MIRROR, WIPERS, MANOUVER DAY 29: Rarotonga, Cook Islands to Kaikoura, New Zealand Today was a 'transit' day to New Zealand that saw us take a four hour flight from Rarotonga to Auckland, an hour internal flight to Christchurch on the South Island, then a two hour car journey to Kaikoura. We also lost a day of our lives today when we crossed the international dateline - most of November 1st never happened for us as we left Monday morning and arrived four hours...

"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...