Kia orana!

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I am so glad I can sleep on planes! It makes that nine plus hour flight go by much quicker. It's been awhile since I have flown with checked bags, and I had forgotten the tedium of waiting in line for check-in, and then security. There is a reason you should arrive two hours before international flight departures; it took me 90 minutes for all of that (sigh!). The flight was fine, decent airplane breakfast. We arrived in Rarotonga while it was still dark. The attendant on the airplane PA was funny. Throughout the whole flight he speaks to us in an official and formal way with his accent. After we land, his comment is "Welcome to the Cook Islands, a recession free zone". It made a lot of people chuckle. When you enter the airport, you are serenaded by an amusing older gentleman singing fun, tropical tunes. We met our pick-up at the airport, and road to the hostel. It's a decent enough space, and my bunkmate is nice. Basically, there is one road that travels the circumfrence of the island. The buses are marked "clockwise" and "anti-clockwise", so it just depends which way you want to go. It's a rainy day today, but the beach is peaceful. I just love the sound of waves crashing against the shore. There are these little crabs that scurry all over the beach. They're a bit hard to see at first, since they blend into the sand. It was amusing to watch them scurry around. Well, the bus is here, so I must run. More later, my friends!

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