Flew from Tahiti to Rarotonga, the largest (but still tiny) island of the Cook Islands. We had promised ourselves that we would do our PADI open water diving course here. Anyone wanting to dive needs to complete this before being let loose in the water on dives around the world. We had expected a quick video and off you go. Not so. 4 full days, homework at night and numerous tests before a final exam. What happened to our swinging in hammocks under palm trees? The 4 days would have interfered with our chill out time enough, but for one little problem - I got sea sick. My initial assessed dive in the open sea turned into a disaster as the sea was quite rough and I got incredibly sea sick. I was under the water and tried to signal to the instructor that I was going to be sick. She understood and started to bring me up slowly to the surface (cant go up too fast - the bends) but it was too late. The fish got a good feed that day because I didn't make it to the surface before emptying the contents of my stomach through my regulator (the bit you breathe through). I did at least manage to carry out and pass my assessed skills before that horrible incident. After an hours break between dives on dry land, I was feeling better so I agreed to go out and try to do my second dive. Big mistake! As soon as I got into the water it started all over again. The worst part of it was, I had to sit on this little boat for 35 mins so the others could do their dive. The skipper couldn't leave them to take me back to land so I was stuck. It was the worst 35 mins of my entire life! My stomach muscles certainley got a good work out that day. This put me behind Simon and the other students as I had missed one dive. It was arranged that I would be taken out the day after the others finished to complete my last dive. Unfortunately, the weather turned bad and my dives were cancelled for two days on the trot. I had to wait another 4 days untill we returned from a trip to one of the other Cook Islands to finish the course. We took a 40min flight to the true paradise Island of Aitutaki. This is the place that dreams are made of and is absolutely stunning. This place was incredible. It is basically an area inside the reef (the lagoon) with a load of picture postcard islands within it. Only one of the islands is inhabited (just - popn of 1800 people), the rest are desert island paradises. After all the studying, we splashed out a bit and stayed in a luxury beachfront bungalow in a great spot on a beautiful white sandy beach. Paradise! The treats continued when one day we went out for a day into the lagoon with a local boy racer with his speed boat. Only one speed - flat out. Still, got to go out onto plenty of the islands and went to some great snorkelling areas. We even visited the island where they filmed the C4 programme 'Shipwrecked' a few years ago. After snorkelling in the lagoon, we were taken to a small Island for lunch. They cooked us fresh fish that they had caught that morning and it was excellent. Later on, Simon did a bit of wakeboarding off the back of the boat - no fancy somersaults but plenty of headplants as he tried! On the one occaision he tried not to land on his head when he hit the water, the force of the impact whipped his shorts off. That evening, we went to an Island night. This was a show in a local bar that put on traditional music and dancing. Not a flowery affair like some of the resorts, but aggressive tribal warrior dancing. Simon tried to get me up on stage when they wanted volunteers to have a go but it backfired because they took him instead. Ha! ha! serves him right. Went back to Rarotonga the next morning and stayed a few days. I finally managed to get my dive course finished and got my qualification. Hurrah!!. We also hired a scooter and saw some more of the Island. Next stop is New Zealand. Lisa xxxx