Pakiwaitara

Tu Tangata, Issue 28, 1 February 1986, Page 43

Pakiwaitara

At three o'clock, dead on the dot, two large buses drove up. people poured off and I heard my Aunty Bet’s voice, “We got here alright. This is it!” They flooded onto our back lawn while the ladies headed for the house. There were hugs and kisses from everyone. I soon shot over and took charge of the barbecue. Better than kissing everyone. Putting pinecones onto the fire and more sausages onto the cooking plate, kept me busy.

People were everywhere, old people with walking sticks, aunties and uncles, cousins, all eating, cordial and cups of tea being poured the whole time.

We’ve got too many sausages, I thought, looking at the huge pile still left.

Dad and Aunty Betty were quietly talking. “There should be two more buses coming... maybe they’ve carried on.”

Our visitors had only been with us for about an hour when around the corner came two more bus loads. More people poured off, kissing and hugging. I kept cooking sausages. People filed along the

tables filling their plates and finding empty pieces of lawn to sit on and eat their kai.

As the last few came up I thought that this sausage was surely sausage number four hundred at least. The sweat poured off me as I quickly plucked the cooked ones off with the long tongs. Soon there were no more and it was embarrassing to tell people that that was it. Thank goodness there was plenty of wild pork and watercress in the boiler.

Soon the people regrouped, speeches were made and waiata sung. Koro Riini presented a koha from the visitors. There were more hugs and kisses as they boarded their buses for the long trip home, to Rotorua, Te Puke, Whakatane, Tauranga, the Mount and Te Puna.

At five o’clock the last bus left the village while we waved them off. Quickly the dishes were done, tables and gear returned and by half past five no one would have believed that over two hundred people had just been to our place for a stop and “a cup of tea”. Ka pai.