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...

BEACHED WELL DAY 23: Rarotonga After a marathon sleep of 13 hours we decided that the day should consist of pretty much doing nothing but relaxing. And as today is a bank holiday, there won't be anything open anyway, so we took our time doing nothing and had a light breakfast on the veranda watching the waves roll in under a very overcast sky. The whole day pretty much consisted of reading and writing thoughts down, the only differing thing being whether it ...

PARADISE FOUND IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC DAY 22: Rarotonga, The Cook Islands After the flight from LA to Rarotonga, Air New Zealand probably ranks as my favourite airline. The customer service was superb, so friendly and non-corporate which is so refreshing, the in-flight entertainment was spot on and the food was excellent. We managed to get a good six or seven hours sleep and only woke when there was a bit of turbulence. Turbulence doesn't usually bother me but ...

A DAY AT THE DOGS (SAUSAGE DOGS THAT IS) DAY 21: Newport Beach Today I brushed aside Jaws' presence and went 'surfing'. I hired a suit and board from the shop a few blocks down and borrowed a body board from the motel. I don't know whether it was just the weather, and thus the swell in the sea, or whether it was the fact that it was today that I decided to go surfing, but the waves looked about three times bigger than any other day we'd been on the coast. It...

THE DAY WE MET DUMBLEDORE DAY 20: Newport Beach, Orange County Luckily it was too cold to surf today, but Jen and I thought our bodies deserved some more strenuous exercise than the walking we'd done so far, so we opted for a run along the beach. Turns out running on sand barefoot is not as easy or as nice as it sounds. Having run as far as we wanted we stopped at Newport Pier to watch the surfers, and then as we started to walk back Jen noticed some fins in...