Joyana Finch (nee Meyer)

Mechatronic Engineer

Former Miss South Pacific & Miss Cook Islands

Cook Islands 

What do you love about doing what you do?

Thats a hard question. There's so much to enjoy in this job. Yes I enjoy the travelling, working with new people and a whole lot of other work perks but my love for this role has nothing to do with that.  What I love about being an Engineer is the opportunity to solve problems.  I imagine that many would hear that and their eyes would glaze over but when I think about it .... being able to attack problems systematically and methodically with logic (aaaand a boat load of patience) gives me a sense of .... freedom.

When you understand more and more about how the things that make up your world work, how you can fix them, how you can modify them to do your bidding, or better yet, how to build something of your own imagining ...…more

Today will be remembered as Fiji Day!

The Worlds Greatest Sevens team has won Fiji their first ever Olympic GOLD medal & their first ever Olympic medal in history!   Well played!!

You've shown us why you're truly the greatest 7s rugby team in the World.

Here are some of the highlights from the finals match today.

Suggested Links:  

Songs in the key of rugby 

Fijis Olympic Hopeful Winston Hill  

The Samoan Slammer 

Meet Joseph Kayes, the Kiwi born Samoan representing Australia at the Rio Olympics in .... wait for it .... Water Polo!   Seeing as many Samoans had their dreams shattered earlier in the week thinking Team Samoa had won a Gold Medal, we thought we'd introduce another medal contender they can put their hope in because well, hope is a beautiful thing!

5 things you should know about Joe:

#1 FAMILY - His grandparents are from Sapapali'i, Savaii in Samoa and made the move to NZ in the '60s.  His mother Dorcas is one of 8 children & married a kiwi - Paul Kayes.  Joe has 1 brother & sister.

#2  GROWING UP - He grew up in Tauranga, New Zealand and went to Mt Maunganui Intermediate & Mt Maunganui College.  He was a swimmer and surf lifesaver and first started playing Water Polo in Intermediate.  His father Paul built the pool at Bay of Plenty Polytech & also founded the Tauranga Water Polo Club in 2002.…more

Meet Tupuna Rangi 

While the world worked itself into a frenzy this week over an oiled-up Tongan Taekwon-do athlete during the opening of the Rio Olympic games;  on the other side of the world, a young Cook Islands Maori man was quietly winning a gold medal at the International Taekwon-Do Federation 2016 World Championships.

He posted these messages on his Facebook page after his win "Guess who got the Gold for the Taekwondo World Championship? Now I feel like a World Champion :) Proud to rep Aotearoa"

"1 Bronze, 2 Silver, 10 Gold medals and a Trophy.  Feels good being Grand Champion in Hawkes Bay and World Champion in England (Brighton).  Hopefully I can compete in the next World Champs in 2018 which will be held in Argentina"

Tupuna wearing his Gold Medal 

Twenty-one year old Tupuna Rangi (Rarotonga, Rakahanga) made sporting history this week when he competed in the first ever Special Needs Division of the ITF World Championships.…more

Our little island nations caused a stir in more ways than 1 at the Olympics opening ceremony in Rio yesterday.  Here's our Top 3 moments.

#1 PITA TAUFATOFUA - Tonga's flag bearer leading out the rest of his team into the Maracana Stadium

at which point the internet collectively lost its mind ....

Way to put Tonga on the map Pita!

You can follow him on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/pita_tofua/  on Snapchat - PitaSii or on Facebook 

#2 OSEA KOLINISAU - Fiji's Flagbearer/7s Captain who was asked by Serena Williams to have his photo taken with her which she shared on her Snapchat! 

#3  COOK ISLANDS OLYMPICS TEAM making the Best Dressed Team & the Boldest Uniform lists in their TAV sponsored uniforms 

Manea tikae!  

Suggested Links:

Our Pacific teams at the 2016 Olympic Games 

Meet our Pacific Island people representing us at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Special mention to Team Tuvalu who has 1 person in their team - Etimoni Timuani a 100m Sprint specialist!  

Coco congrats to everybody who made it to Rio, we wish you all the best as well as our Pacific Islanders representing New Zealand and Australia in this years Olympic Games in Rio.

Lets get behind our island nations - most of them have their team pages on Social Media accounts so follow along on their progress and send them messages of encouragement too!

AMERICAN SAMOA 

COOK ISLANDS 

FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA 

FIJI 

GUAM 

KIRIBATI 

MARSHALL ISLANDS 

NAURU 

PALAU 

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

SAMOA

SOLOMON ISLANDS 

 

 T

ONGA

 

 

TUVALU 

 

 

VANUATU 

 

Paeariki Johnson (nee Mataroa)

Principal, Rongomai Primary School in Otara 

Cook Islands 

I was born in Ngatangiia in Rarotonga and came over to New Zealand with my 2 older siblings, I was only 1 at the time.  My Dad came over first and worked here for a year or 2, sent money back and brought my Mum and my sisters over.  We stayed with our uncles first and then moved into a flat but all they drilled into us was 'Education, education, education'.  We settled in Otahuhu first but I was schooled in Otara - East Tamaki Primary, Ferguson Intermediate & Hillary College.  Then I went off to Teachers College in Epsom and during my teaching career I did my degree through Auckland Uni and did my Post Grad in Educational Leadership.  

I had always aspired to be a teacher.  When I was in Year 6 (Standard 4), we had this amazing teacher at East Tamaki Primary and he used to give us breakfast, we'd go for runs and so on and that was something that wasn't done back then.…more

The Pacific Collection Access Project at the Auckland Museum is a 3 year project that hopes to build knowledge of the Pacific treasures, provide safety for the collection as well as increase public access & engagement, especially for Pacific communities.

Treasures such as musical instruments, tools, ornaments and carvings from 13 different island nations/groupings will be brought out of storage, catalogued, conserved and photographed over the next three years.  These 13 islands will be worked on in alphabetical order with the Cook Islands being the first as part of the Pacific Collection Access Project.

Fulimalo Pereira, the curator of the Pacific Collections at Auckland Museum said of the project "It's finally nice to get the Pacfic Collection Access Project up & running.  As you probably already know we're doing the islands alphabetically and so of course the Cook Islands comes first and it's been just an absolute joy having the Mamas (Mama Mary Ama & Mama Kimi Hakaoro) and Papa William Hakaoro work through the collection with us.…more

The brothers have been back in Australia and New Zealand the last couple of weeks before they end the international leg of their 'Music with a Message' tour in Samoa.

If you're in Wellington, New Zealand you can catch them at Sacred Heart College Performing Arts Centre tonight (Tuesday 02 August) and for our Samoan friends and family they'll be performing in front of the Apia Samoa Government Building on both Friday & Saturday night.

More info & more US tour dates and cities on their website here 

Here's a few highlight pics of their performance at Equippers church in Auckland on Sunday night.

Suggested Links:  

How singing the gospel changed Fiji

The Garden - TJ Taotua ft Fiji & Kiwini Vaitai

PNC brings the fire with his latest release 'The Luke Vailima' EP which dropped today.

It's PNCs first release in a couple of years since his album 'The Codes' & is the first of a 3 part series.  We asked PNC (real name Sam Hansen) if there was a story behind the name 'Luke Vailima' and he told us it's his middle names.  He explained the name further in an interview with Stuff'I just wanted a real basic title about me. It kind of explains how I am half Samoan, half European and it all just made sense to me'

Local NZ talent PT, Rokske & Jeremy Redmore (former member of the band Midnight Youth) also feature on the EP and PNC doesn't disappoint with his signature straight talking bars on bars on bars!

"...…more