Rarotonga

We crossed the date line going to the Cook Islands; Rarotonga is 23 hours behind New Zealand. It shouldn't be a confusing time difference, but it is somehow. We left Auckland at 5.30pm on Sunday and arrived on Rarotonga at 11pm on Saturday local time. Having Sunday twice was a novelty, especially as it was our tenth anniversary of being together.

The Cook Islands are home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the South Pacific which definitely include Muri Beach, our home for nine days on Rarotonga. They are the kind of beaches you dream of... palm tree-lined, soft white sand and calm water that is a beautiful aqua colour.

Rarotonga is surrounded by a circular reef that creates a natural barrier from the rougher water and makes swimming safe in most places. There are some openings in the reef that have strong currents; sadly a woman and the man who tried to save her were drowned during our time there, but Muri Beach is very safe, so just perfect for us! It was the beginning of the rainy season, so the weather was a little mixed, but we did have a couple of beautiful days.

There are strong links between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, Cook Islands Maori is the local language and Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens. It is not a cheap place to visit, but there is excellent food and great coffee. We stayed in a comfortable, but basic bungalow, so it was a bit of a treat to be able to visit our friends Julian and Rose in a lovely beach-side resort with a great pool just down the road.

The main reason for our visit was Julian's 40th birthday celebration a few days after we into our stay. There isn't a huge amount to do on Rarotonga other than swim and snorkel (unless you are into para surfing and other more adventurous activities). We fell into our usual pattern of meals and swimming.

I swam out to one of the four islets within the reef one morning and we all did it the next day (the water is only up to my shoulders, so it was easy enough for us all to go). On our way back we ran into an aggressive trigger fish that gave us both a fright when it bit on our legs; it even broke the skin on Adrian's knee. In order to impress our friends, Adrian embellished the story a little... Eleanor is now convinced that it was a hungry pink whale. Adrian has not attempted to correct her version of the story! [it blotted out the sun! - Adrian]

We caught the bus to town one day to do some grocery shopping and hired a car another for a drive around the island. On that drive we went inland to see Wigmore's Waterfall. I don't think there had been much for a while rain as it was a rather sad looking dribble. Most evenings we had meals with Julian, Rose and their lovely friends. If you visit Rarotonga give the Flame Tree restaurant a try, delicious!

Julian and Rose moved up to a beautiful house on the hill for the days around Julian's birthday. It has spectacular views over the beach, islets and out to sea. We had a yummy birthday BBQ complete with a cake organised by Rose (much to Eleanor's delight!) and great evening's conversation. Leo discovered a love of being thrown into the pool with his water wings on bouncing back to the surface.

Rarotonga was a great last overseas stop on the 'big trip'; a lovely location and excellent company. We spent a lot of time reflecting on our adventures in the past six and a half years, and particularly the past four months, during our last day or two. We concluded that the entire London experience was in incredible; we miss our friends and know we will miss other aspects of our lives there like gigs, football and easy travel, and that we will look back on our last four months travelling as the trip of a lifetime. We met so many wonderful people, saw some amazing things, ate great food, swam on fantastic beaches and most of all spent a very special four months together as a family. Having said all that were both ready to get to Wellington catch up with family and friends, enjoy Christmas in Cheviot and Anna's and Nick's wedding in Taranaki on New Year's Eve, then to put down our bags and begin our new lives.