Aroha Bridge

The Aroha Bridge Arena is having a busy night. Cousin Angeline is playing a sold-out concert plus Mum Hook is finally graduating from her Māori language class. Arriving together at the stadium, the whanau think they are in for a special evening but the meaning of whanau quickly gets put to the test. With Mum Hook needing her disinterested husband to sing a waiata and the twins forced to help their unbearable cousin out of a backstage jam, can everyone come through for each other?

The worldly and cultured Angeline challenges Hook Ups saying their band isn’t quite Maori enough. If they want international success they need to be ‘in touch and authentic’ like she is. Determined to Maorify the band, Kowhai enlists input from the whole family. Together they come up with a shambolic, conflicted jam that leaves everyone speechless and ears bleeding. The twins wonder if maybe they were Maori ‘enough’ all along.

Uncle Noogy directs Kowhai and Monty’s new music video and much to the twins surprise it ends up on national television… but not in a good way. The ‘radical’ Maori content shocks the nation and their whanau. The twins find themselves suddenly branded delinquent militants. Maybe their crazy fundamentalist uncle had a point after all?

Aunty Winny challenges Monty to swap places with her for a day; if he runs the Iron Māori Marathon and takes care of her children then she’ll write a song with Kowhai, easy peasy. Nephew and Aunty go head-to-head, both determined to prove that the other one’s lifestyle is a joke. But they both quickly learn that it isn’t easy living in someone else’s trainers.

Angeline is on TV and the frenzied Hook family are watching in admiration and ordering her merchandise… everyone, except Kowhai. She plunges into an existential crisis with Monty rallying the whanau together to support his discouraged sister. With everyone offering their two or twenty cents, it looks like all is lost for Kowhai. That is until Hook Ups find sudden fame on a questionable (and suspiciously local sounding) German radio station!

The twins find an ancient Māori tiki and Kowhai believes this valuable taonga will finally be her ticket out of Aroha Bridge. His feelings crushed, cousin Ira doesn’t understand their desperation to leave. Meanwhile the Antique’s show is in town, the perfect chance to get their tiki evaluated. With everyone’s future riding on the verdict, will the priceless artefact be all it’s cracked up to be?