We must now leave Rarotonga for a week and spend some time an hour north in Aitutaki! Our transport is a small jet - carrying around 30 passengers - and is quite bumpy, especially when hitting the clouds. An Irish pair who stayed at our backpackers are on the same flight and they really don't travel well so this is there worst nightmare - and they're sat behind us! We touch down safely and find Tom, our host for the next seven days. His hostel is very basic but it's the cheapest on the island so it'll be fine!

The food here is extra expensive and there is only limited fresh fruit, meat and veg so we initially find it hard to justify paying the extortionate prices but we do find the cheap fish and chips "cafe's" (much to Sams delight, we cooked proper oven food for two days... chips, beans and burgers!). I guess we'll be eating out a bit then! It's also a bit of a shock to us that the paradise we expected isn't right on our doorstep. Although we're on the beach, it's not that nice and the water is a bit too mucky to swim in. There is a nice resort down the road though where they clean the water and beach to make it attractive and usable so we spend a fair bit of time there. The mosquitos are worse here than anywhere we've been so far and it doesn't help us when its too hot to cover up. Even when laying on the beach the mosquitos are a problem.

We get by just fine though and after a couple of days, Sophie, who we met in Rarotonga meets us and helps us get through it! By then, though, we've got used to our new situation and are getting by just fine. It's not like we haven't had worse though, it's more like we've been so used to having better that we've forgotten where we are! We can now start to appreciate it a little more for what it is now we've adjusted.

One night we went for a few drinks at the local internet cafe/shop/bar which were actually suprisingly cheap (the internet wasn't, it was about £8 per hour which is mad!). There was about 8 of us (the entire guest population of Tom's Beach Cottages!) and we had a good few drinks when we started talking to the locals. After about 30 mins they invitied us to a party and said the party truck would be along soon! 5 minutes later a pick-up truck turned up with other locals aboard and we climbed into the back, unsure of where we were going or who with! It was a twenty minute drive to the "party house" and we spent a good three hours there drinking and mixing with the locals and generally have a really good night. This is what Aitutaki is all about. It's not so much the setting as much as it is the people who live here.

We went on a boat trip to see the 'real' Aitutaki - the lagoon. This is the stuff dreams are made of. The water is crystal clear and shimmering a beautiful blue, the islands are perfect and they are set in perfect waters with perfect trees and sand - it's just paradise! Our boat trip took us to Honeymoon island, which is tiny and idyllic, the two islands from channel 4's shipwrecked, one foot island and all around the beautiful lagoon. It was a perfect day in one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen.

Our last activity on Aitutaki was a visit to the church on sunday morning for more fantastic singing and more excellent food provided by the locals. That evening, we had a take-away and we bumped into one of the guys we were chatting to at the party and he kept us talking for ages about nothing in particular, he was just genuinely interested in our stories! What a great place!

Back in Rarotonga for our last week and, as soon as we landed, Sophie had a great idea that the 3 of us should hitch back to the hostel with all our baggage. The first vehicle that passed us picked us up. He had two spare seats in the front of his van and all his work stuff in the back so i squeezed in the back! When opening the front door to let the girls in i had to catch it again because it almost fell completely off its hinges! I was sat next to "George's" circular saw when he told us that he'd been in prison for 24 years and had "done everything but rape!!!". We were slightly disconcerted by this and he also said that he'd spent 12 years behind bars for burning down a government building! He was a really friendly guy though!!!

We spent a lot of our last 5 days in Rarotonga hitching around and we met some wonderful locals. We went out for a meal to a posh restaurant as a treat and bumped into a honeymoon couple we'd met in Aitutaki and subsequently sent over a congratulatory drink. They were a really friendly couple from New Zealand and chatted to us for ages telling us about their wedding two weeks before in Rarotonga!

We spent much of our last few days relaxing by the beach and in our hillside accommodation and generally winding down before the hustle and bustle of L.A!