Blogs from Cook Islands, Oceania - page 6

Raring to go in Rarotonga The flight to the Cook Islands was a 9 hour flight with Air New Zealand. I requested a seat change and was given the last seat literally the last row but the nice thing was no one sat next to me and I was able to spread out to sleep with 2 pillow and 2 blankets over the 2 seats. Just about as comfy as you can get on a plane unless you get three seats or first class. Just not gonna happen for me. They feed us dinner at midnight and breakfast at 7 am. There is a 3 hour time difference from LA and 6 from home. I arrive at 5:45 AM local time and it is pitch black no moon nor stars. There is a slight cool sea ... read more

13th – 26th March 2011 After making a mess of the 13th March in New Zealand, the fickle finger of fate pointed us over the International Date Line and gave us another stab at it, hopefully to do a better job this time!! We grasped the opportunity and declined the free alcohol on the flight.... well Ellie did, Steve broke after only an hour and ordered himself a cheeky chardonnay! Luckily it was only a short flight so before we knew it we were being greeted by the heat and a ukulele player at Rarotonga airport. We later found out that this chap was Jake Numanga MBE and he has been there to greet and bid farewell every flight for the past 25 years. We soon found our rental car with their instructions of ‘parked by ... read more

Halfway to Where? Well, yet again I have failed to write for a few weeks. They have been two pretty great weeks as well. I am exactly halfway through my time here on Raro and I feel as though I have been here forever yet am leaving in no time all at once. Reality keeps getting stronger as I continue my search for a job post-Divemaster but I am staying positive and am certain I will land on my feet. Well, that’s what everyone keeps telling me I will do anyway. I am currently broadening my search basis using all of my skills as possible avenues. I am searching for hospitality jobs, dive jobs and even horse related jobs. The last of that list is actually proving to be the most successful so far, but I ... read more

25th February 2011 Our penultimate morning in the Cook Islands started overcast, and was threatening rain, not a promising start. We had decided that we would attempt to go to the cultural market, that we knew takes place on a Saturday morning, a day early as we thought being a market it may be on everyday. So getting on the bike off we headed at the early hour of 8am. We arrived in town not much later to an almost deserted market place, with only a few stalls being set up. Maybe we were too early, everybody works on “island time” after all. So we headed further into town to grab something for breakfast and to give the place a chance to liven up whilst we did. We even asked in the supermarket whilst buying ... read more

21st February 2011 Our second morning waking up in our new abode, was also the point at which we had decided enough was enough and the extreme heat of our room was just too much to allow us to sleep properly. The lack of aircon in this place is rather annoying and as a result I woke many times in the night covered in sweat - its like having a fever but not being ill. So this morning our first task was to go to the airport to visit the Air New Zealand office and see what we could do about changing our flights. We had already decided that we couldn’t afford to come home as late has we had planned, but the flight we wanted to leave on was within the ten day period ... read more