Blogs from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Oceania - page 31

Last night was easily the best since I started this trip, most of the hostel got together to have a curry, then have a drink, later on we piled in the mini bus to go over to the airport, then we stood right under the runway for a spot of 'JetBlasting' Jetblasting is when you stand under the runway as a Jet comes in (the big plane from LA) and see it coming right at you, then it whooses right over your head as it drops onto the runway, what can I say, it's a blast! Sprits were high so I came up with the suggestion that we go for a spot of nightswimming, which turned into a spot of skinny dipping for some of us, I did not participate in that part, I still had ... read more

Well Cook hmmm, arrived late, getting towards midnight, via air NZ, again no veggie meal - actually just think that is their policy! No-one to meet us at airport - we waited, jb’s mood darkened more than the midnight around us. The next and last flight was due in around 1ish, after which the bar would close! time for action, the barmaid was v. sweet & helpful, in as much as she served beer and told me how the phone worked - only via a card - that wasn’t sold at the airport - yep it’s run by NZ! Luckily someone arrived to meet a friend on the last flight in, he seemed to know his way around - used to live in England and now has ‘some sort of business here’ so hey you can ... read more

Kia Orana (forgotten the exact meaning but they greet you with it a lot round here) Well I'm now in a completely different environment, my shuttle from Hollywood to LAX was fine and a superb 9 hour flight over the Pacific whereapon I had a short stopover in Tahiti where was greeted with a little white flour to put behind my ear, sadly on arrival in the cooks it was raining and you can't import flowers. Yes it was absolutely pissing it down but it cleared and got to hostel, whre they took us for a food shop. With some lovely people from the UK and USA went down the sandy beaches to swim, got cut and bruised horribly but its all part of the fun and was glad to get to open my 'travel first ... read more

The thought of 3 Months holiday straight, sounded just too stressful for us :-). So off to Rarotonga with the family for 8 days of Rest and Relaxation to prepare psychologically for the big event. We stayed at the Sunset Resort (which is worth a trip if you get to Rarotonga) and got upgraded to beach front units! The resort is brand new after being rebuilt after the Hurricane. One of the first things we did was go to the Ministry of Transport to get our licence. The sign says it all. The days were spent enjoying the sun, swimming (mel spent a lot of time either in the pool or on the side with her book), and snorkeling (take bread with you'll love how the fish swarm arround you). The evenings had amazing sunsets as ... read more

Hello boys and girls heres a little story about the time Tom and Liz went to the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands are a group of 15 islands in the middle of the Pacific, 241 sq km of land to be exact over 2'000,000 sq km of water which is pretty impressive. The Cooks are internally self governing but have very strong links to New Zealand (use NZ money, speak English - as well as Maori) since they became a British protectorate in 1888 as they did not want to become a French colony, (ok quoting from Lonely Planet now but it is interesting no?) which think explains lots of the differences between Tahiti and the Cooks as the French/British/New Zealand influances have created quite noticable cultural differences between the two contries considering that the Cooks ... read more