Jan 2008

Waved a sad goodbye to South America after nearly 5 fantastic months, could have easily spent the same amount of time there again squeezing in the bits we didn't get to see. Will definitely be back though!

We hadn't had any beach time since Brazil, a whopping two months, so decided we deserved a rest and headed to the Cook Islands before New Zealand. Absolutely stunning place, it did rain for almost the entire 10 days we were there though, paradise my arse! Towards the end we had a couple of days of sun which was great, so managed to get a lot of snorkelling done around the island, having a scooter really helped as could zip around Rarotonga quite easily.

Muri beach, Rarotonga

Left Rarotonga and headed to nearby Aitutaki for a few days, we did our usual thing of not booking accomodation - luckily we met the owner of a couple of beach huts on our short flight over and we ended up staying there for three days. It rained pretty much on and off while we were there so no lagoon tour for us ... good job we had enough books to read!

Beach hut, can't complain about the location ...

After 10 leisurely days in the Cooks, we had to pick up the pace for New Zealand to try and do as much as possible in 4 weeks. We took the Magic Bus around the North Island, got herded around a bit but the not having to think / make any decisions bit made a nice change from SA!

The bad weather followed us which meant we couldn't skydive on the North Island but we could do a lot of water based activities! Black Water Rafting in Waitomo was excellent, never thought I'd ever be able to do any form of caving but it turned out to be excellent fun climbing and tubing in caves under the glow-worms.

Next up was White Water Rafting in Rotorua, again, had a great time and really good fun - I nearly cried going over the 7 metre waterfall (apparently the highest commercially rafted in the world) as it looked terrifying and the guides really make you s**t yourself ... we didn't tip over though which was a relief but the amount of water that went up my nose and in my ears it wouldn't have made much difference anyway!

Wai O Tapu Geothermal pools, Rotorua

A break in the rain meant we took advantage of some other quality NZ activites ...
Mini golf - check out the putting action

They shear Angora rabbits here too - look at it's little face!

The sun did come out though the closer we got to Christmas

Had excellent 2 weeks on the North Island, did some great activities including cultural nights and after-dark kiwi hunts ... loved the Magic Bus but now down to the South Island for Christmas and New Year ready to pick up the camper van, good stuff!