Where did Saturday go?

We left our beautiful beach at Aitutaki on Friday 20th at 16.00 and 8 hours flying time later (+10 hours waiting for planes) arrived in Sydney on Sunday 22nd at 10.00!

We spent Friday evening in the bar - Trader Jacks in Rarotonga. For the first time on this trip there was a live group and they played one rocknroll track which we jived to and no-one else did. But it was a pleasant evening watching the beautiful people. No locals actually and I was a bit worried about the blokes with flowers in their hair, but it didn't seem that out of place on this island.

I don't think I did justice to Aitutaki in the last post. We really liked the place. The feeling of heat and just being able to go and sit in the sea if it got too hot. Everyone being so relaxed and pleasant was really good. I don't think we will stay in a tree house again. We shared it with geckos, and have been well bitten by mossies and don't know what on our legs and feet and even in places we didn't know we had. But worst was lack of water. Washing really meant going for a swim. But we have not had stomach problems and Adi and Michelle, the big hat and T shirt has meant I have not been sun burnt! The hat cost $5 in Wellington and will probably not come back. I've always used your rash vest Adrian for swimming- really good.

The best thing about Sydney is we feel clean again! Having a good time here. Explored the maritime museum, learnt about how Oz was first claimed by Portugese, then Spanish then us and then we shipped convicts here, then thought it was a good place to be so settled here. Went to Bondi beach but was unimpressed. Big waves but short runs - not much fun. And two people were seriously injured by a great white here just last week.

Big day today. Three hour walking tour - very interesting. Climbed one of the towers of the bridge and discovered how it was built. Then toured the opera house and discovered how that was built. Did anyone else think the shape was to limit echos and allow clean sound? Apparently not. There is one theatre in each sail and two underneath making 8 theatres in all. They are seperate buildings inside the sails.

Running out of time. Back soon.

We love Aitutaki

But we have left it. Back in Rarotonga surviving the 9 hour wait from 6pm to 3am for the flight to NZ and Sydney. Have walked into town from the airport having left our bags with the fire service at the airport - as you do.

Apparently the reason the flights arrive and depart here at night is so we can't see how short the runway is.

Firstly, sorry to everyone who has posted comments to which we have not replied - we have only just found them!

Adi - theres no swimming with dolphins now because the person running it ran his boat onto the reef, with tourists on board, twice, and was stopped from doing it again. I did go to the hospital, twice, for the ear infection but never found a doctor. All the locals were complaining madly about the doctor. Apparently he was from Fiji and was no good! The two really nice elective doctors from London could not pass judgement. I was washing the ear in liquid Savlon once every hour or whenever possible and after 6 days the infection has all but disappeared. The ear is now coated in dried up Savlon. I would have started the emergeny Augmentin if it had got really bad.

Yes, the yacht club at Muri was very good. That is where we hired the windsurfer. Actually that was probably the riskyist thing we have done. The depth of water over the reef was sometimes less than 2ft and if we had fallen off on the reef it could have been serious.

Yes John - thanks very much for the advice to get going with the blog. We have written diaries as well and will make into a good story when we get back.

Maggie - congratulations for being a grandmother again! Delighted that all is well.

We love Aitutaki. The outstanding thing is the friendlyness of the people. If we stopped our moped to look at the map - everyone passing also stopped to help us. In the shops people we friendly quite often advising us not to buy something because it was overripe or something. And it was not just to us - I noticed they were like that between themselves.

Last Sunday we were standing outside the Christian Church of the Cook Islands - and someone came out and invited us in. I couldn't really understand much of what the preacher said - he was not talking plain English and was talking Polynesian half the time. But the hymns sung in Polynesian sounded much better than in English - more uplifting and rythmic somehow. We were walking away afterwards and someone else directed us to the attached schoolroom for refreshments - local produce and concocksions. Everyone seemed to be really happy. There was no collection.

Then the lagoon is just amazing. Even Delia has been snorkelling for long periods. There are giant clams all over the place and the colours of the fish are incredible. I found a 1.5m moray eel hiding down a hole in the coral. We visited some of the desert islands in the lagoon. They were iconic. Perhaps 200m diameter containing coconut palms in all stages of development in the middle surrounded by white sand beach and turquoise sea. BUT with the air temperature at 35C in the shade and 46C otherwise, the sun's heat reflecting of the white sand made the temperature on the beach >50C - it was like a sauna. You could not stay there long. Even the water temperature in the shallows was about 35C like the jacussi at home.

The the sand was sometimes not sand but ground up coral. Coral breaks in a brittle fashion leaving razor sharp edges - impossible to walk on without shoes.

The islands were inhabited by red billed turns. A spectacular white bird about the size of a rook. They would fly out beyond the reef to fish and get attacked by frigate birds on the way back and made to drop their fish which the frigate birds would often catch before the fish reached the water. Frigate birds are very big but with a pefect swing wing design giving them superior manouvreability.

Our host Fred twice went fishing and caught Tuna and Wahoo - a big thing with teeth like a Barracuda. Fred is also a very good cook so twice we have dinned in style.

It was just as well. When we arrived the 'supermarket' had very little food in it, and the petrol station had run out of petrol but the the cargo boat had just arrived. It took several days to unload and unpack the containers. There is something quaint about everything depending on the arrival of a cargo boat. Then signs were appearing evrywhere like "Just in Stock - nails, envelopes, matches ladders, wheely bins".

Lots more to say but time running out.

Air Rarotonga

In all the flying around Europe I did while working for Alcatel and Dornier and all the other holiday flights etc, in all those years, the very first time a flight has left on time was with Air Rarotonga! I think it should take over BA. The plane was a Saab 340 fitted with carbon fibre propellers with Ti leading edges made by Dowty in Gloucester!

Aitutaki is the real thing. A tropical island at Lat 18 S. The temperature is 35C in the shade dropping to 30 at night and the sea is a constant 28C. The reef goes all round but is assymetrical thus creating an enormous lagoon at the south side. Fantastic snorkelling. A giant clam is only 200m from our beach and we watched it trap a fish. The tracks are covered in land crabs and the sea of them kind of parts as we drive along on our moped.

Our tree hut is really a shack. The wash basin is half a giant clam shell. The water supply is intermitant. The bed is hard - 2" foam on a solid base. At least there is an effective mossy net. There is not much food here. The shop is almost empty but it has lots of Immodium. However a cargo boat arrived today and us along with half the population watched it unload, so tomorrow we may be able to eat.

I have an ear infection and will try the hospital tomorrow for antibiotics.

This may be the last blog update from here as the connection is painfully slow and expensive.

But when all said and done this is a beautiful place with very friendly people who all seem to be at complete peace with everything. It is a lovely place to be.

Bye for now.

The trouble with coconut trees

The trouble with coconut trees is that coconuts keep dropping off them. It must be because they don't meet EU health and safety laws that we don't have them in Europe. The EU must have banned them.

Here is of fantastic villa right on the beach and at a cost much less than the hotel - there are so few visitors here accomodation has dropped dramatically in price.

We found it using the car and have now hired a scooter to get around. Got caught in heavy rain and stopped and ran under the decking of what we thought was a derelict shack. While waiting there suddenly a voice said Hi. In the gloom a fantastic blonde ~19rs was standing - and she offered us a cup of tea - totally amazing. Turns out Hannah is a student staying in the shack with boyfriend Nick until this weekend when they return to Auckland so he can start his new PhD course in Surf Tourism. A PhD course? In Surf Tourism????? I was tempted to ask what his hypothesis is going to be, but resisted, they had been very kind to us.

Went to a cultural evening last night. Saw ancient encampments. Fantastic meal of local produce and cooking. Then song and dance show.

We learnt:

For centuries this island was occupied by three tribes, who warred against each other. They ate there opponents when captured. They also developed dances for the purpose of mating. Strange that as none of the dances were contact ones. Anyway the objective was to create new people to replace those ate by the other tribe. Then in the 1800s christian missionaries arrived. Then all three tribes ate them. Eventually sufficient missionaries arrived and they persuaded the three tribes to become christians. In 1900 Rarotonga became a NZ protectorate and in 1974 the Queen opened th airport - so started tourism.

The dance music was all with drums made from hollowed out mahogany logs, slit longtitudenally to make them resonate. Eight drummers all in time - very good. The dances were fast and fun. I really don't know why they want to adopt pop songs.

Last night we had major storms and high wind - temp dropped to 26 - it was freezing.

The day after tomorrow we fly the 400miles to Aitutaki in a small turboprop plane. This island is said by everyone here to be the most beautifull island in the South Pacific.

Bye for now.

Impressions of Rarotonga

This is a beautiful tropical island and it is HOT HOT HOT. The temperature has risen to 30C day and night, but we must be getting used to it as 30C at night doesn't seem too hot now.
This island is not Rarotonga, just a little one we windsurfed to yesterday!

The scenery is stunning - lots of fruits we have never heard of before. Soursop - its like a cross between pinapple, grape and apple. The bananas grow wild and taste like nothing we have tasted before. There are also lemons, avacados, paw paw and mangos.

A reef surrounds the island and the water in the lagoom is warm with many brightly coloured fish - its like swimming in an aquarium. But there are mossies and big bugs like hornets. There are cockrels, chickens and chicks everywhere.

The perimeter is 32km and is more developed than we had expected. The whole perimeter is either privately owned, holiday accomodation or managed public beach access. There is a back road a few hundred metres inland and most locals live along that in varied type of bungalows or shacks. We have been suprised about how many different christian religous demoninations are here - perhaps about 20. There are many graves everywhere adorned with brightly coloured silk flowers, very often in people's gardens.

Apart from a strip of land around the outside the island is mountainous and covered in tropical rainforest. We did the cross island walk yesterday - infact its not a walk but a climb and a descent. Good job there were many exposed roots and shrubs to provide foot and handholds.
We are totally stunned by how beautiful it is - we have to pinch ourselves to believe we are really here.
But there is no rocknroll here - just a strange mixture of traditional polynesian dance music played on drums and tiny guitar like things and western pop. Am looking for a job as a rocknroll teacher. If I get one I might forget to come back.

Thursday 5th Feb - The Longest Day

We woke at Jos and had morning coffee with Jessica and GJ at the surf cafe that overlooks Lyall Bay - fantastic surf. Then back to clean up and pack, plus clean Jos car. Final farewells. It was a wrench to be leaving as we have been made so welcome by Jo, her family and neighbours that the place was beginning to feal like home.

Left the airpot at 7.30pm and arrived Rarotonga at 2.30am the same day having crossed the date line. Were met by HEAT, music and real flower garlands. Our hotel room leads onto a pristine beach, cocnut tress and a lagoon.

The reef is a bit handy - otherwise the 2m pacific swell and 3m breakers would end up the beach and in our bedroom. The water is warm the air temperature 28C and the stars were fantastic. Slept until lunch time, went swimming and kayaking, dinner and it is still Thursday 5th February.

Friday 6th.

Hired a car and toured the island - its not very big. The global recession has hit these islands - there is no problem finding accomodation, so now have booked a beatiful villa on a beatiful beach for a lot less than our hotel room.

Photos when we remember to bring the lead.

More later.

Impressions of NZ

Apparently its been snowing at home - what a shame! Mind you, the weather here has been very changeable. We borrowed Jo's car and drove into the hinterland to the driest area of NZ - and it rained!
Wed 4 Feb 09. Today Fraser invited us to his school's HUI - its the first general assembly of the new term. Firstly we were able to just walk into the school and wander around - why do we in the UK have to have such stringent security when its not necessary here? The age range in the primary school is 5 to 13years. It was very civilised. The head introduced teachers whose name had changed since the end of the last term thru marriage or divorce! They sang pop songs - no religeous affliation is allowed in schools here.

Impressions of NZ

Relaxed and friendly people.
There seems to be nothing outrageous here ( except in sports) - its all very normal.
Wooden houses with corrugated iron roofs or mobile home type metal tile roofs. Often houses are built on piles on cliff sides.
Its clean - no litter.
Overhead power lines - makes it look a bit like US.
Places on maps can be just two houses so you don't know you are there. You can drive 20miles thru nothing, come to a cafe then drive another 20miles thru nothing.
Smooth roads.
No gloss paint (except on cars).

Tomorrow we leave for Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and get there at 02.30, then have to get across the island to our hotel for the next two nights. Part 2 of the adventure begins.

Photos of Wellington

This is the capital of NZ from Mount Victoria.

By the way Steve, we have been making up for the lack of C2H5OH on the flight since we got here, and Delia is better at it than me.

It is Sunday evening and Jo and Delia are settling down to watch the Federa Nadal match - yawn yawn yawn.

We took the cable car to the top of the hill today where there was a teddy bear's picnic, but no-one said I had to take my teddybear so I didn't get a pink balloon! But the botanical gardens there were great - like Wisley in many ways.

The marina in the centre of the picture is where the racing yacht Saphire is moored.

It was mostly a good race - Nick is a better skipper than the skipper was - he was a windsurfer before he started yacht racing and can well read the water and wind. The altercation with the navigation beacon was because as we rounded it the skipper thought we had sufficient momentum to clear it and tacked. But in the head on position the F6 stopped us and blew us onto it before the wind filled the sails on the new tack and took us away. So the impact was gentle so not much hull damage but the genoa was on the other side of the beacon to the yacht and only skillful manouvreing with the engine on got us away without tearing the genoa.

Here is Fraser giving us his blues number during the BBQ with mother Jessica behind. Don't they have identical facial visual aspects?

Well, There are many oooohs and arhhhhs and magic from the TV room, 1st set and Nadal is leading and about to break Federer apparently - I am off to bed.

Bye for now. Alan