‘We were all into nylon in those days, Grandson,’ Oriwia said to me. ‘I packed three nylon frocks, two Crimplene skirts, four nylon blouses and a pair of leather sandals. The clothing was lightweight, took up little space and needed only the minimum of ironing. But it was all a mistake. You heat up and drip inside synthetics, nothing absorbs. Also, the sandals became a size too small.’

A week before departure, Dorothea called in on her way home from town. Over a cup of tea, Oriwia once again expressed her doubts about Chappy’s return. Now that he wanted to get home as quickly as possible, she thought it unwise. ‘He almost left me in that hospital,’ she said to Dorothea. ‘He watched himself slipping away.’

Dorothea had heard all this before.

‘But he pulled himself back,’ she said, and she reminded Oriwia that Chappy had acclimatised once and would do it again. ‘If he comes home in summer, he’ll be able to get used to the colder weather through autumn and be prepared for winter.’

‘But the immigration process is so complicated. I’m worried he’ll be investigated somewhere along the way.’

Oriwia had already explained to Dorothea what had happened when she’d gone with her marriage certificate to make application to bring Chappy home, how afraid she was that enquiries would lead to trouble.

Dorothea stood, put on her coat, then sat down again. ‘There’s something’, she said, ‘that’s been trying to get out of my mouth for some time.’

‘What is it?’

‘You could take care of all that …’

Oriwia waited.

‘By marrying him again. In Hawai‘i.’

Oriwia was shocked by the suggestion. Never, she thought. No, never.

‘I married Taana twice,’ Dorothea went on. ‘That’s what made me think of it. When I brought Taana home to meet the family, my elders wouldn’t accept him. He was a city boy who was landless and couldn’t speak his native tongue. Though it was true that he was brought up in the city and wasn’t strong in his language, it was not correct that he is landless. Taana’s family has land shares all over the place.

‘But that was beside the point really. I think the truth was that he’s from an iwi that were our enemies way back in time. That was the problem the elders had with Taana. My parents had no voice in the matter.’

Taana and Dorothea eloped and married in a registry office in Auckland. They stayed there for two months before Dorothea wrote to her parents to let them know where they were, and to tell them she was married.