We are blessed to be among those about to conclude our stay in MIQ at Edgewater.

Kia orana

We are blessed to be among those about to conclude our stay in MIQ at Edgewater. While nine days in a lovely beachside hotel room would normally be such a treat, this of necessity, has instead been a strictly controlled time out without the freedom to roam freely, to swim or even to chat informally to others. We do fully understand and support the Public Health Order behind the MIQ experience and certainly we are indebted to the Cook Island government for its comprehensive and careful Covid response and especially for enabling us to return home after an unexpectedly lengthy absence.

We want to acknowledge with deep gratitude the complex, behind the scenes, team work needed to coordinate a repatriation flight. From Immigration to Te Marae Ora to Air New Zealand staff, all without exception, were incredibly helpful, efficient and reassuring as all the necessary pieces came together prior to our travel home – Covid tests, Vaccine Certificates, Medical Reports, Passport Scans, Health Declarations, Contact Tracing Details. At Auckland Airport the Health teams were so wonderfully well organised that we knew our Room number at Edgewater before we knew our seat number on the plane!

The Marae Ora team here at Edgewater have been a joy to deal with – some have even perfected the art of being able to administer those awful nasal tests with minimum eyewatering discomfort! The security personnel at Edgewater are discreet and yet ever present.

And so, as we now look forward to returning to Aitutaki we wanted first to take a moment to say thank you so much to all those who made our return so seamless, so uncomplicated. We understand there is to be one more repatriation flight this year and then from mid- January the borders will be open initially to manuiri from Aotearoa once again. We pray that Covid is kept at bay for the longest possible time even as we recognise the inevitability of its insidious spread.

What is of far greater importance is that we each continue to take responsibility for doing what is right in these pandemic times, that we wear our masks, wash our hands often, that we keep our distance physically even as we keep one another even closer in our hearts. This is especially important as we move now into Advent or the time in the Christian calendar when once again, we anticipate the birth of Jesus and as we do so we pause each day to reflect on exactly what it is to be a faithful and loving witness.

Ki to tatou iti tangata, penei uake e ko koe tetai kare I patia iake kite patia paruru ote Covid 19, teia te patianga, patia ia koe kia kore koe e tu ia ete maki Covid e kia kore koe e riro ei totoa atu ite maki ki toou uanga pera toou au taeake.

Na te Atua tatou e tiaki mai, ia tatou e na roto nei I teia  manamanata.

Dr Roro Daniel & Dr Jenny Te Paa Daniel

Tautu, Aitutaki.

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Dear Sir,

I was more than a little puzzled by your page two story Monday ‘Bigwigs trial may need to avoid general election’.

Surely to goodness electorates are entitled to know, when going to the polls, whether the candidate they choose has a criminal record or not, and if he has, that he has done his penance and qualifies to have his name on the ballot.

If he succeeds at the polls but still has unresolved charges hanging over his head which are subsequently upheld, and he becomes disqualified, is that not an unreasonable, and unnecessary imposition on both the public revenues, and the electorate, requiring as it would a by-election and if numbers are tight, or there is more than one candidate casualty, as there might well be, that political stability might be another casualty.

Unless there is a snap election, which remains entirely possible, the next general election will fall in the second half of 2022, but either way your reporting that the several defence lawyers are not ready to enter a plea, reads to me very much like a strategy to keep these people out of court until after the election, whenever that may be.

John M Scott

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There is nothing stopping the Ministry of Health from ordering medical marijuana from New Zealand or Australia.

They have the legal right to do it today, now!

Morphine, a drug from opium, and marijuana are both illicit drugs under the Narcotics and Misuse of Drugs Act of the Cook Islands, New Zealand, and Australia respectively.

But morphine and many other opiates, along with marijuana can be acquired by a doctor's prescription in New Zealand and Australia.

In the Cook Islands you can be prescribed morphine and other opiates.

Absolutely no distinction can be made in prescribing one illicit drug under the Narcotics and Misuse of Drugs Act, opiates, over another, marijuana.

This has been reduced to its most common denominator.

Do the right thing Ministry of Health and get our people off of a lot of nasty addictive drugs.

Get our doctors up to speed on prescribing medical marijuana for many of their ailments.

Frankly, it would be delinquent not to do so.

Steve Boggs