Nearly one week back in Tāmaki done and dusted.

A pack in, season, and pack out complete
Three boxes unpacked
Plant home set up, and plans underway for improving it
Many loads of washing done (so many)

And this week we do it all again!
(Aūe)
Although hopefully with less chaos. We’ll see.

#NinjaAdventures #NinjaGoesHome

Update

Nana has chosen the path of denial, and actively acknowledged it, which is why she’s still been talking to me.

But other than the dead name and misgendering, and the discussion about how my racist great-uncle left because he didn’t want to accidentally bump into me, it was lovely?

And one of my uncles came past specifically to see me, and has invited me to the family Easter morning tea tomorrow.

So.
Net gain?

#NinjaAdventures

Off to have lunch with my Nana, who I haven’t seen in person since someone told her I was trans.

She’s very Catholic, so I’m a little worried.
But she’s also continued speaking to me online, so I’m quietly hopeful it’ll be lovely.

Wish me luck!

#NinjaAdventures

Accidentally nearly four am because it’s been games and epic chats is honestly an amazing start to a tiny break from all the mahi and dramas.

Love friendships that feel like home, no matter the space between.

And. In the morning.
Someone is making waffles!!

#NinjaAdventures

Had an excellent hang this afternoon with @LostArcNZ, who has an excellent shed of shiny things!!

And now we’re playing Monster Prom multiplayer, complete with dramatic voices
(Yes, every character has their own voice too. It’s wonderful)

#NinjaAdventures

After many dramas, brutal negotiations, and maybe finally some good luck, I can officially say

Hey Palmy
Who wants to hang this weekend?

My schedule is pretty chill, got cute things with chosen family and a dinner with my Nana, but otherwise I’m flexible.

Arrive Fri, back out Tuesday night.
Gotta work Tuesday day but can do a lunch hang.

#NinjaAdventures

Nothing like watching half a dozen cop cars go hooning past in the opposite direction to your travel to make you go

Holy shit, we’ve dodged something major 😬😬

#TravelToots #NinjaAdventures

In three weeks today I will (hopefully, fucking hopefully) finally be moving back to Tāmaki Makaurau.

After the better part of 21 months. Not the ten days I originally left for.

After a tour cut short by covid lockdown.
After not being about to even visit home for five long months.
After accidentally joining a ukulele band.
After opening a large multi-venue performing arts facility, one of the biggest outside of the main centres.

21 days
Til #NinjaAdventures turns into #NinjaGoesHome

Yesterday I had the absolute honour and delight of celebrating two of the loveliest people I know getting married.

With a bonus of getting to spend the entire afternoon and evening with one of my wonderful pals, because neither of us knew a single other person (besides the bride & groom ofc)

And as there are precisely zero photos of us together, and very few of us in not-show blacks, we snapped some sweet photos in our fancy clothes

#NinjaAdventures #HomeSweetHolmes

Yesterday I visited a different friend as we were carpooling up to our friends’ wedding - so we had a cute lunch hang at their place before getting ready.

Which of course I used the time to befriend both of their cats - including the one that does not like people. At all.
Who ended up trying to sit on my lap about ten minutes after I took this picture on the chai

#CatsOfMastodon #NinjaAdventures

Despite it being a soggy day, we went out for a wee adventure - I wanted to drop a box or three of things back to my place from where I’ve been staying, have a wee walk, and to take brother and basically brother to one of my fave café’s while they were both in town.

On the walk I found some excellent #Fungi, we played on the playground because there weren’t many children, and did a bit of #Geocaching.

At the cafe. Well. You can definitely tell Monkey and I are related 😂

#NinjaAdventures

Today’s #NinjaAdventures weren’t super well documented because some fool was too busy goofing with their whānau instead of taking photos.

Most of today was taken up by brunch, and by a three hour long venue tour with lots of “and here’s this thing I told you about” - it was super cool to see how excited Mum and Bry were, really gives a bit of hope!

This evening was a trip to Te Puia, where we did dinner, show, and a sunset geyser. It was wonderful all round
(& is most of today’s #photos)

Today we visited the 3D Art Museum, which was a delightful time - & honestly the pictures capture our different personalities pretty darn well

Then it was lunch, followed by walking the sculpture trail in Government Gardens.
Home for a nap - that #AntisocialVoid decided to join me for 😻🥰

Then this evening was hurtling around the luge. Which is basically a plastic soap box derby cart & a collection of different downhill tracks you can throw yourself down.

Excellent day

#NinjaAdventures

We then stood in line for quite a while for the night time tree walk, it was definitely worth it IMO - everyone got different things from it, but we all had a great time.

The Trubridge lamps on this scale are astounding, and the history tidbits were super cool.
As was the rigging and how everything has been suspended to allow the tree to continue to grow happily. Multilayer nerd out there, while my whānau just nodded at me 😂

#NinjaAdventures

Last night we went for a walk through the Redwoods, which is a wonderful working forest that includes walking, mountain biking, and horse trails. A rad science complex. And a couple of delightful cafes.

We wanted to do the nighttime tree walk, but arrived quite early so did a loop around the memorial track. Here’s some of my favourite snaps from the forest while the sun was up.

There were a lot of excellent trees & ferns, some great moss, & the company was pretty great

#NinjaAdventures

My whānau have arrived!
This is literally the first time all of us have been in the same city at the same time in the 6 years Monkey (little brother) has been with his partner, so of course we are making the most of it!!

By. Umm.
Eating half our weight in cheese. Trying a chilli sauce challenge. And all sitting doing our own things in the same space while the cat wanders between us for pats.

It’s a good day

#NinjaAdventures