What it's like to find love at the other end of the world
Only a few days before she met the man of her life, Mona fell in love like never before. An island whose name sounds as if it had sprung from the drunkenness of a maudlin sailor. A place where women even wear flower wreaths in their hair at the cash register and the sand is so fine that it squeaks underfoot: Rarotonga. There she booked a ticket during a work-and-travel year in Australia. Small trip to the South Seas paradise, if you are so close. But then there was not just turquoise water and the frangipani scent everywhere, but also Tairi, whom she met in a bar: guide for boat trips through the lagoon, rugby player and 22 years old like Mona herself.
Great proximity despite 17,000 km distance
Although she first had to listen to his English, they understood each other as if they had grown up in the same nest. Close proximity despite 17 000 kilometers distance to their hometown Diedorf in Bavarian Swabia. And two weeks in which he showed her his world. "Promise me you'll come back?" He asked her as he said goodbye. Without believing that she would do it. Because stories of holiday flirts usually end here. Because everything just does not fit so well when you land again in everyday life and the bikini dries on a leash between office clothes. Even Mona and Tairi heard nothing more from each other? because he had neither cell phone nor internet. But a month later, the woman who could not let go of him suddenly ran straight for him on the beach. She was back. Just because.
Mona tells:
"Somehow, I was sure that Tairi would be waiting for me when I flew back to him without being able to warn him, before I had never really fallen in love, but there was a strong bond between us right away, and I'm close stayed two years.
At first I did not miss much on Rarotonga, although the island is so small that you can drive around in 32 kilometers. Some privacy perhaps in the midst of a big family, with whom we lived together in a confined space. Or the opportunity to go to a city. But I had the paradise on the doorstep!
"At some point I longed for the familiar"
I could have realized my professional goals there as well, I had already started a distance learning tourism program. But at some point I longed for familiar things, to talk nonsense with friends in my mother tongue, to winter, to my parents, to my homeland. How much, I did not realize until two years ago our wish child Liana came to.
Suddenly I felt isolated because I stopped working in the restaurant, we could not afford a car and I did not want to ride a scooter with the baby. Before, I used to come along whenever Tairi had a rugby match or played in the evening. That was not so easy with the little one. Even though everyone was very nice to me and I had found a good friend in his sister, sometimes I felt a bit lonely.
"A completely different life!"
When Tairi relocated to Germany less than a year and a half ago, I encouraged him to sign up for rugby to build his own. We have an apartment here in my parents' house, he works as an arborist, and in autumn I start my education as a financial economist. A completely different life.
I KNOW how much he has given up for our love. And I feel all the more responsible for his happiness. Maybe that makes a relationship stronger, because you are more concerned about the other. Although our cultures are so diverse, there are few conflicts, perhaps because of how one encounters oneself in one's homeland: helpfulness and kindness go beyond everything. Sometimes I even have to tell Tairi that he should not always think about others, but also about himself. It's rather small things that get us in the hair. For example, that he spoils our daughter with too much sweets. On Rarotonga esteem is often expressed about food.
My wish would be to have a second child, to live with him in Diedorf even in 30 years and fly as often as possible to the Cook Islands on holiday. But I'm afraid that he will miss his home someday, as I have missed mine. "
Tairi tells:
"Although almost a year and a half have passed, sometimes I still can not believe that I live in Germany, Mona did not have to persuade me to come with her, I decided unconditionally for our relationship, I was still scared I lived in New Zealand during my schooldays, but I never got further away when I came here, I felt like a king, Mona's family is not rich, but compared to my parents' house, theirs is a castle, everything is so cheap here Rarotonga costs a pack of diapers a fortune.
"Only my German needs to get better"
At first I was very dependent on Mona. It was hard for me to give up my independence. Everything is easier since I found friends and a job that I like? even if the work is more exhausting than the boat tours with the tourists. Now I want to train myself to become a tree-climber, no problem for someone who grew up with coconut palms on every corner! Only my German needs to get better. Also because I want to understand what my daughter and my girlfriend talk to each other like that. I only speak English with the two? and with Liana sometimes Cook Islands Măori, this part of my culture should not be lost.
"Mona has shown me so much of the world"
The pace here, I get used to slowly, in my home are the clocks on? Island Time ?, everything goes slowly. I also miss the fishing, the life in the open air and the feeling of being part of a large community. I would never question my decision. Mona's parents are just wonderful, from their father I learn so much craftsmanship, for me he is just? Superman Erwin ?. I lead a life here that many people dream of on Rarotonga. And Mona showed me so much about the world, we were in Amsterdam, Bali and Los Angeles. I would never have seen it without her.
"If you have two, you are somehow torn"
Also for our daughter I'm glad that she is allowed to grow up in Germany, here she can become anything she wants. But it makes me sad too. On Rarotonga there is no crime, you can let the kids go. Here the parents always have to stay close to them.
Sometimes I'm worried that my parents might become frail. We went back from New Zealand back to Rarotonga to be there for our grandparents. How should I do justice to everyone in such a situation? If you have two homes, you are somehow torn.
I can imagine living here in the future, but I want to build a house for my family on Rarotonga. And I want to get married as soon as possible, on the beach in front of my lagoon. "
Mona's mother tells:
"Soon it will be too tight for her, and she's coming back! That was my first thought when Mona went to Rarotonga, but I was wrong." During her visit to Christmas, she pulled out some baby socks: "Mom, I'm pregnant." I broke a world together, a grandchild in the South Seas! I only saw the tickets save there ...
Two weeks before the birth, my husband Erwin and I flew to our daughter. We were received so warmly, as if Mona was the princess of the Cook Islands, that was overwhelming. Nobody can take that experience from us. I immediately understood why she felt so secure in this place. We have Tairi and his family firmly in the heart.
WHEN MONAS THE WILDS began, we drove the scooter to the hospital at night and in pouring rain. That was a shock: conditions like 50 years ago! I sent out prayers that everything goes well.
"I know how much it hurts"
Strange, but with Mona's love for the South Seas, we've come together again very close. Here in Diedorf, Tairi has moved into a piece of the big wide world, sometimes playing on the ukulele, talking on Facebook messenger with Rarotonga, and I'm so proud of my husband, how great he speaks English at the age of 67, though he does never learned it. When I think of Liana's other grandparents, my heart gets heavy. Because they had to let go of their most precious? and I know how much it hurts. "
Tairi's mother tells:
"What does someone from Europe want with our island boy?" I asked myself when I heard about Mona, living a simple life, cultivating papayas, pineapples and avocados, celebrating church services on our terrace on Saturday, what should we offer her? But when Tairi brought her to the barbecue, all the worries were forgotten, Mona was not a stranger at all, she was one of us, everyone could see that there was love between the two, they listened to each other, the two go over everything that connects them Besides, my husband's great-great-grandfather was a German sailor, who knows, maybe that also means something ...
My husband Toru and I cried when we took the two and our granddaughter to Germany for the plane. We only know that our children live close to us. But is it wonderful that Tairi is allowed to experience this? even if we can now only accompany all the little steps of our granddaughter from afar.
"Women just have to stick together"
When I get photos from Germany, I see that my son has grown as a man and a father. Unusual are these many clothes, here he has always worn only shorts and flip flops.
It is a tradition on our island to give some land to your children. We have the property registered in the name of our granddaughter. If Tairi gets the absurd idea of separating, it's Mona and Liana. I think women just have to stick together. And another daughter-in-law will not come to my house anyway. "
