Captions by James Brown. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2022 (CURIOUS MUSIC) - How are you, Francis? How are you today? - I'm not bad. - How are you feeling from the last training session? - OK. OK. - Is the legs painful? - Yes. I have got myself another personal trainer, Manik Kumar. - You're targeting shoulders, core and also your arms. - Right? And we'll see, but I'll add a bit of cardio at the end. - OK. When I was a big, big man, I could lift this and roll body and do this. Then the next minute, I lost all this weight and couldn't lift anything. And all the women at work are all showing me up. - So we're going straight into it today? - Straight into it. (CHUCKLES) - BARBIE: Francis is a bit intimidated by us wahine at the workplace. - Get it done. And up. Three. - To be honest, I would be too. (LAUGHS) - I wanted to have the same stamina and energy as Fehi and as Barbie and Fiona, because they've got it all ` they've got that fire. - Five. Give me five more, Francis. Five more. Catch your breath. - And up. Last four. Last four. - (PANTS) Four. - You can't have all these wahine lifting caskets with one arm, and he has to use every bit of muscle in his body to do just one little small job. (WHEEZES) - Last four. Come on. - (PANTS) Very nice. Four more. Four more. - Oh, I suppose, yeah, he needs some definition in his arms. He needs to prove that he's... stronger than the women. - Your chapstick came out. - PANTS: Oh, yep, it's all good. - Keep going. Two... and one. Fantastic. On your feet. I'm gonna get the barbell we're gonna do for the arms workout. - OK. - I'll hand those over to you. - I'm gonna put some weights up. - Oh, yeah? - Good. - All of a sudden, all the weights get thrown on the bar, and then I'm being told to lift it. - Four more. Four more. - Have I done this weight before? - Yep, you have. - Oh, OK. - Good. Up. Let's go. Last two. Good. One more. One more. And... lock. - For some reason, today Manik's feeling a little bit enthusiastic... - Down. - How many more? - Down! - ...and, uh, energetic. - 40 seconds. You get down, I start again. - Oh God! Now I'm back-down, doing reverse planks, which is all new to me, and so the suffering is just through the roof. - Last 10 seconds. Let's go. PANTS: Five... I look like a dead body, eh? - Don't say that here, man. (CHUCKLES) - Five? - Five, four, three, two, one. Up. Good. Whoo. Come on, bring it up. Let's go. - What are we doing now? - These things, they always come and go. He's always going to the gym, and then he goes through this phase, and then he sorta gives up. But I'm feeling... I'm feeling optimistic this time round. - And one more round, and that's it? - One more, one more, one more. - It's gonna go more now. - Ohh... - I'm really counting down the minutes and seconds for this session to come to an end. It could possibly be an abrupt end shortly, but heoi ano. Mm. - Good. Very nice. Three more. And two. Let's go. Three more. Good. Last two. Faster. Four, three, two, one. Off. Good. Back on the ball and give me 20. Three more. - And two. - (GRUNTS) - And one. One more. Let's go. Get it done. Come on. Come on. Good. Come on. One more. Let's go. And relax. - Catch your breath. Get some water. - Thank you. I'm just gonna have a break on the taumata. Oh, my neck. (SIGHS) I'd really like to get some protein in me and eat a pie to help restore and rebuild. (GENTLE MUSIC) Today in our care we're looking after the late Mr Sunday Foliola, who was 58 years old and died at the North Shore Hospital due to a cardiac arrest. Barbie Leat is the assigned funeral director taking care of Mr Foliola. A lovely casket to go to Niue. - Mm. - We have had Mr Foliola in our care for just over a month now, the reason being is that we've had to wait for whanau to arrive from overseas. The MIQ facilities ` the quarantining family have had to go through that process. So it's a testament of their aroha for their dad to truly keep to his wishes and the beliefs of the whanau to have his whole body return back to the whenua, to the earth of Niue. And that's just... (SIGHS) so, so beautiful. (GENTLE MUSIC) I can't wait till we get a gold one. - Are you gonna go in the gold one? - Probably depends on the mood my wife's in when I die. - If she's in a bad mood, no. - (GIGGLES) - Good mood? Might be. - Maybe you should leave it up to the staff. (LAUGHS) - No. - What's very special about this funeral is that the family have organised a bus for Mr Foliola to be transported on. Mr Foliola had been driving on the bus for around maybe 20 years plus. - Wow! - Yeah. - So I guess it's fitting that he goes on a bus ride. - Absolutely. You shouldn't get excited about funerals, but sometimes we do, when there's a new sort of a challenge and something different. And so we are excited for Mr Foliola to go on the bus. As long as the wheels go round and round. - Aw! And the wipers? - Swish, swish, swish. - (GIGGLES) - What about the people on the bus? - # The babies on the bus... - Beautiful. - It's beautiful. (SIGHS) No, this is lovely. - Best for the best, eh? - Yep. Best for the best. (SOMBRE MUSIC) - Now I'm going to bring Mr Foliola's family into the dressing room. Come through, family. - Just in here. - Thanks very much. - It's been a very long time since the family have all been together. Siblings from Australia and from America obviously had to isolate in MIQ before coming to see Mr Foliola. So having them all together in this process here, in dressing him and preparing him, I feel as is going to be good for them as a whanau, to be together and to be with their dad and make him look immaculate. So, now, Ben, you want to pull as much of the jacket over to your side. - OK. - Yep. Keep going. Beautiful. The yellow represents Niue. Mr Foliola loved Niue. That was his home. That was where he was from. And that's where he's returning to as well. So the yellow symbolises the flag of Niue, his home and where he's going to be laid to rest. (MAN PRAYS IN NIUEAN) - (SNIFFLES) - The bus has arrived to the funeral home in Onehunga. - Sorry, dear, are we able just to move your car? - Just because the bus is gonna come over here. - Oh, OK. - Yeah, you can park in here. - Mr Foliola is of Niuean descent, and he has been a bus driver for 26 years. And so his whanau I felt it fit to have his final ride here in Aotearoa on a bus. The task is how do we get Mr Foliola and his casket into the bus? - Feet first. - Yeah. - Come back to here, but you have one each side. - I really, really hope Mr Foliola can fit on the bus. So the two of you will take him, and then maybe... The family have chosen the cream of the crop ` beautiful, beautiful casket for their papa. Are you OK? One, two, three, three, up. 'Logistically, moving that is not easy.' OK. Yep. Take your time. Yep. And then we're gonna help you with the weight over here. That's it. And then we're gonna go down, down, down on the floor together. Down together. And then we'll shuffle him up now. We need to make room for the door to slide around the casket, to come and close. Away from that door a little. About there. That's good. (PNEUMATICS HISS) So, we'll bring the casket this way, is it? You know, I'm feeling a little bit anxious for the whanau. I don't want them to stress and panic. Try that one there. (DOOR HISSES) (TENSE MUSIC) So, we'll bring the casket this way, is it? Can we go back further? - WHISPERS: Myself and Francis are kinda looking at each other like, 'OK,... what do we do?' - Try that one there. (DOOR HISSES) - Lo and behold... - Yep. - Yep. ...they closed. - Wonderful. - Beautiful. Beautiful. Now it's just going around corners. - Bye. (POIGNANT MUSIC) - Our final bus stop on the journey with Mr Foliola was the Swanson RSA, where his friends and his family gathered to share memories of him and about him with one another. - This is one of the hardest things I think I've ever had to do. I didn't even want to stand here and say anything, but I don't think I could have lived with that either. If I can be a quarter of the man that you are, I know I'm doing great. (SNIFFLES) You truly are one of the greats. A great man. (SNIFFLES) Actually the greatest man that I know. - Mr Foliola will remain at the whanau house for the night, after which we will transport his body back to the funeral home, where he will wait in the cool room until such time as his whanau have flown over to the Island of Niue, completed their two-week quarantine, and then his body will follow thereafter, so that when he arrives, they'll be able to have a burial service together as a family. Na reira, e te matamatahuanga, e huri to mata ki Niue, ki Hawaiki tawhito, ki reira koe okioki ai. (GENTLE MUSIC) When Foliki first started here with Tipene Funerals, his role was to, you know, keep the building and the facilities clean and tidy, the lawns, trimming caskets for out tupapaku, which is an important job, keeping the cars clean and tidy and registered and warranted. When he might be trimming a casket, and a tupapaku comes past on a trolley, he would ask, 'And how do you embalm the body? What do you do to prepare the body?' There have been some times we've had to call him into the mortuary to help us horoi the tinana. - Liki. Morning. - Morning. - Today is Foliki's first day of training to embalm. Excited? All ready to go? - Yeah. - He's got a poker face. He's really good at portraying calmness. He's just always calm. Whether he's nervous, angry, happy or sad, he's just always calm, and you can't tell. But I'm very nervous for him. You excited or not sure? - Uh,... yeah, no sure. Just... - Just gotta get in there and do it. - Yeah. Lots of big words in there. But don't worry. Just watch first. And then you'll learn that stuff later. I think to get the gist of it is the most important thing. Have to kit you out in a new set of scrubs, a new pair of gumboots. Feel good, look good in there. All the way, eh? He's a man of few words. He doesn't speak a lot. - Yeah. - Sweet. Ka pai. (CURIOUS MUSIC) Today is Foliki's first day of training to embalm. What helps me and what relaxes me is that he's with Pierre. Nothing will go wrong, because he's got the master next to him. - This is about creating a set that's normal for yourself. So when you're gonna do embalming here, it's always the same for you. So I always set it up ` pair of draining forceps,... - Pierre is a qualified embalmer. And he's just finished being a lecturer for the New Zealand Diploma of Embalming. So I'm so grateful that Foliki has got the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the funeral industry, with regards to preparing tupapaku. - So, do you remember all the names of them? - Uh,... - Scissors? (CHUCKLES) - Yeah. The easy ones. - Uh,... - He's more of a 'I see, I do' type person. So he needs to see things; he'll do things like that, and then maybe learn the terminology later. - Angle... - Angular drainage forceps. Because this is what's gonna into your vein. - Forceps or forsnips? - Forceps. - Forceps. - I really want him to show up the current staff, the current embalmers we have ` that's Jay and Mary. - It's your first embalm, eh? - Yeah. Pretty good, eh? - Do you wanna know a secret? She looks better than my first ever embalm. - Funeral directors get hammered if there is something wrong with the tupapaku. That's why they want to make sure they can trust the embalmer does the best job they can, because when they present the tupapaku to their whanau, they want to make sure that the tupapaku looks as beautiful and graceful as possible. - She actually looks really good. How's it all going, though? - Yeah, good. I reckon I learned a lot, just in this one embalm. - On your first day. Overloaded? - Uh... (BOTH CHUCKLE) - I'm just gonna keep calling it scissors and clamps and hooks. - Not that there's anything wrong with learning from Jay or Mary, but it's good to learn the right way. - I'll teach you the other way, too, once he's gone. - Yep. (GENTLE MUSIC) - Cabinet has met this afternoon and made the decision that New Zealand will move to Alert Level 4 from 11.59pm tonight. - At this moment in time, the whole of Aotearoa is in Alert Level 4, with a new variant of the COVID-19 infection. And so funerals and tangihanga are... very, very different. There are strict protocols and guidelines in order for us to carry out cremations and burials. There are no gatherings of whanau at this time ` of people, of communities. It is very, very different. And for a lot of religions and cultures, it goes against everything that we believe in, that they believe in. And so we're trying to work around everything the best way we know how to. (POIGNANT MUSIC) - KAIORA: It's hard when we are losing loved ones. But then it's harder when they're having to lose loved ones on top of restrictions. It's tough. And... we feel, as a funeral director, as a company owner,... we are doing our best to find ways to make it work for whanau. - Whanau, family and friends, I want to welcome you all here, although not here physically, but those of you who are joining us through the live-stream service under the circumstances in which we're all faced, with the pandemic. I want to welcome you here and thank you for giving us the privilege and honour to be able to officiate the service here today for your Uncle Hone, who lies here with us this morning. - We're now having to rely on technology. We're having to rely on Facetiming, Zoom, a way for families to at least see their loved one virtually. - # Whakaaria mai... - In some cultures,... it's not accepted, and whanau are having to have to say their goodbye through a screen. It's hard to accept. These are... These are COVID times. - # ...ka roto i te po. - The rules are that the body is to be taken directly to the cemetery for burial or directly to the crematorium for cremation. No family, no whanau can attend. It's just the funeral directors and the cemetery staff. And so whanau and family have been, you know, using their imaginations and hopping into their cars, keeping within their bubbles, and following the hearse as it leaves from the funeral home, and, you know, trying to create some normality of a procession to the crematorium or the cemetery. We never have cried so much in our career than at this time, because you feel it. It's a different level of feeling. You know? - For grieving whanau, the least we could do is allow them to follow. They're in the car. They're not touching anyone. They're in their own bubble. So they wish to travel with us to the cemetery. When we get to the cemetery, there's restrictions again. No one's allowed beyond those gates. So we, as a funeral director, have to bury their loved one for the whanau. And I almost feel like we're like robbing their moment. (HORNS HONK, WOMAN WAILS) It's tough, these, these... COVID times. Um... There's.... What's a normal funeral now? Those acts of manaaki, those acts of tiaki ` hugging, kissing, touching are gone. (WOMAN WAILS) - We love you, Grandma! (WAILS) - I'm struggling with that, at the moment. (POIGNANT MUSIC)