celebrate in advance when on the night prior pacific resort hosted a wine dinner in conjunction with our always friends from Pernod Ricard to showcase their Jacob’s Creek Reserve wines. Chef James designed an exceptional five course dinner and with matching wines I don’t think Aitutaki had seen anything like this for a while.

The Toa Moana Masters Vaka crew helped the dinner numbers by booking the largest table, which coincided with the departure of the women’s #1 stroke, Tanya back to NZ. As if any excuses was needed this meant much excellent St Hugo’s and Steingarten wines were consumed but the killer stroke was the whiskey with Pernod Riacrd supplying bottles of Chivas Regal, Jamesons and The Glenlivet 12 year old to go with coffee…with the expected result.

It was quite a week as the day after that was Michael’s Birthday. The family took an extra day off to get on the lagoon in a much anticipated cruise with Lawton on the Glass Bottom Boat (funnily enough it’s actually the old one from Goat Island). The weather was great and Lawton gave us a wonderful tour both in and out of the lagoon (a first for the kids). The glass bottom gives a great perspective, snorkeling without getting wet…and lunch was a feast with a wonderfully genuine flavour. Big Thumbs up for Uncle Lawton – highly recommended.

Jenni’s month has been all about the school library, with her new designation as Librarian. Jen’s been imprisoned in the stifling heat of the new school library several hours a day sorting, labeling, counting, censoring (no books with dragons allowed at the Seventh Day Adventist school) and getting to grips with the idiosyncrasies of the Dewey Decimal system. My favourite report has been the Bible filled by Author under ‘G’…for God. But the reports are all positive, with our donated mats coming into good use when some kids ACTUALLY CAME INTO THE LIBRARY OF THEIR OWN ACCORD TO SIT AND READ SOME BOOKS – a breakthrough!!

She’s a star that Jen.

So that’s September – Part 1…with Jamie’s birthday on the horizon September Part 2 will surely feature a cake of some sort…standby til then.

A Deserted Island Paradise...and some Fishing Action

We have had an exciting two weeks in busy Aitutaki. We spent three nights on the motu (small, uninhabited island), attended the school prize-giving and sponsored a game-fishing competition.

Maina

Our trip to Maina Motu was incredible. Maina is on the south-west corner of the lagoon and is everything you want on a deserted tropical island - white sand, warm waters, native birds, no mossies, lots of hermit crabs, and LOTS of sun. We had the use of a friend's beach hut, but slept outside on the second night and cooked over the fire. Quentin (Snr & Jnr) from Wet & Wild took us out on Sunday morning, and deposited us in the sand, and that is pretty much where we stayed. Our days consisted of lying on the mat under the trees on the beach, reading books and waiting for the sun to move across the sky, whereby we would pop up, move the mat and go for another swim. Heavenly - no cars, no TV, no phones. Just the peace was relaxing with the blues and whites and the stars at night.

In the evening we gathered wood and coconuts, lit the fire, cooked dinner & toasted marshmallows, then lay back to watch Jupiter set, the satellites pass and the stars shoot. Our night on the beach was a little chilly due to a fresh breeze, but we would have all made it through to sunrise if not for a 4am shower of rain! Never mind. It was the most relaxing sleeplessness I have ever experienced! Tuesday afternoon rolled around and we said "Ka kite a kone Maina" and heading home to much appreciated fresh water and soft beds.

Prize Giving

The following day was the school parents day, which we didn't quite understand but we thought we would just roll up to school and find out about it in the morning. The boys were dressed and in the car when the principal rode up and gave us the English language newsletter that said there was no school today and the Parents day/prizegiving/reports/parent-teacher thingee started at 2pm. Crazy place!

So at 2pm we arrived for the Tekaaroa SDA School Prizegiving which had lovely flowers, lovely singing (yes even from our boys) and 2 hours on small chairs... Bailey received a Certificate of Academic Achievement in Maths, Oral English, Reading English and Physical Education, plus the Academic Excellence in Reading and Academic Excellence in Numeracy awards for Grade 3.

Jamie received a Special Award for being a Great Explorer in School, which was signed by ALL the teachers as Jamie doesn’t like to confine himself to one class, but flits in and out of all of them. It was a very funny and quite appropriate solution to the problem of assessing a child who never appears in a classroom long enough to observe!

It was really nice that the school made a special effort to give some speeches in English, and the Chairman of the school board translated the Maori for us. Michael and I were unexpectedly called up to present some of the certificates which was also nice.

Fishing Competition

L: Michael and his 8kg Yellow Fin Tuna on the Mary J. R: Weigh-in time, with the kids and the Aitutaki Game Fishing Club in the background.

To finish off the week Pacific Resort Aitutaki sponsored a tournament at the Aitutaki Game Fishing Club. Michael had to be at the wharf by 4.00am to get out to the good off shore spot by sunrise but the fishing was worth it. His boat pulled in 6 tuna - Michael's weighed in at 8kg, which paled next to the comp winner with a 22.5kg tuna. It was a fun night at the fishing club with all the locals were there, and all five of us, plus a few others, had special tournament shirts. I took the kids home for Viriama to look after and settled in for a very good night.

Thar She Blows

That's right, the whales are here. I mean, not right here (unless you believe my Wii Fit age yesterday) but you know - out there. The annual migration patterns (no I don't really know what I am talking about) brings the humpback whales to the Cook Islands for spring, and Aitutaki has a front row seat. Actually, the Rapae Bay restaurant at Pacific Resort Aitutaki has the best seats in the house - watch the whales breach just outside the reef while you have breakfast. It doesn't get much better than that. Of course, Poppy and Stephen have a seat in the Gods at the took of the Piraki lookout and can see the whole eastern side of the island. Poppy tells me that she has been watching whole pods of adults and babies through her telescope, splashing away and having a jolly good time. At some stage, according to Greenpeace, 'our' whales will start to groove west towards Nuie and Samoa. In the meantime, my tally is '1', Michael's is 'several', and to risk stating the obvious - they are BIG!
Of course now that spring time is here, cyclone season is around the corner (November). I bought a couple 'emergency' boxes this week to fill with torches, batteries etc. The kids have a vague sense of the purpose of the Emergency Box, as when the power went out 10 min ago (at 10am) she suggested lighting a candle. That's my girl. Forecasts for the 'season' are mixed. Locals say that it is unseasonably cold and therefore the odds of the water warming enough to create a major system are slight. On the other hand the Weather Experts say that El Nino will mean higher sea temperatures and better conditions for whirly-gigs to develop, particularly in our neck of the woods (160W, 20S). I don't know - the locals have been living here a long time....... Not too worry, we have a plan of sorts - Michael will deal with his tourists and Super Mummy will deal with the rest :-)

Cyclone Trivia For Today: Big blows in our part of the world are monitored, and named, by the Fiji Met Service (those anti-monarchists). In case you wanted to call the Blow in person you might want to try the following names (in order): Mick, Nisha, Oli, Pat, Rene, Sarah, Tomas, Usha, Vania, Wilma, Yasi, Zaka. Check out Wiki for names from the rest of the world.

So aside from the widelife encounters and disaster planning, it has been a pretty active month. Pacific Resort Aitutaki entered a team into a 'business house' sports night where 8 teams played netball and volleyball. Michael made a showing on the netball court but more than held his own in the volley ball. Unfortunately we weren't there to see the volleyball, as the round robin for that started at 8pm! It was a lot of fun - everyone had their kids there. Hot chips and slushy's for dinner, some exceptional skills from the men on the island, and roaring laughter for the boys who obviously play more basketball than netball. PRA got second in the netball and won the volleyball. These trophies are piling up I tell you!

The Wii is getting a good workout. I try to do Yoga, step aerobics and boxing every day, and Michael is using it as a suppliment to his running and riding. On a home school day, the kids do boxing and running after breakfast to level out their energy levels for school!

We have been surfing too - sort of. The beach near the house is lagoon calm and can be quite tepid in the warmer months. For a change of scenery we took a drive to the golf club and had a look at the eastern beach. It is much closer to the reef and exposed to the prevailing wind and seas. It is rocky rather than sandy. The waves come over the reef and roll towards the beach towards crashing on the coral shelves at the tide line. Quite stimulating really! Anyhoo at low tide there are a couple of large 'pot holes' in the shelf big enough for the kids to sit in up to their necks. At high tide, there is a break in the rocks so that the boys can stand waist deep and jump the waves without getting washed away. Jolly good fun. I personally like the surf crashing and spraying everything with water.

We have watched a few family groups fishing in the area and they seem to get a good catch. We watched one group cleaning their catch up the beach from us. Many wore big white freezing-works gumboots to go out wading to the reef edge. I happened to see one of the fishermen later in the week and he made a point of coming over and explaining that the group had had a discussion about whether they should have given us some of the catch, but everyone was too shy to make the offer! I decried saying that they deserved the catch after their hard work but that the gesture was truely lovely. Nice people here.

On the school front, Bailey and I put on a puppet show which followed the Arts section of his N curriculum. It was a lot of fun and the audience of 3 were impressed! Jamie's school books have arrived and we are slowly getting into that. The resources are amazing, though keeping everything straight between the two boys is a full time job. Maybe I'll do my teaching certification while I am here...

Cook Islands Tourism Awards - Winners!!!

More awards news!!!

We have just returned from Rarotonga where we attended the inaugural Cook Islands Tourism Awards, held Friday night at the Hospitality Institute. The event was a big undertaking for the local tourism community - a 5 course dinner held outside in rather windy conditions. There was an awesome dance performance to start things off, and the usual speaches from politicians and sponsors Air NZ.

But enough details, down to the important stuff. Pacific Resorts took home a total of three awards - one for Raro and two for Aitutaki. Michael was delighted to accept the award for the Best Hotel over 25 Rooms, and even more delighted to accept, with Greg Stanaway and Thomas Koteka of Pacific Resorts, the Overall Accommodation Award for Best Accommodation in the Cook Islands.

It was a great night, and there were large hangovers the next morning. Each winner did an interview to camera for the local TV station after leaving the stage, which apparantly aired on Monday. We didn't see it, but plenty of people around Raro saw it and told us about it! I am trying to get a copy but as things do, it is going SLOW.

Pacific Resort Awards

News today that Pacific Resort Aitutaki have taken a title at the CNBC Asia Pacific Property Awards, winning Best Small Hotel in the Asia Pacific Region. The CNBC Global Property awards will be held in San Diego in November, so fingers crossed (not for personal attendance of course, but a shiny trophy might be nice:-).

Secondly, nominations for the 2009 HM Awards (Hotel & Accommodation Management Magazine) have been released. Pacific Resorts are finalists in the following categories:

• South Pacific Property of the Year - Pacific Resort Aitutaki
• Environmental Program of the Year - Pacific Resort Rarotonga
  
• South Pacific Manager of the Year - Greg Stanaway

Also nominated is Mizz Debbie Simister (Mrs Marcus Tait, for those who know her by her other alias), looking to retain her title as HR Person of the Year - on yah Debs!!! We are counting on you to have a glass or two of bubbly for us on the night (when we win)!