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 did a u-turn after about 2 miles and went back in the clockwise direction. Eh?

Baffled by the bus system, after half an hour we arrived in Avarua at the main 'bus terminal' (it basically parks outside a shop). It's more like a big village than a town, let alone the island's capital, but that's what makes it great. And what's even better, there's not a global corporation in sight. No Maccas, Starbucks, 7/11, nothing. Just local businesses run by local people.

We'd heard from a few fellow travellers (I sound like a gypo when I say that) that this is the best place to buy freshly caught fish, so along with getting some food supplies, that was our main objective.

We had a look around the shops which were selling black pearl or mother of pearl jewellery items (the local precious commodity), floral dresses and shirts or Polynesian arts and crafts, some of which would have been nice to buy had we the capacity to take home.

After stocking up on some wickedly expensive supermarket items (probably because it's all imported), we went to track the fish down. Whether it was late in the day, the wrong day or the wrong place, we had difficulty in tracking it down but we eventually found some in the market. They had Marlin or Wahoo, so we went for the Marlin and a small tub of cooked prawns, rice and a weird, grey, dense, possibly fishy substance. I have no idea what it was, but it didn't taste very nice.

The afternoon saw us rest a bit from the morning's activities, consisting of reading and brainstorming business ideas - Jen got the bulk of her business action plan together. We then took a short walk along the beach and Jen spotted some amazing bluey-purpley coloured starfish in the water.

It rained quite a bit in the afternoon but then as the sun was setting it cleared a little to offer us a superb view - the lagoon reflecting the sky perfectly without a ripple to disturb it. This was accompanied by a beer and a game of cards of course.

Contemplating sorting dinner out, I thought I'd check to see if the hostel's BBQ was on tonight as there had been no sign of it happening. Much to my delight it was being fired up and we had a wonderful feast of swordfish (which was out of this world) and some Rarotongan sausage which was equally as good. No BBQ would be complete without the obligatory vodka punch.

We took a stroll down the beach afterwards to be greeted with not only a perfectly pitch black clear sky but the most amazing spectacle. There were so many stars in the sky, I was rendered speechless. Not only that but the night sky was mirrored in the lagoon with stars sparkling in the water, it was like a fantasy film. Breathtaking.

After about half an hour of saying 'Wow!' every two minutes, we decided to retire for the evening, but first I went to get some water from the mini-mart.

On walking back, I was thinking how wonderful remote island life is, especially with our beach hut and the views it affords us, but although it's lovely to visit could I actually live here without all the material luxuries of home? Things like a TV and DVD player, my iPhone, Bluewater, time? In short, yes I think I could. For a while anyway.