Rarotonga

No updates for a while, hey - fear not, we are still around.

Tomorrow we fly to NZ (Christchurch via Aukland) - that's when we actually lose a day. At the mo' we are 10 hours behind UK time, tomorrow (or should that read Friday) we will be 12 hours ahead. It's like magic.

We had a bit of a dodgy landing at Rarotonga - the pilot 'thumbs' Gilligan was obviously unsure of where the runway began and ended , but all was well in the end. Truth be told it was very windy.
Day one's weather was dull, day two there was a torrential downpour. Since then it's been brilliant - as soon as this tropical sun rises it scorches.

I'm going to let my dear wife contribute once more in a few minutes, she is busy replying to e-mails at the moment as we sit in Dougie's Internet cafe working on separate PCs.

Rarotonga is a bit of a throwback to fifties Britain- not much in the shops and everything shut on Sundays. We did manage to find a restaurant open on Sunday lunch, but when I asked for a beer, I was told that they couldn't serve me one. It took some convincing them that I was over eighteen . I then found out that they don't serve alcohol on Sundays anyway.

I've abandoned (oh, this is me, Mrs M btw), that screen due to being outrun by the egg-timer so it was a 'read-only' experience. Very frustrating these internet cafe computers, you end up paying for time you don't actually get and one would be better off sunbathing instead! Sunbathing? Oh yes, it might be November (is it really?) but everyday - apart from the first few days here, crickey me what a turnoff that was - has been brilliant. So much so that we are actually swimming in the sea to be precise, in the lagoon, before breakfast each morning. Yesterday, we went kayaking. Our enthusiasm more than made up for our lack of synchronisation and after a few concentric circles we were able to 'steer' in a straight line. One point I would like to elaborate on is the rain we experienced when we first arrrived. I know you thought you were being let off lightly with a mere aforemention alluding-to. Let me tell you that as the rain plummeted down in relentless sheets so did Leigh's spirits ebb. There was talk of booking out and changing flights to go to NZ earlier than planned. (Hence the title of our blog...'Follow the sun'). Never mind that we are paying over 100 quid a night here; never mind that there would be a not altogether insignificant fee to change our scheduled flight; nevermind that we would have to pay for extra accommodation once we arrived in NZ, (Christchurch actually). But hey presto by mid morning on Monday it brightened up. The clouds cleared, Leigh cheered up immensely and so did I. Sod the fluctuations of the weather, Mrs M is keeping tabs on what she calls 'unnecessary expense'. For the rest of the day I heard Leigh breaking out into song - such was his renewed found humour - 'Hello Mudder, Hello Father, wait a minute it has stopped raining...etc'

Must fly as I am about to be timed out and this 'Post' is endangered!
(scary!)
Publishing right now...

Some photos of Rarotonga - inserted on 16/11/2006...