Rarotonga

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At 1.30am I finally dragged myself out of bed and did the final bits of packing while Matt carried on laying in bed. Our pick up was due to come at 2.20am and at 2.05am Matt decided to get up and have a shower. That meant unpacking the shower gel and shampoo which were already locked up in my rucksack. I wasn’t impressed.

Luckily the taxi was late as it gave Matt time to get ready. We were just beginning to debate about what to do if it didn’t turn up when it came down the drive.

We were sad to say our final goodbye to Muri Beach Cottages as we’d really loved it there.

There was a bit of a wait at the airport as our flight didn’t leave until 4.40am but we killed some time by browsing around a couple of shops. As soon as we got on the flight we tried to get some sleep, but they brought breakfast around soon after so that occupied us for a while. After eating, we tried to spread out as we had a row of three seats all to ourselves. I managed a few minutes sleep here and there but Matt still wasn’t able to. The flight was a bit bumpier than normal as it was still windy. The four and a half hours passed quickly - to us that’s short haul now - and before we knew it we were banking over Auckland.

Today is the shortest day we’ve ever had. We got on the 4.5 hour flight at 4.40am on 11th, and got off it at 7am on 12th. Going over the international date line messes with your mind!

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