Our Auckland visit has turned into a family affair.

Friday, August 16, here in Auckland was the 15th, our anniversary, back in Honolulu.

Meda and I had celebrated the night before, but celebrated again on Honolulu time with several Lind “cousins” who live here in Auckland.

We all descend from a John Lind born in August 1800 in West Calder, Midlothian, Scotland. He was my great-great-grandfather on my dad’s side of the family.

Pene Quin’s grandfather and my grandfather were brothers.

Gaewyn Boler and Lynette Clough’s grandmother, Jean Little Neely, was my grandfather’s 1st cousin.

Jean’s father, also John Lind, later sailed to Hawaii, arriving in 1910, and stayed. Lind’s descendants are widely known in their community of Hana, Maui. His daughter, Jean, remained in Scotland with her mother and eventually married a New Zealand soldier who had been sent to Scotland to recuperate from mustard gas exposure after WWI, and the couple then returned to New Zealand.

Gae’s son, Brad, organized lunch for the whole gang of us, with our spouses, at The Riverhead, billed as “New Zealand’s Oldest Riverside Tavern” that has been serving guests for 160 years. It is located along the upper reaches of Auckland Harbor.

A ferry from Auckland still regularly makes the trip up to Riverhead.

In any case, here’s our festive group.

Starting at the Left, front: Brad Heald (cousin); me, next to Steve Moore and his wife, Gaewyn (cousin); Lynette Clough (cousin) and her husband, Graham, at the end of the table; Paul Silva (cousin) and his wife; Richard Quin and his wife, Pene (cousin); and then Meda and Sapi Siavalua, who is married to Brad.