Rumours of Romance Rarotonga

... areas. Eek!

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.

Walked into ...

... much of an effort for us in such a laid back place. We hired a moped for the week which was extremely cheap, and feels quite safe as there is hardly any traffic on the road.

We stayed inside the main building at a backpacker resort, which had beautiful beach bungalows on the beach at the back with a pool and great sea view. We met lots of travelers whilst we were there, passing through either to New ...

... 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’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

... 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 ...

... of the roughest area of Vegas with topless bars and "adult movie hotels" surrounding it. Not the nicest place in the world. But Vegas itself was cool. It was fun to see all the sights that are so famous and to walk round like the Venetian and look up at the fake sky and through the Bellagio and seeing the dancing fountains. Really good fun. Unfortunately I cant say the same for the flight after that ...

... was right, but I felt rough as hell. Thankfully I managed to sleep most of it off. We were due to be picked up for the airport around 1am the following day and at not long after midnight we had a call saying the flight had been delayed by 12 hours. Great, that meant we would miss our connection to Santiago and potentially worse. A frantic hour or two of phone calls back to the UK to try to rearrange flights left us without much sleep that night and when we ...

... women transform themselves for church. I am a huge fan of Paul Gauguin, and if you've been in my living room, you will see him everywhere. But I had never understood his painted images of church ladies...I never felt they were beautiful or compelling.....until this morning in the Cook Islands Christian Church. Now I understand why he painted these ladies so often. They positioned themselves in the center pews of the church, and for the umpteenth time this ...

... He also told us to drink lots of water. Considering we had been travelling for 30 odd hours we kept going until mid afternoon. We were told that we might see whales just before sunset, but when we woke up it was dark and the thought of getting up to eat seemed too much like hard work. We woke again about 2:30am right as rain. Drinking all that water on the flight seemed to have worked.

... Not just us either, it's happening to everyone. Tuesday 22nd Overnight we sailed from Apia to Pago Pago (American Samoa). We were up a bit late to see the extra tricky maneuvers to get to the wharf where the ship dominated the whole town, but still managed a good day exploring the area on foot. We were really fortunate to be here during the South Pacific Arts Festival, which is held every 4 years in different countries, and enjoyed watching performances by groups from Papua ...