HUMANS OF THE ISLANDS - Natasha Finau & Saione Greer

Natasha Finau & Saione Greer 

LEI CAFE Owners/Managers 

Tongan 

Saione - I was born in Tonga but grew up in Australia and have now been living in New Zealand for 30 years. I started my own business 25 years ago and it’s been apart of my journey ever since. This one with Tash; this is the latest and most exciting thing. It’s all pretty much self-taught with many learning’s along the way. We’re both strong believers in Christ and for me, as well as being a business learning experience it’s been a spiritual one too. We’ve done a lot of stepping out in faith and it’s gotten us to where we are today.

Natasha - I’m the middle child of 7 and I’m a younger sister to Saione.  I am a very proud Tongan and Christian so this café represents a lot of who I am. It’s the first time I’ve ever taken a big risk and done something that doesn’t have any security around it but I think, like my brother, this has been more of a spiritual journey rather than learning about business; which I’m very proud of.

How did Lei Café come about?  

I think because we’ve had 3 really close people in our family pass away over the past 3 years, each time it has taught me and my brother to keep worshiping God through all of that and to keep being faithful because tomorrow is not promised. That’s definitely something that has inspired us to create a Lei and a motto we live by. A place that can be home to many, just as it’s home to us.

What’s it like working with your sibling?

The partnership with Saione has been awesome because I’ve learnt a lot about my brother and it’s given us an opportunity to grow not only closer as siblings but closer to God. We’re getting really comfortable with arguing too, which is good because we manage to get over things quite quickly. We make a good team and balance each other nicely. I’m not as money conscious or business driven like my brother is. He’s really smart about that. If it were up to me, I’d give away all of the food in the front cabinet for free. That’s just the way I am lol.

What was the inspiration behind the theme/name of Lei?

Saione - Originally this was going to be a Spanish themed café because of my other origin but Tash had this inspiration to turn it into more of a Polynesian themed café, which was fantastic, and fitting for this particular location as it just happened to have a massive Polynesian mural outside. We’re really proud of the fact that a lot of Pacific Islander’s come here and feel at home because at the end of the day, we’re representing them. There’s nothing more satisfying to us than seeing just that; the proud faces of our people. In saying that, it’s really important to us to meet the demands of all other ethnicities that walk in too and it’s great that we can share that culture through our food and hospitality.

What is the significance of the portraits and murals you have?

The hand painted photos in the middle are of our aunty and uncle that used to live here in Ponsonby during the dawn raids back in the day. We always heard about those stories and were told to make the most of every opportunity because of what they had to go through so this is our way of acknowledging them and showing them that we’re doing our best with what we have as well. All of the other portraits beside those are of our ‘friends and family too’ crew and their families. I have a small group of church friends that became family and they have helped us get to where we are today so it was important for me (Tash) to have their family up there too.

Flox did our big flower mural. She’s well-known for spray painting birds but she did an amazing job with our flower wall. The taro leaves were to represent my uncle who passed earlier this year, he really wanted to be here in the café so I made sure he was. The big red hibiscus is a tie to the big mural that was done outside in the foyer of our café and my favourite is the pink teuila. I just love the pop of colour and homely feel that this wall brings.   

What do you see for the future of Lei?

Saione - We waited so long for this place to open up so we were just grateful to have the doors open for people to come through. We only opened up roughly 6 weeks ago so we haven’t really had time to sit down and look to the future but we’re just glad that we have been blessed with the café that we are now able to bless others with. I think an ideal dream for the both of us would be to have a café in the Islands.

Tash - I’m really proud to be Tongan, brown skinned and Polynesian and for however long this lasts, at least we get to say, “we gave it a try and had fun along the way”. We couldn’t have done it without the support of friends and family that also volunteer to work here and that’s something we’re always so grateful for. Like my brother though, that’s my dream! I love New Zealand but I’ve always wanted to live and give in the Island’s. Even if it’s a little cake shop on the corner somewhere, it’s a dream of mine.

You can find Lei Cafe on 4 Williamson Ave, Grey Lynn (In the Countdown block of shops)