Daydreamer Apartments Rarotonga

... we’ll come back.

Al wouldn’t go to Gwen’s without taking a bottle of wine so he raced down to the servo to get one. Was wonderful sitting out on Gwen’s verandah watching the light fade across the lagoon. What a view!! She’s just the loveliest lady and has the most amazing stories. We’ve arranged to go in to town with her in the morning early , have a coffee and some brekkie and then get dropped off at the airport ...

... that was just a big marquee plonked on the beach. It was even better fun being able to kick your thongs off and dig your toes in the sand. Compared to the crazy prices in stores and cafes, the meal was standard Briz restaurant prices. We walked back along the beach, glad we’d brought the torch as it was very dark again. Only a few stars were peaking out through the clouds and there was no sign of the moon.

Another scary ...

... was great to realx for the week.
We headed back to Rarotonga for our final two days- the day we got back it was sunny so all was good again. Raro is alot bigger than Aitutaki-its 32km around it and has alot more shops and things to do shop wise etc but it defo isnt as scenic as Aitutaki.(well the lagoon isnt we think)
We rented out a scooter again here but i had to do a driving test and get a licnece for the 2 days-its was comical as the driving test was just drive down a ...

... by the American Mafia (well that’s the island legend, which conveniently claims the land to be cursed) and work stopped. Since then, the place has been looted and ripped apart and has become a tourist attraction in its own right. At first glance it looks like some badly maintained blocks of flats. On closer inspection it becomes apparent that it is an abandoned complex, with wires hanging out of half ripped ceilings, bathrooms without taps and in some cases baths ...

... in full technicolour ending only yards away from our balcony - unfortunately the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, was oh so close, but oh so far! After the usual trip to the gym and breakfast we made a decision that it was too damp and blustery to enjoy sitting on the Spa deck and instead returned to our cabin. The entertainment provided by the ship today was once again sadly lacking ...

... that goes around Raratonga is about 32km altogether. Funniest thing was that they have actually named one of the fish Tommy (picture attached). Every time they dive down Tommy seems to find them as he knows that they are about to find him a sea urchin to consume for his dinner!! Who said fish don't have memories!! With the rain gushing down for 6 days out of the 9 we were there all we ended up doing was snorkelling, watching copius amounts of 24 (got ...

... get outta there, and team Doug-Colleen-Peggy-Q did manage to accomplish a great deal despite the adversity. VOLUNTEERS STRUGGLE THROUGH THE HARDSHIPS OF SWIMMING LESSONS: Te Uki Ou School has a progressive athletic program for its students, which involves the aforementioned vaka paddling. It also includes swimming lessons, and Stephanie and I earned the titles of "swimming instructors" last week. The island bus picks up the 5-9 year old clan at the school and hops ...

... t bothered by the lack of visibility. The area is quite shallow and there are some places where you can stand even with a high tide like we had. Lots of colourful reef fish are obviously not scared of people. This is a protected marine area, which is probably why there are so many fish - we were told the locals can't eat the fish here! After getting rather sun burned we headed for home with a small detour to another dive shop that we'd seen on the bus ...

... et juteuses!), papayes, bananes... des smooties) !!! Nous avons passes une semaine merveilleuse a relaxer, lire, se promener sur la plage, se baigner... Karl avait loue un kit de plongee pour la semaine il allait donc faire un petit tour dans les coraux directement devant notre hutte! Aglae et Nadine avaient louee des velos pour la semaine. Nous nous sommes donc promenes sur les 16 km de long de l'ile, tantot pour visiter l'ile, pour aller au village faire des courses ou pour aller visiter ...

... of tooting, shouting and waving. Saturday 19th Another lovely sunny warm calm day - 23+ degrees. We've managed to talk ourselves into daily exercise, that's apart from up and down several flights of stairs several times a day, and did our 7 and a bit laps which equates to about 4 kms we think. After an aborted attempt at sending emails in the morning we finally managed a reasonable connection in the afternoon so got that first epistle sent along with our birthday wishes to Colin ...