So, to the cook islands, specifically Raratonga. A nice little slice of paradise. 30 mile circumference, about 5 miles wide and 7 across (estimates, I may look up the actual some day), sitting in the pacific, similar to Hawaii but owned by New Zealand.

Arrived in at 7am after 10 hours in LAX and a further 10 on the plane. Too shattered to go properly shopping so were low on essentials. This led to what will probably go down as one of our big mistakes. Being too tired to go shopping and since it was a rather overcast day we decided that a few hours in the sea without any sun block would not have any negative consequences. There were consequences. Never haves I been so sun burnt and Paul was twice as bad. This in turn led to several days staying inside and routinely applying after sun. But we shall move on from this minor hiccup.

Since we are on an island there is limited things here, there will be no sky scrapers or amusement parks. There's is one town and lots of shops, restaurants and hotels. Primarily there are lots of beaches as well as coral reefs. We've spent a few days on the swimming beaches lapping it up in the sun and taking it easy. Several days have been dedicated to snorkeling the coral reefs. There are some exceedingly colourful fish about, including one in particular who seemed set on attacking me wherever I went, he later became known as my nemefish (fish nemesis). But all the others were bight and not after my blood. Tropical fish everywhere, its grand. Plus the reefs themselves are impressive even before you get to the fish.

Also have had beach BBQ, a traditional native night, and several fish and chips where it dawned on me only the other day I have no idea what the fish is that comes with the fish and chips. Defiantly isn't one cod or haddock. For alli know its dolphin (unlikely), at any rate its fresh.

In contrast to all the beach things we have also been to the town a couple of times and been to the weekly market which was essentially a giant food show. Also, we went on a trek across the island. Being a former volcano then there were several massive mountains with great views, and was somewhat a rainforest in the inner island, but it says a lot for a place when you can walk from coast to coast, the entire breath of the island, in less than 4 hours. Though I do consider us to be veteran hikers now which helped our time. Still, this is not a big place.

In continuation without excellent time in hurricane Sandy, here the last 2 days were spent in a tropical cyclone with immense amounts of rain limiting our activity options. Still, it at least cleared up in time for our plane out. Crossed the date line today/yesterday (i have no idea what I class it as). Set off at 5pm on the 17th (GMT 7am), 4 hours later on the plane and its 8pm on the 18th. All this time travel becomes more and more confusing. I am struggling enough trying to keep track of time lately (I spent a good 20 seconds earlier trying to work out what month we were in) without time keeping on altering itself. Also, the immigration man said welcome home to me when I entered New Zealand, was slightly surreal.

I digress, Overall for the cooks, awesome. Sun, sea, sand and sunburn. Plus mountains, reefs and everything else you could want to relax, all in a place smaller than Newark. Newark needs to up its game if its to keep up, though I haven't found a spoons here sadly. Otherwise, top knocks.