Sunhaven Beach Bungalows Rarotonga

... 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 ...

... good last full day on Raro! We had dinner on a beach front restaurant and were able to watch a beautiful sunset.

On Thursday we shopped in the morning and had coconut flavored ice cream before heading to the airport! The wonderful people at the Manihiki gave us a lovely send off where they prayed over us and gave necklaces of shells for safe travel.

We all made it home safely, and were off on our second week of adventures.

... that the locals eat. Once they are removed, the 'shell’ of the cucumber is thrown back into the water to re-grow their insides.

The days were starting to merge into each other , getting up, walking down to Vara’s, seeing what was going on and then snorkelling, walking along the beach or sunbathing and making friends, drinking and sleeping. On Friday I decided to swim between two of the islands about 1 Km and as I was swimming saw amazing fish ...

... with the huge backpacks (70kgs of luggage!) who I saw there that morning. Turns out he is going to one of the motus in Aitutaki to work on some conservation project related to the Dengue fever. He would be staying in an isolated island of 4 people, and build his own hut! Very interesting. Finally the 6pm plane to Aitutaki arrived and after a short 45 min flight, I arrived safe and sound. Fred from Matricki Beach Hut ...

Wednesday 11th February - Day 29 - At Sea The weather conditions overnight had remained the same and the sea had only a very slight swell to it - very pleasant sailing conditions. Although the ship had a number of lectures programmed throughout the day, none of them were of any interest to us e.g. we had a well known TV personality traveling on the ship with us, who was giving a talk in the morning about her role in one of the USA ...

... very agreeable with temperatures around 25-30 C. We did have some rain, but it was not unpleasant in the warm. Being very near the equator, you have to protect yourself well from the sun. After a really relaxing enjoyable week, batteries recharged, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 1.15 am to catch another night plane to Auckland to start the next episode of the Boddysey. Kia Orana as they say in the Cook Islands for just about any occasion

... went out of there way to make me fell unwelcome, so I left without bothering to write up my dives. I hope the dive shop will be better in Aitutaki. The dives took up the whole morning so Jen had a lay in followed by a trip to town on the bus. She had a great time looking for early Christmas presents. Sorry everyone you are all going to get a coconut ashtray each - only joking!

... isolated so everything comes in tins and you're lucky if it is still in date! We managed to catch some of the olympics, seems like Britain are doing quite well! Other than that we havent got much to say for the Cooks, it would be good for a quick holiday but after Fiji it was all just a bit similar, bring on the USA. lots of love, Alex and Rach xx xx

... a pleasant hour or two lounging 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 ...