Tom is in Rarotonga!!!! Made it!!!! Despite a fair few times when it didn't look to be the case.

This is such a good place to (almost) end this trip. Basically paradise, with awesome people and such a relaxed feeling island. I've had an excellent week here (was so good to leave cold, rainy Auckland behind). Arrived at Rarotonga's shed of an airport with a guy playing ukele and instantly loved the island. THere is a big (extinct luckily) volcano in the middle, a continuous beach and then a big lagoon with coral reefs all around the island. The huge waves of the Pacific break on the reef so the lagoon is always calm and bright blue.

I'm staying at Varas in a dorm which is about 3m to Muri beach. The people really make this place - on the first night we all squished into a bus and went to the Whatever club/bar in town (one of about 3 proper bars on the island) and soon met everyone. Everyone here is British which is a little strange.

Next couple of days we all chilled out on Muri and explored the little uninhabited islands out in the lagoon. Then me and Charlotte did a scuba dive, becuase I'm addicted I think, and I saw an eagle ray and a SHARK! It was resting on the seabed so we got within about 2m of it, then it swam around a bit. It wasn't more than 2m long though but it was still pretty cool (twas a reef shark, which look a bit scary). Next day the weather sucked so we had the silly idea of cycling around the island. 24 miles later we had very sore arses and had discovered Rarotonga is deceptively big :). Then came more beach and slight bit more sunburn.

Yesterday I went snorkelling around a reef in the lagoon and saw a boxfish and a trumpetfish which both made me choke laughing. Then last night we had a pub crawl of all three bars and danced with the locals in Whatever and got so drunk. Vara was not very happy at all. Today it is time for more beach and sun and hopefully the annoying dog that kept placing stones on our backs yesterday will have found something better to do :). I like having the only problems an annoying but friendly dog and a mild hangover; beats food poisoning and Indian rail systems! Looking very forward to seeing you all in 2 weeks or so (that's going to be a shock).