Update from the Pacific

Hello to everybody, it feels like its been absolutely ages since we have written anything on this thing, so time for a super quick update. We have been about as far away from a decent internet connection as you can get for 2 weeks, so rather than fight the inevitable we decided to enjoy being cut off for a little while.

We flew into Rarotonga about 2 weeks ago, which is the capital island of the Cooks, and even though its the busiest its really small and quiet as you can imagine: The entire island is about 32km in circumference and can be travelled around by bus in less than an hour! All the way around the edge is a reef which encloses around 100m of lagoon along all beach coastlines, making swimming and snorkelling ideal. I would love to upload some of the photos of us shading ourselves beneath coconut trees or wading through the waist-deep luke warm lagoon, but unfortunately none of these crappy "internet terminals" have USB holes, so you are just going to have to use your imagination!

After Rarotonga we took a small "domestic" flight to Aitutaki, about 50 minutes north in a tiny 40 person plane, to find an even smaller, even quiter, even more idyllic island, with a bigger, warmer lagoon containing more breeds of tropical fish than you could wave a harpoon at. Needless to say the internet connections were even worse there too! We spent some of our days there kayaking on the lagoon to uninhabited islands, and taking cruises down to some of the more innaccsessible but beautiful snorkelling spots. And reading whilst lying in hammocks. Lots and lots of reading. We are struggling slightly with the diets here on the islands, there seems to be hardly any fresh fruit or vegetables, apart from potatoes and watermelon, and most of your meal options are based around a staple of tinned tuna or mackrel. After 2 weeks it is starting to take its toll on our digestion shall we say? I hope that Fiji has a few more options on the supermarket shelves. It has been quite hard to adjust on the whole after the break-neck speed of New Zealand, although we enjoy lying around on the beach, i find myself pacing around by 4pm in the afternoon ready to run a mile or catch a flight. I only hope I can get over it, because as was the point in all this time in the Pacific at the end of our travels, once were back to UK and started in jobs/uni, we wont get 2 weeks to lie around doing nothing at all for a very very long time.

We are now back in Rarotonga, and fly out to Auckland tomorrow before continuing on to Fiji. So we may be out of contact for a while longer, but dont worry thats a good thing! I've only just heard that theres a global break out of swine fever (apparantly), but dont worry, i dont think ive got it. Just keep your fingers crossed that we arent held in quarantine at LAX when we get there. Hope everybody is well

Chazz & Claire xx