Tirangi Saves The Day!

Back in Hong Kong and currently sorting photographs and decided to first off tell you the story of the highlight of the wedding and indeed the entire trip:

TIRANGI SAVES THE DAY!!! 

 

First up,  before I start this story, you need a context.

Setting:

This is the spot where Didi always said, back from when she was a little girl, she wanted to get married:

One of the "castles" Jose built in the jungle

back in 1930 that is now Paronella Park.

Main Characters: 

 Didi and Andre, the happy couple:

 The backdrop is the waterfall at Paronella Park, 

where the wedding took place.

And it DID take place. 

Eventually.

And this is Tirangi minutes before she saved the day!:

The story: 

Paronella Park screwed up. The Events Organiser rang in sick that morning and nobody else knew the arrangements so all the guests turned up to the clearing in the jungle to find that NOTHING was done.  Yup, it was a shambles and I was so shocked when I heard that it was Joyce - a guest and in her 80s -  who put out the chairs:

 Joyce, 

wet from putting out chairs in the rain.

And it was Jane who had to grab all the Park's umbrellas for the guests:

Baby Jane, Arch Umbrella Thief, 

wet from grabbing and distributing 

all the Park's umbrellas.

And the waiters Julia thought she'd hired through the Park weren't there so the local Fijian community of Innisfail, who'd turned up just to watch from the tree line, stepped in to serve.

Another lovely jump-in rescuer!

That's just so wrong, isn't it, especially when the venue was so expensive to hire in the first place!  (But it was Didi's dream to marry there, so ...)

However the biggest problem was that the Park hadn't provided ... no, you have to wait for that one because that was the crux of the entire story.

So there were all the guests, clustered into one tiny area, sheltering from the rain ...

  

... and time was ticking by and the wedding still didn't start.

After half an hour, folks were restless and, now umbrella-ed-up, wandered out into the now-drizzle ...

... and still the wedding didn't start. 

About an hour late and everyone was seriously restless. 

Waiting, waiting, waiting!

And then the whisper went around.  Didi was back there in the jungle "Bridezilla-ing"!  Seems she wasn't coming out unless the Park found her a sound system to play her chosen wedding march song ... but the Park didn't know where the sound system was. Mmmm, mmmmph, mmmph!

So that's when Tirangi came over to Jane and "Maybe she'll come out if I sing!" she offered.

"Do you know how to sing?" Jane asked ... and then realised that was a truly stupid question to ask a Polynesian so changed it to "But what will you sing?"

"Something will come to me!"

Tirani was Didi's friend and none of us had ever met her before. Hadn't even been introduced and had NO idea who she was. "Mmmm, have you done this sort of thing before?" Jane asked, worried.

"Once or twice." said Tirangi modestly.

Jane then took Tirangi over to Julia, Arch-Organiser-and-Mother-of-the-Bridezilla! "Tirangi has offered to sing." Jane said. 

Julia was beyond caring. "It'll have to do." she snorted.

So Tirangi took her stand next to the jungle and let out a totally unexpected cry; something primal and Polynesian and somewhere between a wail and a chant:

The voice was HUGE; powerful and pure and the effect was chilling and you could see hairs instantly rising on everyone's arms. And then she began a wailing chant of ancient words "It's very like, but not quite, the New Zealand Maori call for the honoured guest to enter the ceremony." Jane and Joyce both whispered.

And then Tirangi began another song that had hairs rising on the back of necks; primal ancient sacred holy and the rain seemed to clear and the sun came out and the whole space began to fill with golden light and the atmosphere lightened and the whole thing started to feel special and holy and RIGHT!

As she sang everyone watched the jungle ...

... and it was with huge relief that we saw ring-bearers Eli and Aaron appear, and, phew, with the others - Opel, Erin and Maria, the bridesmaids - close behind.

That's when Tirangi's incredible song morphed into another song - which sounded equally ancient and sacred - as they all walked the red carpet.

And then we all saw, coming out of the jungle ...

Tom and Didi!

... and Didi was actually smiling.

And it wasn't until Didi was half-way down the red carpet ...

... before I realised I knew the song Tirangi was singing.  Yup, despite sounding like something that was sacred and ancient and ceremonially significant it was nothing more than a modern pop song with fruity love lyrics and it was in English too. But, oh man, she made it seem so very very special.

And it wasn't until the Reception many hours later that we all discovered who Tirangi was.  Not just Didi's good friend, she's considered the most famous "sacred singer" from the Cook Islands; practically a National Treasure; one of the very few of the modern generation who know how to sing the most sacred and ancient of the Polynesian ceremonial songs, and the one who is considered to do them better than anyone else and so who is begged to do so at every significant Cook Island ceremony ...

... so we were completely blessed to hear her sing, and to hear just one of these ancient sacred songs; the first song, the one after the Invitation to Enter, which is still used throughout the Polynesian Pacific. This one was, I think, judging by the effect it had on us all, a very special and particularly ancient one intended to make a space become sacred for a ceremony ...

... and there we were saying "Mmmph, guess it will have to do!"  Cringe!!!!

Naturally, I am now wondering if the whole Paronella Park screw-up wasn't an Angelic Gift. Or maybe we can thank our beautiful mother for this so-special gift from Tirangi. Mum always loved Didi so very much she HAD to have been there and she definitely would have come to our rescue when Didi needed her, so ...


Thank you Tirangi for your gift.  It was very special. And now Jamie's asking if you will come sing at his wedding as well ... as will, I'm sure, every single person who was there that day and heard the very special magic you weaved for us all in that jungle clearing next to that castle Jose built in the name of love.