"TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE, OF COURSE!" DAY 28: Rarotonga After a lazy start to the day, I decided to venture to the main town of Avarua in search of some fresh tuna. As the buses aren't very frequent on Sundays I thought I'd make my way under my own steam and hire a bicycle to ride the 11 or so miles there and back. As I was walking to the bike hire shop, someone called my name. Most irregular, I thought to myself, given I'd not seen or spoken to anyone for...

OFF TO MARKET DAY 27: Rarotonga Saturday is the best day at the Punanga Nui Cultural Market in Avarua, so today, that's where we're going. A bit adventurous for us this week you might think. The rickety bus was going the right way this time, so no confusion for where we were going and it dropped us off right outside the entrance. The market was really colourful and smelt amazing with all the fresh food being cooked. We settled for a frozen pawpaw (I think it...

BUSY DOING NOTHING DAY 26: Rarotonga Our new neighbours decided to have a party last night, and with walls made out of paper it felt like they were on the end of the bed. They finally switched off the music at 6am but then started again a couple of hours later so Jen went round and had a nice word. Another R&R day followed with reading and sleeping taking up most of our time, the most strenuous activity being the opening of another coconut (couldn't resi...

HUNTING FOR COCONUTS DAY 25: Rarotonga After breakfast I decided to do something I'd wanted to do since we arrived - crack open a coconut. I knew this wasn't going to be easy as they can be tough cookies, but it was ok as I'd seen Ray Mears do it before, so it was going to be easy. And I had my trusty Victorinox Cross Swiss army knife to hand, so I was practically a pro. I'm sure breaking open coconuts is what they were made for as Switzerland as loads of th...

THE SUNSET WE'D BEEN WAITING FOR DAY 24: Rarotonga This morning we decided to jump on the bus and venture to the Island's capital, Avarua. With only one main road circling the entire island, which is about 20 miles in circumference, and only two bus routes, clockwise and anti-clockwise, working out where to wait for the bus would be easy. Or so we thought. The clockwise bus picked us up while it was going anti-clockwise, on the other side of the road, then d...