King's Beach Villas Rarotonga

... out in a sea kayak for an hour. The best food we had was at a place called Trader Jacks which served pretty simple but very tasty Pizzas and fish. Honorable mentions must go to the Flame Tree which had been turned around a few months before we arrived from a very run down state and Portofino's, an inexplicably empty Italian restaurant. Hotel restaurant was fairly awful: service and food ...

... our feet 30cm under the surface so negotiating the (dead) coral outcrops was too dangerous and we gave up. <br><br>We&#8217;d booked dinner for tonight at Sails (even though purchasing an afternoon beer indicated that at least one of their bar staff had no idea how to count/give correct change). We also decided we wanted to see an island show so booked the one at the Highland Paradise cultural centre for Wednesday ...

... to survive :) After this we went back to the hostel where our neighbors were cooking us a traditional dinner in a whole in the ground under a bunch of coconut and banana leaves. We were excited to try the food, but it wasn't quite what we were expecting. Our wonderful dinner hosts had tried to teach us to dance before dinner, we were not good. While we ate dinner they sang for us, and after we had finished they had a dance performance for us. There were the ...

... passport control and headed into the waiting melee. The initial impression of disorganisation was soon dispelled as I was efficiently shown a waiting bus which would take me to my hostel. We were driven by Lily to Vara&#8217;s Backpackers on the beachfront of the exceptional Muri Lagoon. There is one main road that runs around the whole island with houses dotted either side and glimpses of still crystal water to one side and large imposing mountains to the other ...

... Auf dem ersten Flug von Ratotonga nach Aitutaki bekomme ich noch die grosse Maschine, in der sich sogar eine Stewardess um die etwa 20 Passagiere kuemmert. An allen "Flughaefen" gibt es natuerlich keinerlei Sicherheitskontrollen und das "Flughafengebaeude bestehen eingentlich eher aus einer Art unterstand...Irgendwann sagt der Pilot so was wie "na dann wollen wir mal los" und alle ...

... put Shelby and Brenda tied for first with 3 finds apiece. But Chrystal is coming on and Don and Linda along with Paul are in the hunt also. The hint for this picture is it was taken after a full day of traveling around the island. It was taken just before boarding our tender for the White Lady. Where is Harriet Update. Due to the difficulty of the hunt this port, I have added another picture of "Where is Harriet" everything is the same except I zoomed in a little closer on this photo.

... never been to Rarotonga, the place does have it's fair share of our feathered friends. We were told that they eat the 'huge' man eating centipede's (thankfully we haven't seen one of those yet), so they are good for the island. But to our surprise, we didn't expect to see them on the cross island walk! After about an hour of walking through the undergrowth, 'uphill' , we made it to the top and finally we could see a view of ...

... main "town" on friday night  as we had heard it was the big night out, but it wasnt! Caught the 10pm bus all round the island rather than staying out til 2am! but in the dark couldnt see where we were staying & got off about 3 miles too early! The saturday market was better than expected, we treated ourselves to some local bland food, pineapple meringue - which we should ...

... exchanging travel stories with others. We have met some wonderful people and have already been invited to stay with 2 families in New Zealand. We met many people on "Pa's cross Island Trek". Pa is over 68 years old, with greying- blonde dreadlocks accented with small rocks, fish hooks, and shells. I wondered how he sleeps. As we carefully chose the placement for each footstep, Pa scampered barefoot over the ...

... to get the 'tender' 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 ...