acqui caught up with Kirsten from Rock-it kitchen to get a winter update from the popular destination eatery.

What is unique about Rock-it and what it offers ?Rock-it is a family run company, based on a re-purposed wool shed with a sunsoaked deck overlooking rolling green hills.

Our staff are welcoming to all and our menu is made up of classics done right and original flavours you’ll want to try. We have a kids menu and welcome dogs on our deck and lawn. This place will make you feel right at home.

What are your hours over winter ?

For the next few winter months Rock-it will be open for Breakfast and Lunch from Wednesday-Sunday from 9am til 3pm.

Any changes to the menu over winter?

A new winter menu filled with hearty and warming meals will be available from late June.

A: 248 Wainui road

W: rockitraglan.co.nz

P: 07 825 8233

Ilove the stories of how people meet their lovers, fall in love (or not fall in love!) and how different couples hook-up prior to this melting pot of school-playground connection.

Many parents struggle with identity change, firstly in the wilderness of physiological change in pregnancy, followed by practical changes in our life-style, this means that maintaining our adult friendships gets tested when we raise our kids.

Just before Christmas last year Jess’s husband Jair asked if I could collect their son from school for a few days while he was away, as Jess would be teaching dance and they could see a calendar crisis ahead.

“Of course,” I said, “Where are you off to?” (knowing that they are both still connected to the national and international performance world).

“Oh, I will be in Wellington, I am a flying Elf next week”. At this point I was sure that I needed to make better efforts maintaining these adult friendships. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a flying elf?!

Before long I found out how Jess and Jair met, and I couldn’t keep it to myself. I proudly present: a local love story, the foundation of the dream-teamsuper-couple that make up our local Dance and Circus company Freedom 2 Fly.

Q: Tell me about when you first met? What was life like then?

Jess: When we first met I was a dancer on a cruise ship, living the dream, haha.. I was traveling the world, doing what I love and getting paid for it, I couldn't have felt happier! Then I saw Jay and his team performing and practicing and I was like.. WOW.. NEXT LEVEL, I wanna do what they do! Also Jay was like this gorgeous tiny Tarzan with his long curly hair, flicking it around as he literally flew around the stage on the top deck and doing handstands as we sailed under the Sydney Harbour bridge. It was next level kinda stuff that blew my mind. I wasn't sold on him being for me, but he grew on me. I realised I actually really liked him one day when a member of his team fell during a show. My roommate and I ran upstairs (it was the first show we hadn’t watched) and we heard an alarm to get the medical team to the top deck, I was horrified Jay had hurt himself so we ran up in our pjs and saw him helping his team mate be wheeled off to the medical centre. It was pretty bad, but it wasn't Jay and that's when I realised I actually had feelings for this COLOMBIAN CIRCUS DUDE haha. I didn't want him to go home.

Jair: We met in Singapore Nov 2009 on a cruise ship. It was super funny the fact we couldn't understand each other and had to use a mutual English friend to translate (she didn't speak any Spanish by the way). I was part of a 6 acrobats troupe, and Jess was part of the resident dancers cast, when we were officially introduced (round of names and nationality sort of thing) it was a “Uuuuuuuuu!” from everyone else when I said ‘Jessica is an easy name to remember’.

Q: Tell me about what you thought when you saw this person? Was there a spark, or a mutual appreciation, or another emotion like anger? Passion? Intrigue? ... Throw some words at me!

Jess: We were being introduced to our teams his cirque team and our dancing team and I said my name.. he said, “Oh that's an easy name to remember,” and everyone went, “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH,” and I went bright red and was like.. what just happened? haha.. We were actually wing men for our roommates who were wanting to tap each other. Their thing went nowhere and we ended up together forever.

Jair: The feeling was more like a challenge - Was she too pretty? Out of my league. So, what happened next? Well, she became a more and more interesting girl, she started to learn Spanish, she can dance (especially salsa), she is a super funny and fun person to be around. Within a couple of months, I thought she was the whole package!

Q: So, what happened next?

Jess: We almost broke up forever when we got off the contract and went our separate ways. I was like.. DAMN I LIKE HIM ALOT.. that was a sad goodbye. I was offered a world cruise contract as dance captain and also a contract on the same ship as him but around the pacific (which I had already done 4 times) and not as dance captain. I asked him what he thought I should do.. he said.. “I don't know” ( I just wanted him to come with me. He didn't, so I took the world cruise to spite him. Then we were both sad and he said, “What, Why did you choose that?” I said, “’Cos you didn’t say you wanted me to come on the cruise with you”, and he said, “But I do,”

It just so happened the director of recruiting managed to fix it so I ended up not taking the world cruise and was on the next contract with him. This was one of those ‘meant to be moments’ that magically brought us together. I ended up meeting his family after our first contract. That was wild. I didn't speak much Spanish, had bright red hair and he didn't' live in the safest of places.

Jair: After one year we were together I told my best friend "If I don't get married with this girl I won't ever be married”, it was a way to say she is ‘perfecta’.

Q: And did you think this person was going to be the person you started a family with?

Jess: I didn't, but now I can't imagine life without him!

Jair: Our life is the one I always dreamed of, having your soul mate by your side everyday is the best thing that can happen to a human being, you can even laugh in tough moments of life.

Q: And how about your families, what would or what do they say about you?

Jess: I think my family ADORE HIM! He is fun, helpful, easy to talk to and gets on with everyone.

Jair: My family has always thought I married a princess :) They love Jessica and they find her Spanish super cute, on the other hand, as soon as Jessica's dad found out she was dating a Colombian, he said, "Colombia is not a place to raise children" and now they have me every Christmas at the table :) They are super lovely and supportive in-laws.

What are the big dreams ahead? Tell me about those.

Jess: We want to build a purpose built studio theatre for Raglan, we want a place that serves as a studio that can host multiple classes at the same time, Dance, Circus, Aerials, Performances etc. that outlives us and serves our community into the future! The thought of building something that could inspire future generations to be awesome, creative and inspirational is very exciting and everything we have set our minds on until now has happened. This one is a huge, terrifying, but a possible goal!

Jair: Too many big dreams ahead, to get a purpose build studio for F2F, keep performing internationally with our own produced shows, buy a house in Raglan, see our kids growing in a such a good environment to name a few. We feel super happy and privileged to live in a supportive community like Raglan, we started to feel like locals now (after 6 years living here) and the feeling of belonging to this town and this country, make us wake up every morning and feel blessed and inspired to keep doing our best and enjoying every single step of it.

Thanks so much to Jess and Jair for sharing their love story with us. On behalf of many of us in the community I want to say a big thank you to them!! Their energy, passion and exceptional skill brings an experience for us (kids and adults) that would be hard to match anywhere in the world.