The Cook Islands

Trip Start Jul 24, 2007

Trip End Nov 11, 2007

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Flag of Cook Islands Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Monday, September 10, 2007

So Air New Zealand are, without a doubt, the worst airline i've travelled with so far having said that, because they are so bad most of the flights are half empty which is great as I had 3 seats all to myself so i was able to sleep loads and so feel great today despite the 9.5hr overnight flight.

It was a huge trauma trying to get my ticket changed with Air New Zealand @LAX - it took 3 girls just to actually even understand what I wanted and then another hour and $50 later it was finally done!

So we arrived in the Cook Islands on time and the lady, rebecca, from the hostel was waiting to pick me and several others up in a tiny van which meant that with everyones bags etc it was a huge squeeze - there was a south african guy who had been on the flight as well - what a complete T**t he knew everything about everywhere and everyone and spent the whole bus journey moaning about england and how rubbish it was there even though when an english guy got annoyed with him he admitted he'd been living in the UK for the last 2 years hence why he could afford the trip - not the wisest of things to moan about when 75% of the people on the bus were english, idiot.

We dropped some of the guys off at the beachside resort including the South African guy (thank god) which actually looked pretty nice. rebecca then took us to the Hillside resort. I, like many of the others, envisaged that the two places were pretty close together WRONG the hillside place really is half way up the mountain - okay so the road isn't too steep,well only the very last bit but its way off the main road and there will be no way I'm walking up there in the dark.

Sunset the first night

The actual hostel is okay though all made of wood and loads of stairs up and down everywhere. You can't actually see the beach but you can see the sea and I would imagine that the sunsets up here will be pretty spectacular if there is a clear night.

Had my first experience with the showers - first one didn't work, second one had a mop and bucket in it (i was running about naked cos I thought the first one would work!) and the third one kinda worked but when I picked up the shower curtain to try and fix it I scared the hell out of myself because there was a Geckho hanging on it!!

So after i'd finally managed to shower I went into town with one of the guys who also arrived with me, Adam to get some food and drink for the hostel - its soo expensive here apparently its because all the food has to be imported from New Zealand but I think that someone should tell them it doesn't have to come first class! The only thing thats cheap is beer (heineken is $2 a bottle so about 75p) and cigarettes (haven't checked the price but I have been told)

Calling England is also expensive - bought a $20 phone card thinking i'll be able to call Mum a few times and maybe some other people. It gave me 4 minute and 30 seconds of call time so sorry guys i'll call u when I get somewhere cheaper!!

So i'm pretty glad that I spent the last few american dollars that I had on some books in LA cos I think I'm gonna be spending quite a bit of time reading - apparently there is a museum in town (town is tiny so I'm sure I'll find it) so maybe I'll visit that or maybe I'll save that for a rainy day - fingers crossed for not too many of them though.