Our Island Paradise

Words really cannot describe how amazing Aitutaki, the surrounding islands and the lagoon are. (Really, it is stunning. You have to look at our photos and put it in to Google Images to see just how gorgeous it is! www.flickr.com/photos/jocelyns_snaps

We loved relaxing on our island paradise and have many happy memories to bring home with us. Here are some of them...

The locals meeting us at the airport (a very small hut) with flower garlands, playing traditional tunes on a ukelale to welcome us to the island.

Swimming, kayaking and snorkelling in the clearest, warmest, most turquise lagoon you could imagine.

Tropical fish of all colours - feeding them, swimming with them, snorkelling the reefs. Seeing giant clams on the lagoon floor. (Oh, and swimming with trevelli - 1.5metres long and could give you a bit of a nip!)

A diet of milkshakes, chips and beers from the beach bar and the local cafe - yum!

Scooters. With a 40kph speed limit across the island and only a handful of roads (dirt tracks), cars are almost pointless and are few and far between.

Island hopping by boat to find your own tiny deserted island - then having lunch there - BBQ-ed fish and exotic fruit served on palm leaf plates...delicious!

Spotting a sting ray at our snorkelling point, shortly after the locals accompanying us had assured us 'sharks and sting ray never come in to the lagoon'...

Riding home from one of our boat trips on the back of a battered old pick up truck after the 4x4 owned by the guy running the trip got a flat tyre - classic Cook Islands!

Cockerels, crabs and coconuts. Hermit crabs hiding in any shell they can get their claws on, scuttling side ways and feasting on coconuts. Beach crabs disappering into holes in the sand when you go near them and fighting with each other when they think you're not looking. Cockerels crowing from 5am until dusk. (So that's all day then - turns out the c*** doesn't just crow at dawn - if only.)

A crazy local radio station manned in shifts by the locals, all of whom play the same songs - one song in particular was played at least ten times a day (there is only one radio station and it is played at the beach bar all day, and in your hut if you switch on the old school stacking stereo provided for your entertainment).

Very lovely and friendly locals, for whom nothing is too much trouble. You need a hire car - no problem, take my pick up truck instead. (Complete with missing wing mirror, smashed other wing mirror and four crates of beer on the back that she collected earlier to stock up the beach bar.) Your hut roof is leaking (freak thunder storm at midnight) - no problem move into another hut and have all your dinners at the beach bar free of charge to make up for it. You want to go snorkelling/kayaking - no problem, take our snorkels/flippers/kayaks - return them any time. Etc, etc.

Wild cats, very fast lizards and even faster cockroaches. (Only a couple of roaches - and Neil was very manly about catching them!)

No television, no internet, lots of books and lots of snoozing on sun loungers under plam trees. BLISS.

Nothing being on time, up to date, hi tech or made in the last twenty years - but who cares?! You're on island time now!