Well we are still waiting for the new year ball to drop in san fransisco, so we thought a update on the last month would surfice.

18 days in the Cook Islands - BLISS! We are tantastic!! Last sun tans we will have for a long time.

When we arrived in Raratonga we stepped off the plane onto the runway, HUMID....walking into customs with a 80 year old local playing the banjo....although we were exhasuted it put a big smile on our faces. What didnt make us smile was the reality of NO ROOM when we arrived at the backpackers we booked over a year ago? Not happy. It was 5am by the time they cleaned out a dirty office/ managers bed room for us. The place was a bit of a shambles, not where you wanted to spend xmas in, especially for 19 days. After 2 hours sleep we were up and headed straight to the net to find another place to stay...no luck. Even had dad and sis looking for us..cheers! We went into the main town on the north of the island, walked into Raratonga Realty, an hour later we had rented our own beach holiday home...WOO HOO. Only the 3rd of the normal coast as we put on the water works. We new that now we had paid a little extra for this comfort we couldnt venture too much around the islands, no cocktails, massages etc. Not too fused though as we were a 30 sec walk away from a secluded part of the south of the islands, a perfect lagoon, shallow reef with crystal clear waters so that you could see the tropical fish....thank you very much...going to be a realxing xmas. Most of our time was taken up sun bathing and walking along the beach, we read 3 books each (feel smarter for it), self catered and watched some crazy local tv. Amy had decorated the place with xmas tat that we bought in Auckland, but to be fair it looked really nice once she added her xmas magic to it. She also cooked up a xmas dinner, THE WORKS. Other xmas decorationd were made from loo roll and dora the explorer colouring sheets...from that we had CRACKERS! Very funny...Amy Taylor is a very very "special" girl. You must be proud Linda..he he he.

We were blessed with some xmas tv as well, the original miracle on 34th street was a charming epic, plus other hits but probably not in the normal living world. It was a great xmas day capped off with a stroll along the beach to get a ice cream...bloomin 8km we walked to get that, but you need an xmas sweet dont you. My favourite day of the year, Boxing Day, was spent in pure sunshine, nursing a tiny hangover..nothing too bad though.

So we left the Cooks on the 27th, arrived in L.A on the 28th, what a massive culture shock..but we let you no more about that later.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.....

3 weeks to go...BOO HOO.