Rugby World Cup Quarter Finals - Ireland and France

With Tonga in full swing of Rugby madness and with all of the Fab Five (including partners and kids) in town for the first time in about 1yr.. of course we decided to all gather together at Dom's house and support our chosen teams. Ireland being the chosen team of the day for O'DD (Jen) and our newest of friends Dee and Steve, who are also Irish, everyone decked themselves out in green. The second game we supported France (as Tonga beat them) Everyone brought some salads and meat for the BBQ and the teams supplied the entertainment between beers and wine. Such a great night shame the Irish let us down though.

Dom & Hannah did a great job decking out the house.

Ireland score and the celebrations began.

Even the kids got dressed up.

A little more sobering at half time though.

The first ever entire group photo including new comers Dee and Steve (nice runners Buddy).

The loyalists surrounded the TV for the full time debrief, Steve, Non-rugby John, Rugby John and Jen L-R

Lyndon the very messed up Irish/Scotsman with Hey Jimmy Hat and Tepanu helped Dom with the half time clean up, by getting him another beer anyway.

Seeing everyone else was dressed up Evie thought her dress up clothes should come out.

With a change in colours we moved onto the red, white and blue to support France. Also O'DD and John's kids are frogs, by birth. It was well after nine so Annie decided (as usual) to pass out.

The kids where making too much noise so they were banished to the bedroom to watch movies (girls only) the boys were out in the yard playing hide and seek.

After a few wines Steve thought he would look great in Sesi's Hulk muscle suit. Looking at Dee's smile it must have been a while since she'd seen him with a six pack? Typical Irish, always having the last laugh, even if their team went down.

School Holiday break at White Sands

After a week of kids at home during school holidays it was time for mum to recuperate and let them go feral at White Sands for a few days. As soon as Jodie hit the front gates she went into relaxo mode. This is a magical place as it is great for all ages to rest and relax. Lyndon only stayed over night as he was still working during the day, but the tides were perfect with two low tides and a high in the middle of the day. Lots of exploring during the low tides and a few waves during the high tide.

Jodie enjoying sunset in her happy place.

Come one come all! Em loves finding new secret places like this rock pool, quite high above the shore line but with some water left from the previous high tide.

Best of both worlds High tide brings new life and sandy beaches. Some days there is even a wave here for the kids to ride the surf ski. Fun!!!

Low tide exposes Lyndon and Jodie's rock spa's and day beds.

This early morning view (low tide) was so peaceful that we took a little stroll, the kids were still in bed after a long night of ghost crab hunting.

Kinna (Tukomesi) anyone?

Another picture perfect sunset.

Dyl exploring the shallows at low tide. Quiet the hunter and gatherer nowa days, he even caught a small eel.

Due to the very low tides we even managed to make it out to the reefs edge. Such beatiful colours in the reef.

Sea cucumber anyone? Em calls them her Tongan water pistols.

Incredible find for the morning a clam that hasn't been eaten by the locals, still a baby though, next to Emily's hand.

Jodie and Em explored the gardens and found some beautiful flowers too.

TONGA out of the World Cup but continue the party!

Well Tonga may not have made the quarter finals but what a last game beating France 19-14. They returned home two days after and the entire Island was going off. From the kick off of that last game and until they arrived home two days later. With our inside info (live from the ground from Rugby John) we found out they were to arrive home at 0930 on the Monday morning. Then when Maria turned up for work she told us her boys had headed out to the airport at 0730. We felt sorry for anyone trying to get on that outbound plane. Jodie, Maria and the kids lined up from 1000 in the centre of town and with constant text from Rugby John on the team bus it was a long wait. It took them 3.5 hrs to cover the 20km drive into town from the airport, yep walking pace, police escort and all. Luckily for us the street parade entertainment was in the form of very happy supporters, continued the entire time. Lyndon even dropped in for lunch as we had sat near a good little hamburger joint. John said it was incredible and a highlight of his international coaching career. The team then had a formal reception to welcome them back.

Some people had little banners and flags others went a step further with balloons.

Others couldn't help but repaint the car.

If you owned a truck you suddenly found a whole lot of new friends.

This father son team did laps all day long. John even said he saw a bloke riding beside them on a bike with no tires on the wheels, yep rims only.

No need to turn your radio up most of the trucks had massive stereos onboard pumping out the tune's.

Fakalate's (lady boys) were out in force even.

Lyndon seemed to be the only goose not in red. Jodie even had a red scarf for Maria.

The girls getting very excited and the crowd began to grow.

Finally 3.5hrs later the bus was here!

Big Rugby John throwing us a wave with a few of the boys onboard (and press).

This is only a small sample of what was following them into town.

And there they go but the entertainment continued for miles. The local panel beaters and spray painters will do a booming trade from the festivities. John said they didn't finish until 4ish at the presentation on the Esplanade, then it was off to another function till midnight at Re-Load (a friendly little bar). Man what an experience imagine next time when they do make the quarter finals?????

Special Guests from Oz visit Tonga for Gradings!

This time around for gradings the kids had the extra pressure of Master Paul and Chief Instructor Josh over from Australia to conduct the yearly assessment. This is a big thing for the entire Branch and made for a long and adventurous weekend. They were accompanied by three other black belts and a Blue belt, so they made a holiday of their 4 day stop over. Both Emily and Dylan did a great job and ended up attaining their Blue tips after 9 mths of training. Additionally, they both got to break a board each - flying side kick over one person (victim), they were over the moon. After the gradings we also had Wayne, a blind Judo instructor take us through some Judo moves and then Chief instructor Mark conducted knife defence training. A long day indeed. The following day we all headed over to Pangi for a day of recovery and to show them another small sample of the sights of Tonga. Satisfaction was available so we took some extra people over on her then later in the day we used her for some knee boarding and snorkelling .

Em doing some bag work with Master Paul.

Dylan with a great front kick.

Pattern time, Faisi also graded with the kids.

Ruha with one of her last breaks for her black belt.

Yvane successfully passed his 2Dan grading. Even with a massive chunk of his foot missing from a slip up on the first break. A big day for the entire Tonga branch.

The family shot after the gradings. The kids wouldn't let go of their broken boards and Master Paul even signed them.

A successful grading for the entire Tonga Branch.

Sia and Lisiata' (Richard) totally enjoyed the Judo session.

Once the Judo was over we moved onto Knife defence.

Mercy stabbing himself! With a little help but there's only his prints on the knife!

What better way to recover than to take everyone out to Pangi on a Sunday.

Master Paul showing his talent on the knee board. Everyone from Oz had a go, even Wayne (blind Judo Instructor)

They even got to chase Dory and Nemo around for a while.

Even Jodie was enjoying yet another cleansing ale on the deck. The same deck she only minutes prior ripped her foot open on or as we say now "Did an Yvane!"

While some rested, the more energetic ones swam out to the wreak and dove off it for a while.

After a day in the sun at Pangi and being a Sunday we hosted a farewell feast at our place. One of the boys even bought a pig for the BBQ. We had several interesting games of world championship (yeh no one in this group is at all competitive!!!) pool, darts and even......

Master Paul did have the honor of carving the pig. Knife defence?

You wouldn't pick this but world championship Chess which turned into checkers later on. Amazingly I didn't loose any pieces?

By the end of the night no one was ready to say goodbye. The girls from Canberra were already booking in for next year, they couldn't believe how much fun and how good a friends they had made in just a 4 day visit. Best we train even harder to keep up the good impressions.