Maz NZ and Oz: October 2006

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part XI

As you can tell by my earlier posts, I had difficulty selecting pictures to share with you... I just wanted to put all of them on the blog. So here, finally is the final part of the post.

The last night in Rarotonga, Andrew and I went out for dinner on the beach at The Pacific Resort. Beautiful food, nice wine, great company, waves lapping just yards away.... heavenly! :)

The departure lounge at Rarotonga international airport - complete with duty free shopping.

So all in all, I had a simply amaaaaaaaaaaaazing time in The Cook Islands. I need to say a big thank you to John for inviting us all to celebrate his birthday in such a wonderful place, and another big thank you to Marion, Kath, Jess, Em and, of course, Andrew for making it such a fantastic holiday. See you all in Nelson for Christmas :)

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part X

On the second last day of the holiday, Kath, John, Jess and Em and I went on a horse trek. It was soooooo much fun. After making a complete fool of myself by almost falling off when I got on my horse (which my lovely boyfriend caught on the camcorder - thanks Andrew ;) ), we headed to the beach and then on the the waterfall where John and Kath took a dip in the pool. On our way back, we went through the water at the front of The Rarotongan, one of the flasher resorts on the island. We looked sooooo cool!

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part IX

Some group pictures:

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part VIII

I'm just going to let these pictures speak for themselves

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part VII

John's Birthday
Of course, the whole reason we were in Rarotonga was to celebrate John's 40th birthday. Pressies were opened at brunch that morning, we went for lunch at one of the resorts at Muri Beach, and then had a lovely BBQ dinner with birthday cake that evening.

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part VI

We were lucky enough to be on the western side of the island and got to see some beautiful sunsets.

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part V

We didn't spend all of our time lounging by the pool or on the beach. On the Sunday, Marion and I went to church. Firstly, we had to decide which church to go to - there are many to choose from on the island. We chose a CICC (Cook Island Christian Church) to go to and had a wonderful experience. The singing was simply beautiful - I had hairs standing up on the back of my neck. It was a bit surprising however, when the congregation around launched into song. The harmonies were just amazing, I'll never forget it.

Another day, we went in search of the island's biggest waterfall...

But to be honest, we spent most of our time by the pool or on the beach.

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part IV

Most of our meals on Rarotonga were self-catered, although there are many nice cafes and restaurants on the island. John and Andrew looked after any barbequeing that needed to be done.

We did have one meal out together in the Nu (which is the name of a type of coconut) Bar. This bar is owned by a group of Air Rarotonga pilots, one of whom, Ianis, John trained a few years ago. Ianis shouted us all dinner that night and we had a super meal at his bar, followed by some dancing at the RSA club across the road. The DJ there was another Air Rarotonga pilot who tried to encourage us to join in in the dancing competition, but we hid in a corner and managed to stay out of it.

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part III

Scooters are are the main mode of transport on Rarotonga, although there are also plenty of cars. The island is 32km around and the speed limit is 40kmph on the 'open road' and 30kmph in the town of Avarua. Kath and John hired a bike each and we hired a car, so we had plenty of transport for everyone, although Jess and Em definitely preferred the bikes to the car. We all had a go on the bikes though, even Marion took a spin on the back of John's one. They were great fun for scooting around in (hey - maybe that's how they got their names!!), but the airconditioning in the car was nice too. One definite advantage of the scooters though is that they were so cheap to run. We barely used a quarter of a tank of petrol in the car the week we were there, but it still cost $50 to refill it before we handed it back. When Kath refilled the thank on her scooter, it only cost $8 and I guess that she would have covered about the same amount of ground that we had.

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part II

We all hit the beach that first morning and enjoyed the fabulous snorkelling just off the beach pretty much all around the island.

The fact that we were staying at two sepearate resorts meant that we got to use the facilities at both places. The pool at Kath and John's place had looooovely loungers at their pool... v comfy!

Rarotonga 05 - 12 October 2006 Part I

On the afternoon of the 6th of October, met up with the rest of the gang in Auckland airport and then flew on to Rarotonga, arriving the night before because we crossed the dateline. As we got off the plane, a wave of heat greated us. This was absolutely bizarre for me because it was the middle of the night (well, about 10pm). It was so warm that when we got to our accommodation, Andrew, Marion and I all hopped in the pool for a cool down dip before going to bed.The following morning, we awoke to see our location in daylight for the first time. This is the view from the veranda outside our unit.