Happy New Year! Kia Orana from The Cook Islands. We are on a 10 day holiday from our 'big holiday' and are having a lovely, relaxing time on Rarotonga. We considered flying to another island to see the sights but our hotel, The Muri Beach Resort, is just fanastic - with a swimming pool and lagoon views - so have decided to stay put and take it easy. Island life is as idyllic as you might expect with sunny days, a bit of light snorkelling, a walk on the beach to lunch or dinner and cocktails on the balcony with rum [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year to everyone. We are sorry if anyone sent us a text, but the Cook Islands does not have ANY mobile coverage for modern mobiles. At Auckland airport we bit the bullet and paid 100 pounds for a small Nikon camera. We decided that in the whole scheme of things 100 pounds was not a large amount and we should have better photos, even under water ones. We came through customs in Rarotonga at 3.00 am Wednesday morning, strange, as we left Auckland Wednesday night!!! We were met by our taxi driver who put garlands of white hibiscus flowers [View Full Entry]

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I'm glad to know that marriage hasn't cured Steve of his random romantic notions. We had agreed not to exchange Christmas presents this year but he reneged on that when he surprised me with tickets to a Billy Joel concert on our last night in New Zealand. Billy Joel is my favorite musician, and poor Steve already had to sit through me cooing with the cluster of middle-aged women sitting around us at the DC show a couple of years ago. Our Auckland show seats were amazing, close enough for Steve to certainly be heard when he yelled, "Jersey!" in response [View Full Entry]

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THE BEAUTIFUL COOK ISLANDS Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, 2008 Kia Orana - Hello! And meitaki (thank you) to the wonderful and friendly Cook Islanders who gave us such a beautiful holiday time on Rarotonga and on Aitutaki! Thank you Logan and Betty and Bruno for recommending we visit here! It was a fantastic 9 days! We flew on Pacific Blue from Auckland to Rarotonga on Oct. 26th and crossed the date line so had Oct. 26th all over again, this time on the hot beach! Jake Numanga was playing the ukulele to welcome us (amazing man who meets all incoming [View Full Entry]

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An apology before you read this blog entry for those of you back in the UK probably enjoying some fairly miserable late autumn weather. The photos in this blog could make you extremely sick!! Day 139: Saturday 15th November - The longest day I've ever had When I woke up this morning I was in Pakiri Beach, north of Auckland. Having spent the morning getting back to Auckland on the bus, I spend the afternoon catching up on a few things on the internet. In the late afternoon I catch a bus to the airport for my 7.15pm flight to Rarotonga [View Full Entry]

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Text coming soon [View Full Entry]

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So the way the Vaka Eiva worked is you had the Opening Ceremony, the Iron Races the next day, a day off, Sprints, a day off, and then the Round Raro. On the off days the juniors and stuff had races too I guess. I forget when the Singles were. Anyways, this was the Sprints day, which was a pretty jokey day and basically an excuse for a party. Ngakau Toa raced two boats that day in the Sprints, which we never practiced for. I was actually pretty disappointed about it because it was blatantly clear that my team didn't care [View Full Entry]

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The Maire Nui Café and Gardens So after the confusion that was the Muri Sprints we decided to head out and get some lunch. I’d seen this place off the road and it looked like it might be a nice little café with some gardens, so we stopped there. The café is a pretty small place, very quiet because it’s off the road. I’d highly recommended if you want a quiet place to sit and have a tea or coffee. It turns out the original place was near the road but it burned down. The new shop used to be an [View Full Entry]

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So I don't have much else to do today so I'm writing the text. Truthfully, this happened half a year ago and I don't really have too much to add, looks like my photo captions took care of most of it. But I can clarify about the race, I forget if that's in the captions or not. So this was the Vaka Eiva Iron Race, mixed category, which means 3 girls, 3 guys in a boat. I had been trying to get into the regular men's race, but I didn't, I think our club only raced one boat for it. Anyways, [View Full Entry]

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Kia Orana!! (Good health, long life) We are well into involved in our jobs and the routine of the GV in Rarotonga. We are leading the Island life. There are a few rules. #1 you don't worry about anything going wrong. #2 everything is "Island time". #3 there are so many areas that need your help, you don't want to worry about completing your project, because there will be another one even bigger to complete when you are finished. #4 Enjoy the moment The school where I am working has a resource room, and the former GV workers have been working [View Full Entry]

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