Well, the god's continue to smile on our voyage. When we awoke the ship was about ½ mile off Rarotonga and we could see the sea was pretty flat. So, scrambled out of bed and up to breakfast and then down to get a tender. Wow was it hot and humid! Some clouds around as though it was going to rain but that never happened.

Rarotonga is the largest of the Cook Islands named after Captain James Cook of Whitby! There are 15 islands in the group and they are scattered over an area the size of India. They have their own parliament but are part of New Zealand to whom they look for defence and currency. All of the islands are volcanic in origin, Raro being the youngest. It is amazingly green, covered in thousands of coconut palms. We saw some figures on how much coconut is eaten in a week and it was simply staggering. They are also the second largest producer of black pearls after Tahiti.

It looked quite large in comparison with Moorea and was certainly more of a community with a little town and a small airport. There didn't seem to be any large hotels, all were of the small, palm tree-high cottage style. There was more or less one road stretching around the edge of the island, maybe 30 miles in circumference. The fringing reef was much closer to shore than in Tahiti and Moorea too. A very laid back feel to it. Beautiful but without the glamour of French Polynesia. Having said that, you could happily spend a month or so here and have a wonderful relaxing time. A month or so in Moorea would require a second mortgage.

Anyway, when we got ashore our cab, arranged by the dive centre, was waiting for us. A really nice New Zealander known as Papa Tom. He gave us a bit of a running commentary during the 15 minute drive. There were a lot of churches of all different kinds, notably Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons who swarm all over the South Pacific sending very large numbers of missionaries to indoctrinate the Polynesians. It's been amazingly successful at least on the surface.

We had arranged diving with The Big Fish dive centre and they had been brilliant and so helpful. They were right opposite the marine park beach so as we weren't diving till 12 and we arrived at about 9am, we pegged out on the beach with our Kindles. My ears were pretty gippy so we decided not to take them up on their offer of snorkelling or shore diving the lagoon. I'm sure it was gorgeous but I wanted to preserve my ears for the better afternoon dive. It is literally a bloody pain…..

The sea was a couple of degrees cooler than Tahiti, about 27-28C. And those few degrees made a big difference to the coral. There was far far more here, and in much better shape. Water clarity was very much better too, glassy clear. Big Fish dive from a covered RIB which worked quite well. We had two really nice dives amongst the coral swim-throughs and gardens. Lots and lots of fish, nothing particularly sizeable like in Tahiti, but very many of them. We also saw a big turtle. All very pleasant and I really liked Big Fish. They really made us feel welcome.

Got back to the ship about 430. Rather knackered and hot to be honest. My ears and sinuses were really playing up and I now have four sea days before we arrive at the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. Hopefully I can sort them out a bit in that time with the Sudafed.

So, a quick dinner out on the back deck and caught a show, then a relatively early night at 930.