We arrived to a tropical, carnival feeling at the Cook Islands airport where the same man has been playing his ukulele there for twenty years. We arrived in our home for the next two weeks and were quick to put on our bikinis, get in the beautiful sea and get out the duty free as the sun was setting. We spent just over two weeks in Raratonga which is surrounded by a reef making a beautiful blue lagoon, with small islands to swim out to. We spent most of the days making the most of doing nothing as we knew it was soon time to return to the real world. However we couldn't help ourselves but to rent out bikes and explore the island. We did this on many occasions mainly to get into town for shopping and the Saturday morning market. We also managed to cycle around the whole Island one afternoon, stopping for local fruits and deserted white sands. We also braved the infamous 'Cross Island Walk' one hot muggy day having to cover every bit of skin to prevent the huge mosquito's from biting us. Most people pay for a guide for this walk as the tracks are very over grown and many people have been lost. Annie had a very good idea and took a picture of a rough map which was on a sign at the start; using this I managed to lead us from the North of the Island up to the needle in the middle of the Island and down the other side to the South of the Island crossing lots of streams and slippery tracks. We also spent a couple of days snorkelling round a little Island and in some great snorkelling areas. It was here a fish actually attacked my face which is apparently quite normal when protecting their young, quite scary too!
During the evenings we mainly spent our time drinking our duty free and talking to some of the many of the people we were sharing Vara's beach house with. We also went to a local night where we were entertained with music and dance. One day we randomly got involved in the local diving shops xmas party which during the day included lots of games on the beach and in the evening was up in a beautiful house overlooking the big lagoon.
On Christmas eve we went to the local Cricket club where we had been to watch the local team play and joined in with the celebrations. Father Christmas even turned up on a big fire engine shouting "Yo yo yo, father Christmas in the house". We stayed up drinking until the early hours so that I could speak to my family at home which was their Christmas morning. The next morning we cooked a lovely breakfast, drank some sparkling wine and traded our secret Santa's. We joined the rest of the party until it was time for us to leave and eat lunch in one of the five star resorts. The food was just amazing; lots of fresh meet and sea food along with traditional island food and traditional Xmas dinner. We carried on with the party back at Vara's and ended up being invited round one of the locals houses (all twenty of us). We drank, talked, ate and danced till the early hours and carried it on back at Vara's. The next day was spent in the sea recovering from the day before.
We arrived in LA and sampled the tourists sites around Hollywood Blvd where we were staying and Sunset Blvd. We saw the Hollywood sign, all the stars in the ground, hand prints and lots of strange, strange people dressed up as Hollywood stars. We found a tiny little local pub tucked away and chatted to some of the locals, one of which wrote us a poem!
The next morning we had an entertaining bus journey passing the Red Hot Chili Peppers school and meeting a very nice man who went to school with Angelina Jole. We also met a crack head who was very nice and entertained our bus journey calling us all foxy!
We drove to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive where we had some lunch and continued our journey North out of LA. The scenery off the West coast was stunning as the sun set. We found a motel and continued the next morning up the coast driving along windy roads past beaches and dramatic cliffs. We stopped off briefly to see the huge elephant seals swimming and making a lot of noise.
We arrived in San Francisco, quickly checked into our hostel and found a funky little bar with great drink offers. It was here that we were met by friends from home Kelly, Ellie, Lindsey and Steve. It was lovely to see familiar faces and we had a great night which ended up with ice skating in our shoes on the rink in the middle of union square.
The next day was New Years eve and we met up around 4pm to see in the new year at home. We were then surprised by Annie's brother and his girlfriend Emily. ( Actually I had been told about this the previous night but somehow it had completely slipped my mind so I was also surprised). With Gjoni from the Cook Islands we saw in the UK New Year and then got ready for the USA New Year. We met in Union Square and found a little pub to drink in while we made up our minds about where to spend midnight. We ended up staying in the pub all night which was a great find as there was great entertainment from an Irish man on the piano who was also very rude and funny, he quite often changed the words of the songs to include us. We also met some great local people who's "middle name was F.U.N"; "OMG"! On the way home we were singing with the homeless and some of us were sitting in fire engines.
The next day we went to the pier area, hired out some tandem bicycles and rode to and over the Golden Gate Bridge. We had a lovely meal and then went out to the Castro area. The next few days were spent shopping by day and drinking in the lively night spots of San Fran at night. We also went to Alcatraz for a great guided tour of the prison which was extremely interesting.
We flew home on the 6th Jan and arrived on Wednesday the 7th Jan. It was so overwhelming to arrive and see my family after a year away. Isla was on my dads shoulders shouting my name above all of the other noise in the airport and then I got to hold and meet James for the first time as well as getting lots of hugs from the rest of my family.