Goodbye Cook Islands

When I last left off you were waiting expectantly for my next trip to Aitutaki. What could happen? More rain, crazy adventures, mishaps, who knew! Okay, we arrived in Aitutaki to a beautiful SUNNY day - yes really I'm being serious. We arrived in Paradise, well Paradise Cove to be literal. Gorgeous huts on the beach, oh wait that's not where we stayed - we were in the guesthouse for the low rent travelers! Still, it was pretty nice although our room was just about big enough for the beds and nothing else.

The beach truly was stunning (until you walked into the water and attempted NOT to step on one of the Sea Cucumbers/Slugs)! The water was wonderful, not too warm but so comfortable. Loung chairs right on the beach. Us, and quite a few couples but it was relaxing and nice break from constant rain on Raro. We worked on our tans and didn't really go out except for some fish and chips at Puffy's restaurant next door when we first arrived. Hit another part of the island that was even more gorgeous, Samades (probably out of our budget range as the drinks were pretty expensive).

Did I mention the strange looking dogs that were on Raro? Most of them look like a strange mix of a big dog and one with short stumpy legs. I must say a few looked quite disgruntled with their heritage! Well, instead of dogs there were cats and mostly roosters/chickens on Aitutaki (and yes we heard them most mornings early!). Oh, did I mention the ants and more mosquitoes? They really are the most plentiful, in fact the ants ruled. It's amazing what you get used to though.

We did take a great lagoon cruise that was incredible despite the weather being a bit cloudy. Saw some pretty cool looking fish snorkeling there, realized which ones were the trigger fish everyone was telling us kept biting people. Good thing we finally figured it out. Stopped on Honeymoon Island, how romantic for us. Hmmm, okay not really but it was a cute little island and they had red tailed crane there nesting, got a beautiful shot so hopefully soon I can share more photos with you all!

Stopped on One Foot Island and decided to be economical and Not spend the $2.50 to get a special stamp in our passports. Instead sent a few postcards. Not surprising to hear this from me, but the lunch we had as part of our cruise was INCREDIBLE and a definite highlight! So many different flavors of local foods and fresh fruits, YUMMY! I stuffed myself so much it was probably good our second snorkel stop wasn't too great. The water was cloudy from rain early in the morning so we didn't stay long. Some food highlights were: kumara (local type of sweet potato) & banana potato salad; papaya w/mayo and curry dressing, grilled tuna, marinated eggplant and peppers, and the finale of banana cake with chocolate icing.

I hear it's supposed to snow there in the DC area sometime soon, sorry guys! We arrived in Auckland to a very sunny day in the mid-70's. Now we are attempting to figure out our transportation here for the 3-4 weeks we'll be here. Rental car or a bus pass thing like Scape or Kiwi experience. Thanks to some really nice Kiwi's we met on Rarotonga we have a few places to stay! More later!

Gotta get our plan of action together now!