Hello all We landed in the Cook islands and in doing so crossed the date line which meant we had an extra Saturday, wooyeah. Downside being that when we woke up it was absolutely pissing it down and we couldn't even leave our self contained cottage thing for fear of being knocked out by the rain, size of a marble! We had been updated to a cottage as they were overbooked but this did not last long as everyone got on the blower to Air New Zealand as fast as poss to get on the earliest flight out. We got a lift down to Vara's which supposedly has the best beach on the island in a lagoon with three little islands and we got some grub and paid for our room. Felt really bored as the weather was terrible for a couple of days and the room was damp with damp sheets and all we did was read and listen to music and play cards all day. The food prices were astronomical so we stocked up on bread, cheese, muesli and baked beans but even this cost an arm and a leg. No exotic menu for us in the Cook Islands. On the Monday the weather cleared enough for us to hop on the bus round the island, there are two buses clockwise and anti-clockwise as the island is only just over 30km round. We got into town and got our driving licenses so that we could hire a moped the best way to get round the island. That afternoon we laid on the beach a little and then after another cold shower chatted to some of the other guys and went to bed. Tuesday rained in the morning and then we went to a small botanical gardens for a drink just a 15 minute walk away from the hostel with Ben, Nicky and Katie. On Wednesday zella woke with lots of mozzie bites. We went to the trade Market where people from all the other islands in the Cook Islands meet together to dance and sell their stuff. We had some noni juice which is absolutely disgusting and the guy selling it said "anything that tastes this bad must be good for you" tasted like blue cheese nice and warm as well. Thursday we hired a scooter to go round the island, it was great fun a little yamaha thing and we went to get some pearl earrings and went to the waterfall on the island which was v.unimpressive. The weather held out for us and we just had a cool day riding around getting food, went to a whale centre which was interesting. We went on the interior road (only 2 roads, exterior and interior) and saw some v.nice scenery with the tropical mountains and dense vegetation. Rained a little and when we were driving along it was like being hit by millions of tiny p****. That night a group of us went to the island night and saw local traditional dancing with girls in grass skirts with coconuts for bikinis, a look I think should be encouraged more! Had a dancing competition and of course I (Ben) was picked and of course I collected the trophy of people's champion and given a free cocktail for my troubles. Traditional dancing is a mix of leg and bum wiggling. Then the place turned into a D.I.S.C.O and all the locals proceeded to wiggle their crotches a lot in the vicinity of lady's crotches. I sat out and just people watched as a stag do rolled in, shirts off tripping over and trying to chat everything up in sight. Zella loved all the attention and shook her booty on down. Drove back to the hostel on the hog and had a lovely meal of flies and other insects as we sped back to the hostel. On the Friday we just chilled out took the scooter back. I swam over to one of the little islands with Russ and Sarah which was good fun and a lot less windy over there and warmer. We were ere scared we may be decapitated by a Kite surfer but survived unscathed. The lagoon the whole week was crawling with kite surfers for the calm water but high winds. Said our goodbyes to Ben, Nicky and Katie who flew off to Fiji. On our last day we went to the weekly market which was banging and Russ and I had to check out from our rooms and missed the bus so we decided to hitch into town and we were picked up v.quickly and wish we had done this all week, very friendly locals all week and just so chilled out. Typically the was the best weather we had all week so Zella just laid out on the beach that afternoon and I just read and chilled with Russ and Sarah counting down the minutes till we all left for LA via Tahiti. To sum up when the weather was good Rarotonga was very pretty and idyllic with nice locals but if I were to come again I would head off to the islands as quickly as possible, unfortunately the flights are about 50 quid each way. We were wishing our time away for most of the stay and just wanted to head off to LA. Oh writing this from Philly at Simons flat but cannot upload many photos so will wait until we get home to put them up. ben