Hi Everyone,

As you can see, we're now in Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands. Just to recap what we've been upto in New Zealand:

We rented a car (which had an exhaust that actually stayed on this time) and drove up to Arthur's Pass which is 2 hours out of Christchurch but a world away: we went hiking in snow-covered mountains up to a waterfall called Devil's Punchbowl. This was amazing!! BTW I also ate the best Sausage and Mash ever here!

We also drove over to Banks Peninsula, which is an extinct volcano that over millions of years has filled with water creating a big lake. It is now surrounded by little villages, the largest of which is called Akaroa. This is where the French settled in NZ and the streets all have French signs and names. It was really nice and again, the views along the way were just spectacular. I now understand why people like NZ. On the way back we stopped at a harbour town called Lyttleton where I bought some posh chocs! We also found a pub run by some Crawleys.

We were advised by a girl called Lisa who worked in the hotel bar to go to the Arts Centre. We luckily chose to go at the weekend where in addition to the workshops and shops there's a big craft market. This was really nice. The market itself was really good with lots of clothes, jewellery and (more importantly) food to buy but the workshops and galleries were the best bit. We visited a guy who makes jewellery and ornaments and bought a necklace for Priti that is made of local shells. We also found a bead shop where you can make jewellery. Needless to say, Priti loved it. The Arts Centre is right next to the Botanical Gardens so we also went there which was really nice: especially as the weather was so nice.

We returned to Auckland for one night before leaving for Rarotonga and met up with a guy I used to work with called Stuart who has recently moved to Auckland. Stuart and his cousin Andrea kindly took us to One Tree Hill which is an extinct volcanic cone where only one tree would grow. It has since died but no other tree will grow there so there's a stone monument there instead now. The views over Auckland and the local area were fantastic. Auckland is very green for a capital city. They also took us to Mission Bay which is a nice sea-side town only 10 minutes from Auckland. Thanks to both you guys for a nice afternoon. Afterwards we ate dinner at a trendy bar called Degree on the harbour which was nice. The harbour itself is nice and filled with bars and restaurants: kinda how Preston dock should be!!

We arrived in Rarotonga on Sunday after leaving on Monday. Weird, eh? We flew for 3:30 and arrived 20 hours earlier due to crossing the date line. We're staying in a lovely bungalow by Muri Beach which is a beach that is fronted by 3 islands. Find it on Google Earth to see what I mean. It's nice to have our own kitchen for a change rather than sharing with dirty kids! Yesterday we went into town to explore the metropolis that is the Cook Island capital, Avarua. It's a very small strip of shops about 10 mins from our hotel. That reminds me, the whole island is only 31km all the way around. You can drive the circumference of the island in under an hour! That's pretty cool. Today we went on a round-the-island bus just to see what the rest looks like and found the abandoned hotel site and some fantastic beach and mountain views. I think we're going to rent a car or scooter for a couple of days to get about and I might do the cross-island trek.

So now we're off to get some lunch and then chill out.

See you soon.

Love,
Tom and Priti