Rarotonga.

Muri Beachcomber, Rarotonga. 11:36 AM, 22nd of August, 2010.

Kia Orana! :p Sorry, had to. >.<

We arrived dark and early on Monday the 16th. Customs here in Raro are really relaxed. They’re probably the only airport that will let you take a bottle of water from the plane. The line to get through wasn’t nearly as long as our departure from Calgary. Not even a fifth of the length. Granted, that was departure, this was arrival. When the Sun came up I as ready on the beach to catch it rising behind a small island. We went for a snorkel after the sunny high of the day a bit before noon. The sun seemed to be at it’s peak at around ten in the morning. Sea Cucumbers and sea weed is all there is to look at right where we are on the beach. Evening came and we headed to the resort office to find out what there was to eat nearby as our place didn’t have a restaurant at it like most of the other places do. Four-Hundred meters out the driveway is Miro’s, a small burger joint. So we head there for dinner... Clockwise around the island. I don’t recommend following their instructions at the office to find Miro’s. They had two signs: Four-hundred meters right outside the drive, and four-hundred meters left outside the drive. headed left, Clockwise, disregarding the ‘right’ as meaning ‘close-by...’. So the sign saying left needs to be corrected from four-hundred meters to thirty-one-and-a-half kilometers to the left. We eventually gave up on the left and walked all the way back to the resort, checked the sign(s) again, and tried going right (Anti-Clockwise) this time and found it in four-hundred meters.

Tuesday (17th) was a fairly quiet day for the main part. I didn’t go for a swim, as we ran out of sunblock......... And you really do need it here. Later in the evening, we went to an “Island Night” where we got to eat a bunch of the island food (I was obviously still hungry come the time we headed back to the resort; I’m a picky eater, and braces don’t help any.) there were some people that performed songs and dances and right at the end, they tried to get a few people from the audience to try and dance; they held a competition. (I videoed it.) We headed back to the resort and went to bed... Then course, Yoshi’s ankle pains kicked in. Always count on Yoshi’s ankle pains to keep me up late. I ended up grabbing a pair of headphones and my ipod which only had two songs on it to help me ignore him until he fell asleep. (‘Requiem for a dream’, a well known epic piece of music. And the end section of ‘Kameo Medley 1’, which I cut to the right length because I like it and don’t want to have to listen to a half hour of music before it. :p FG knows what part I’m talking about. ;))

The next morning (18th, Wednesday) we awake to find a notice that the reef-sub-boat we booked to go on, on the 18th, was canceled that day due to stormy weather. That day was the most windy day of our whole trip here I think... Yoshi and Dad hired a sail boat for the day to go around the lagoon that Muri beach is. Mum and I went into town to get fudge. Nom. We needed fudge/chocolate, so yeah. Then we went out to Crown Beach Resort to have indian food for dinner. They have one night a week -wednesdays- where they have asian and indian food. ^_^ However, the butter chicken was probably the blandest butter chicken I’ve ever had... And it didn’t help that night that Yoshi had anc\kle pains and started throwing up at 3 AM. I was up from two AM until five AM then.

19th, Thursday, after hardly any sleep from Yoshi gagging up the bland butter chicken, we found ANOTHER notice that the reef-sub had been canceled. Apparently the weather was even worse than the day before. So it was another quiet day. Until lunch time at least when Tippie and I had a quick little video call. ^_^ *waves* Hopefully next time we can do a longer one. After the call, I ran off to have lunch with the rest of the family, and managed to make it there before the food came out. Later that evening Mum and I took a kayak right out to the reef that divides the lagoon from the ocean. It kinda serves as a protective barrier for the smaller fish, ad it keeps sharks out of the bay and a large portion of the island. We had italian for dinner that night, and thankfully, it wasn’t over-loaded with tomatoes like I realized it could be after I ordered my food.

Friday the 20th HAD to be our most busy and bustling day of the lot. I say this because the reef sub WAS on, and we’d already booked to go on a glass-bottom-boat, lagoon cruise with snorkeling at a marine reserve. 10 AM four hour cruise, 4 PM reef sub. The Cruise was great, a few of crew on the boat brought ukuleles and played island music on the way to the reserve, then we got to see a couple eels, a few blue sea stars, and loads of pretty fish. ^_^ After snorkeling, we all went to an island and they made an island lunch for us. Then they had a coconut show, explaining all the uses of coconuts. Seriously, they let no part of it go to waste. >.<

On Saturday (21st), I woke up to hear the sound of a party being set up at the sailing club next to us. They’d started testing their audio systems. Thankfully I’m not deaf, though Yoshi will say otherwise- (actually, he’d claim I’ve always been. I have selective hearing. It works fairly well when he pesters me, until he gets mad and starts blaming me for all his problems. <_<)>.< $15 per person buffet is pretty good though. :p

Now we have today, Sunday. The entire island shuts down on sunday it seems. A bit like New Zealand at the end of the year with Christmas. We went out driving for a long time to find somewhere that was actually open for breakfast. After a long time, we managed to find somewhere.... somewhere with cold french toast that’s hard to chew. <_<

But until next time, this is Icey, disappearing through the screen layer. ;)