Bella Beach Bungalows Rarotonga

... the perfect place to do just that with deserted, white sandy beaches fringed with palm trees and the crystal clear turquoise waters of the South Pacific set against a backdrop of jagged mountains clad in dense jungle. Rarotonga, although the largest of the Cook Islands, is very small. The circumference is only 32km and we could zip around the entire island on our scooter in around an hour. We found the island to be extremely clean and litter-free with very ...

... Two couples from the US - one on their honeymoon, a couple from Auckland who are getting married this weekend, and us two Aussie couples. The other couple is from Sydney but he has an accent like Rupert Murdoch that he explains he got when they lived in Atlanta.

The trek starts up easy enough but it’s soon very obvious that the description of rigorous exercise is correct. A lot of it is scramble and quite muddy, so very slippery. Amazingly ...

... east coast of the island as we headed to Muri Beach due to the rain and the pitch dark. Dropped two other couples off and finally backed down the drive to Muri Beach Cottages. Mr Driver unlocked the door, switched a light on and handed us the key. Amazingly, the island gods had smiled on us and we had arrived barely three and a half hours late.

First thing we wanted to do was have a look ...

... and the saltwater activated trackers. This was one of my favorite things we did in the Cook Islands!

The final full day in Raro, we started the morning off with the a service project, which was boring and dusty. When I finished my work, I walked across the beach to the lagoon. We made friends with a three legged dog and he took us for a walk on the beach. This was our first afternoon off, and we hit up the beach. The original plan was to hire bikes and ...

... but the whole island is habituated except the mountainous centre. On a couple of nights we all clambered into the back of a Ute / bakkie, and headed to the bars to drink in another location other than the back packers. Where the backpackers is, is a little deserted, with a couple of small shops, a takeaway, a couple of resorts and the sailing club, which does a mean salad, smoothie and allegedly latte, capiccino or cappuccino to you and me.

Food Shopping in ...

Matkalla paratiisiin päivä 1 Lauantai 21.3.2009 Eilisistä ikävistä uutisista huolimatta tässä oltiin nyt kaikki jotenkuten kuosissa, pakka kasassa ja valmiina lähtöön. Ei tosin paljon tullut nukuttua viime yönä! Aamulla pyörittiin Aucklandin keskustassa hoitamassa tarpeellisia asioita ja nostettiin varmuuden vuoksi vielä automaatista käteistä noin viikon tarpeisiin. Viime Tongan reissulla huomattiin nimittäin, että vaikka muutama automaatti jostain sattuisi l ...

... and go to a local hotel which was providing its facilities free of charge for Princess Passengers. The Muri Beach Resort Hotel, had various facilities available including a restaurant, beach facilities and a swimming pool and sun beds, however they lacked sun shades and so if you made use of the sun beds you were being exposed to the full sunshine with temps now up in the 90's, so very, very hot. Having recharged our batteries with some liquid ...

... 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 ...

... pearls, people. Who knows, I may have a future in the pearl business. We left Pete's pearl shop, and took some back roads back to Ambala Gardens. This island is amazingly beautiful. My dad said that my photos reminded him of World War II South Pacific. That IS what it looks like here. It is incredibly lush and there is a softness about the landscape, like a girl could just melt into it and disappear. On this particular backroad, we found a "marae ...

... by the pool trying unsuccessfully to read and not doze off. In the afternoon we enjoyed an amusing movie- 'License to Wed' starring Robyn Williams. The show tonight called 'Save the last dance' was the first production by the Princess entertainers. What an energetic bunch of young people they are, and how polished a performance of song and dance they entertained us with. The only problem we have with these shows is that the theatre holds about 600, and even with 2 sessions a ...