Aito Apartments Muri Rarotonga

... areas. Eek!<br><br>Room was huge although just a bit odd. They face roughly west and have a huge picture window. In summer they would get bloody hot because they only have a ceiling fan and louvres at either side of the big window. No aircon. Only the two dorms have aircon. We realise we could have just booked into the dorm for about $60 for the two of us instead of $150 that we'd spend maybe two hours in. <br><br>Walked into ...

... developer took the project over and it was going to be a Hilton but they also ran out of dosh. Very sad, as it really looks like all of the hard work has been done - at least a dozen three storey blocks of accommodation all built (missing windows though), a huge building in the centre that I guess would have housed restaurants and bars, acres of flat ground that surely wouldn&#8217;t take much to turn into the tropical paradise that was originally intended ...

... teeth, some nasty skin condition that went untreated so he constantly scratched himself leaving dead skin everywhere. On top of that he wouldnt leave me alone, and he would say 5 words, then pause for 10 seconds, then say 5 more, with a very thick mumbled accent. Glad I will never see him again. Flight at 150 in the morning :S<br>

... and happy.<br><br>Paradise Found<br><br>Wednesday came quickly and Tim offered Nathalie and me his room to store our backpacks as firstly we were only allowed 16 Kgs on the plane to Aitutaki and the fact we were only going for two days meant that I didn&#8217;t want to take Brad with me. And boy did he miss out. Aitutaki definitely lived up to its reputation. We flew in over an amazing lagoon dotted with tropical islands (they film survivor, shipwrecked and many ...

... on tourism souvenirs are generally overpriced. Each stand was selling exotic fruits, black pearls, woodcrafts, pate drums &amp; the sacred coconut. It's so multifunctional they use it in cosmetics, ashtrays, drinks &amp; even bras. Despite the rainfall, a cultural show was running as we looked on beating drums, throwing shapes &amp; unhusking coconuts. Locals are completely laid back &amp; very friendly. As large as islander guys are, the ladies ...

... to find that the winner had cruised for 1,000 days plus but instead they had completed only 550 days at sea, whilst second place went to a couple who had completed just over 400 days and in third place a couple who had done some 350 days, and out of all the passengers there were 470 Captain circle members of which we were two of 86 with Elite status - by the end of this cruise with the number of days we have completed we should ...

... were there with their team colors, posed next to their outrigger canoes. It reminded me of my days in crew...complete with hot athletic dudes roaming every which way. The vaka blessing was followed by some beer drinking and dinner with my teammates. Yesterday, my day off, I went out with Dive Rarotonga again for some underwater time. My dive buddy from last week, Steve, was with us along with the hot Aussie Divemaster. Ahhhh.......got a cool photo coming through a ...

... side of a lush, volcanic mountain, and met with Pete Williams, a huge Polynesian dude with a black pearl workshop. Inside his shop, aptly guarded by a mangey island dog named "Pearl," there was inventory everywhere. Black pearls of off all tones, sizes, shapes, and permutations in containers, bags, and even scattered on the floor. Liz sifted through bowls and bowls of pearls to select a small inventory to take back to Australia. I learned a lot about ...

... to the shore at Dravuni Island. This is a tiny island with only 150 inhabitants living a very laid back, simple life. Along with many others we climbed the highest peak, walked across the island, along the beach, swam, snorkled and generally enjoyed the sunshine and warmth. Dravuni Island from the top of the highest point We were interested in the school - 10 pupils in the kindergarten, 10 pupils aged 6 - 9. Good old-fashioned education like we had at school - chalk and talk ...

After 3 flights, 4 airports and a combined 18 hours of airport transit hell (not including flight time), we arrive in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, in the South Pacific. During our epic journey, we crossed over the International Date line - a very strange experience!. We left Bali at 10am on 27th May, travelling to Singapore where we waited 8 hours for our connection to Auckland - arriving in auckland airport at 11am on thurs 28th, we spent the next 11 very dull hours snoozing & milling ...