Raiatea was a lovely surprise; people seemed to have mixed feelings about it because of the lack of beaches, but we didn't feel that was an issue. We got off of the shortest flight I've ever subjected myself to, 15 minutes, and met Cyrille. He made very clear to us that we'd be much happier if we rented a car for the three days that we were here, so we got right on taking care of that. We topped up on some provisions and then headed down to the Fare which wa...

Before it becomes a big blur, I've decided I'd better jot down a bit about our time in Huahine! We got off the plane from Tahiti and were immediately struck by how small the airport was. We then met Flora, the pension caretaker, who was buzzing with information; she was a little stressed from our plane's delay and decided the way to make up for that was to speak super quickly. We didn't realize, or more likely didn't remember, that we had decided to stay on ...

Back to civilization for three short nights! Papeete, the main city in Tahiti Nui (the large island), felt HUGE after spending time in the Cooks! We arrived at night and were picked up by the hotel's owner Beni, a super friendly and helpful Swiss guy. He informed us that since we'd arrived on a Saturday night, we'd be best off to rent a car the following day as everything was going to be closed and we'd have nothing to do. We walked along the waterfront to ...

We're now on our Air Tahiti flight bound for our second country on this trip. I'm working hard to get over my flying stress since we're on so many flights this trip. This one is a small, seat yourself affair, which almost helps me pretend that I'm on a bus…almost… The small and beautiful island of Aitutaki really helped to increase my appreciation for the Cook Islands. Where I found Rarotonga to be pretty but bland, Aitutaki was the island paradise you ...

After a couple of hours hanging out in the crappiest part of Pearson's terminal 3, and a lovely chance meeting with Cindy, who was going to exciting Salt Lake City, we boarded our unremarkable flight to LAX. LAX was about as interesting as Pearson, but add on very long lines and excessive crowds to round things out. But then things improved- Air New Zealand's economy sky couch!!! I actually slept solidly for 7 of the 8.5 hour flight and arrived in Rarotonga ...