Final thoughts

7 flights
6 cities
5 modes of transportation
4 countries
3 time zones
2 hemispheres
1 ocean connecting all
25,000 km's flown
All in 16 days!!

It's hard to even try and summarize any more than the above. This trip was amazing, with so many new experiences, new places explored and perhaps even a fear conquered (at least until next time). I tried to think of where this ranks with the other places I've been and I just can't....each is number 1 for its own reasons. This trip definately took me the furthest south I've ever been and also on the longest plane ride with 11 hours and 45 minutes.

I was lucky to have such a great travel partner too, who despite all the travels he does for work still enjoys travelling.

I can thankfully say, that my rule of not going to the same place twice doesn't apply here...there are many more islands in the Cooks to explore and there's always the south island of New Zealand.

The bug is still itchy, so this globetrotter won't rest for long. Until next time....

Last few hours

We had about half a day in Auckland before we needed to head to the airport for the journey back to YVR. It was June 1st, and the Queen's (Victoria) birthday in New Zealand, which makes it a statutory holiday. We found out at breakfast that on statutory holidays, you get charged a 15% surcharge on anything you buy. That was new to us, but thankfully our breakfast spot wasn't charging it. We had breakfast at a restaurant near the hotel called Invito. I had French crepes with blueberries and Ziad had scrambled eggs, streaky bacon and toast. The bacon down there is more like Canadian back bacon, so like a little piece of ham, but streaky bacon is more like the regular bacon we have up here. The things you learn travelling or reading a blog. And of course, don't even ask, we both had a flat white coffee. They would generally decorate it with the Kiwi national tree, the silver fern. We still had one Esquires coupon left, so after breakfast we went and had another flat white. On a great caffeine high we walked around Auckland, through a shopping/cafe district known as Parnell on our way to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It was a wonderful sunny, but windy day. We made it to the museum and spent about an hour there going through its many exhibits. It's an interesting museum and deplicts the many wars New Zealand has been involved in. There is a "suggested" $5 donation at the door. The museum was built on a volcanic fault, which is kinda freaky if you really think about it. It is located on a hill and has a great view of the city. It was a great place to visit with the time we had left.

Our walk back to the hotel took us through a nice tree-filled park, but I can't remember its name, and the campus of the University of Auckland. We had $14 kiwi dollars left and wanted to find something to spend this on because we really didn't want to bring this back. Ziad spotted a take-away place called Corner Pancake. It was a little place that sold pancakes that were stuffed with various things like ham and cheese, beef, brown sugar and peanuts. Ziad thought this was the coolest thing ever and there were a bunch of people standing by it waiting for their pancakes, which is always a good sign. So for $2 Ziad got the sweet pancake (brown sugar and peanuts). I wasn't sure about this, but after trying a bite, I'll admit it was quite good.

Off to the airport we went to head back to reality. Our flight back left at 7:30pm Kiwi time Monday June 1st and we arrived back in Vancouver at 9:10pm Pacific time Monday June 1st. I guess I found that day I lost along the way.

Tiritiri Matangi

For the last full day in Auckland, we decided to take a day trip to Tiritiri Matangi. Ziad just couldn't figure out how to pronouce it. This island is an open sanctuary to help ensure the survival of many rare and endangered plant and bird species. It's a must see!! They only allow a limited number of visitors per day and during the busy tourist seasons, this tour sells out quickly. Luckily for us, it was the start of winter and we managed to book it the morning we went. We decided to wait until morning to see what the weather was going to be like. It turned out to be a sunny day for the tour (it started raining just as we got back, but that didn't stop us from having another gelato at the wharf). You have to take a ferry to the island; it's located about 30 km northeast of Auckland and takes about an hour and half. You are advised to bring a lunch with you and water because you cannot buy anything on the island. You also have to take out whatever you bring onto the island. This helps keep unwanted foreign "pests" off the island (but they did let me on!! Hahahaha!!!). This is very important to the conservationists. They ask that you make sure your shoes are clean of any seeds or other things that will be harmful to the island.

The island is 220 hectare and has only over the last 25 years been replanted with native trees to accelerate the natural regeneration of the coastal forest that once lived on this island. It now also provides a rich and varied habitat for the many bird species brought to the island. Between 1984 and 1994, volunteers planted 250,000+ trees to get the regeneration started after many years of farming that stripped the island of its natural vegetation.

We booked the guided walking tour, but you can walk the trails yourself if you like; you can buy a map for $1 on the ferry ride over. Our guide, Derek, was great. He had a junior guide with him as well who was quite impressive with his knowledge and communication skills given his young age of 15. It's a good idea to take the guided tour because the guide will point out the various plant and bird species that you'll otherwise miss. Our nature walk took us up the Wattle Track to the lighthouse and ranger station. Our day was shorter than usual because the weather forecast was calling for high winds in the afternoon, so the ferry was going to leave the island earlier than normal. Otherwise we would have been able to take one of the other trails around the island. The Wattle Track took about an hour and a half with the guided tour. We got to see a bunch of different plant and bird species. While we didn't get to see the elusive spotted kiwi, probably because it's a noctural bird, we managed to see the saddleback, takahe, stitchbird, whitehead and parakeet to name a few. We also got the see the back of one of the blue penguins which are common to the area; it was hiding under one of the walkways and no one was quite sure why it was there and not in the water where it belongs. Walking through the forest just hearing the birds calling, seeing them flying and perched on trees was so cool and made the walk that much more enjoyable. The trail was quite scenic to begin with, but just being there experiencing nature like that was breathtaking. Along the way there are bathing stations for the birds and some feeding stations to help some of the birds get the full nutrients they need while the plant species still mature. These were great spots to see the birds up close and personal.

When we got to the lighthouse, I was so amazed by the view down to the ocean. It was just so awe-inspiring. We were warned before we got to the lighthouse, which was our lunch spot to watch out for the takahe bird (see picture above). This guy was not shy at all and would try and steal your lunch if given the chance. You really had to be watching or your lunch would be gone. And you're not allowed to feed the birds; it interferes with the purpose of this sanctuary. After lunch we ended up walking down the same trail we came up only because of time constraints. It was just as beautiful.

The tour itself cost $66 each and another $5 each for the guided tour. It was definately worth it and I know that I have not done it justice in this post. So much is really indescribable...it's nature at its finest and most natural. It just has to be experienced...so just do it!!

Devonport

There are a lot of half-day or day trips and tours you can take from Auckland. Due to our limited time there, we had to choose carefully what we wanted to see. The decision was difficult, but we chose to take the ferry over to Devonport one morning. Devonport is a historical maritime village nestled on Auckland's North Shore. It is a short 10 minute ferry ride from the downtown harbour. We got a good tip from the i-Site visitor centre staff to buy the day pass for $11 which would include the ferry ride to and from Devonport along with unlimited on and off options on the Link-line bus. It was a great deal. The Link-line bus is Auckland's green energy bus and has a route around the city that takes about 45 minutes to ride.

We started off the day by grabbing our now daily flat white coffee at Esquires Coffee and a muffin each. As I mentioned in a previous post, you have to get the tourist books at the airport because they contain some valuable coupons. We managed to get four 2 for 1 coupons for Esquires and so this became our coffee shop in Auckland. Good thing we had the coupons because our flat whites were not cheap in my opinion.....$5.90 for a regular size. To be honest, they weren't the best flat whites (we experienced way better ones in Wellington), but we had the coupons so what the heck. They also had free one hour wi-fi access if you purchased something there, so that made Ziad very happy. The muffins were really good too. And you could find an Esquires just about anywhere, just like Starbucks here.

So after eating our delicious muffins and downing our coffee, I was able to get on with the day. We walked over to the ferry and hopped on for our short ride across the harbour. It was quite windy on the ferry ride as the picture shows. When we arrived we started walking towards the town centre and I found a pour little lost crab on the road which Ziad rescued and brought back to the sea. Our good deed for the day.

We started walking around and decided we'd climb (not really climb) up Mt. Victoria and check out the views of Devonport, Auckland and surrounding areas from the top. The views were quite magnificent and looking towards Auckland you could see the "eye-sore". You could also see so many boats and sail boats in the water; obviously a huge pastime for the Kiwis. We descend from Mt. Victoria along this path that I really thought was a private path and would lead to someone's backyard, but Ziad was right and it didn't. We ended up not too far away from a beach area, but it being the start of winter there, it wasn't really swimming or sunbathing appropriate. We did test the water and it was cold. So I gathered a few cool sea shells and we went on our merry way in search for a lunch spot.

We ended up having lunch in the centre of town at a place called Devonport Stone Oven Bakery & Cafe. It was a great lunch spot...kinda reminded me of a Bread Garden. I had fetticine with spinach, garlic and sunroasted tomatoes and Ziad had the chicken and corn soup. Both were fabulous, hardy and quite filling. Across the street from this restaurant was a little local fruit and vegetable store and we saw they were selling kiwis (the fruit, not the people) in bags of about 10 for really cheap...69 cents for a bag of green kiwis and 99 cents for a bag of yellow kiwis. We couldn't resist and we bought a bag of yellow kiwis. New Zealand doesn't use the penny, but yet they still price things like they do and just round up, or down in some cases. Regardless, 10 kiwis for a buck is unheard of back home so it was a no-brainer. And boy did they ever taste GREAT!! They are a little sweeter than the green ones. Fabulous! I was sad we didn't buy two bags. I was like a little kiwi-monster, I went through withdrawal when the bag was empty. It was such a treat too because I had never tasted yellow ones before. I don't think we get them in Vancouver. And even the green kiwis we buy in Vancouver don't taste the same. I guess I'll have to go back one day....

After lunch and the steal of a deal kiwi purchase we decided it was time to head back into Auckland as the weather was starting to turn on us....by the time we got off the ferry, the sky had opened up and it was raining really hard. This didn't stop us from stopping in at the Gelato shop by the ferries though and buying a couple ice cream cones. Hey, don't judge, it kept us out of the rain and dry!! :) Once the ice cream cones were devoured...OK, it was just me that devoured it, Ziad is good at savouring so I had to sit impatiently and wait, we decided to make use of our day pass and took a ride on the Link-line bus. We took it around its entire route and it was a neat way to see part of the city especially in the rain. We ended the day back at the Middle East Cafe for dinner. :)

Auckland

We made it to Auckland without any issues; it's only an hour flight. We arrived on a Friday late afternoon. Ziad had booked a shuttle using his iPhone while we were hanging out at LAX at the start of this adventure that would take us from the airport to our hotel. We stayed at The Quadrant which is located only about 3-4 blocks away from downtown Auckland and its main shopping street, Queen Street. It's also across from the University of Auckland campus. The Quadrant is a chic, modern, funky hotel. Ziad got a smoking deal at this hotel. We checked in and head right back out again to start exploring. We walked around a little to get our bearings and found a little restaurant called The Middle East Cafe. We ended up having dinner there and it tasted really good and was reasonably priced. I liked it so much that I made sure we went back the next day to eat there again. Afterwards we walked around some more and found the Sky Tower. You can't miss this magnificent tower in Auckland's skyline. It's 328 metres tall and is the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere. You can actually see it from pretty much anywhere in Auckland, so it's a good landmark if you're ever unsure where downtown is in relation to where you are. It's big, it's concerte and I actually thought it was quite an eye-sore and that was its name for the rest of our time there. We didn't go up it because any time we gave it some thought it was overcast and we felt that would impact the view, so why spend the money? Ziad thought about bungy jumping from it, but it cost quite a bit even with the coupon we had and the weather never seemed right.

We did take in some live theatre that evening. Ziad found a play called "The Scene" while he was looking through one of the many brochures we got at the airport and thought it would be something we'd both enjoy. Was he ever right about that one. When we got to the theatre to buy tickets, we were told it was opening night so all tickets were sold out to mainly family, friends and famous people, but to come back about 15 minutes before the show started to see if there were any no-shows. So we did and ended up getting front row seats. The play was fabulous. It was very funny, entertaining and the acting was great. As for these famous people in attendance...I didn't recognize any of them.

First impressions of Auckland: definately a big city - I felt you needed to be more aware of your surroundings; very hilly - you can really get a workout walking around; city is quite young which can been seen through its architecture - quite modern, lacks character, has no rhyme or reason to styles. I also noticed that people seem to be allowed to drink on the streets in certain areas. That's a very foreign concept to me, but seems to be common in some cities around the world.

After Katherine dropped us back in downtown Wellington we had a little time before things started closing so we decided we'd hit one more museum before leaving Wellington behind for this trip. We went to the Museum of Wellington and Sea. This museum is all about the history of Wellington City specifically. It had some really cool stuff in there to do with the history; as an example they had a yearly "major" news story from when Wellington started to present. It was neat to see how people lived back in the 1800's and even the early 1900's. Things sure have changed, just thinking we can fly to New Zealand in 14 hours non-stop whereas back then you'd be on a ship for weeks. Once we were done at the museum we dropped off the bottle of wine Ziad bought and the bottles of olive oil and head out to find some dinner. Neither of us were hungry for a big meal, so we thought something light, perhaps take-away and head back to the hotel to relax and pack for our next flight. We found this Indian restaurant called Satay Indian Cuisine about 3 blocks from the hotel. They had a great special on that night: $10 curry dishes and that came with rice and nann bread. The portions were a little smaller than a regular dinner portions, but is was just enough for what we were looking for and it taste great too. I had Chilli Chicken and Ziad had Butter Chicken.

The next morning we had a couple hours befor having to head to the airport for our 5th flight on this trip. We had an overpriced breakfast at Mr. Bun Cafe...$25 for toast and scrambled eggs for Ziad and toasted bagels with sliced tomatoes for me and we each had a flat white coffee. For the quantity and quality the price was steep in my opinion. After breakfast we head over to an area called Mount Victoria, which has nice views overlooking the city. We continued on to the War Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Solider, which represents some 9000 unknown fallen Kiwi soliders. This is located by Massey University. We spent a little time looking around the memorial before heading back to the hotel. Along our way back, we stopped at a place we found a little earlier in our stay called Chocolate & Coffee Cafe. Two of my favourite things in one!!! Of course we had to check it out...helps that Ziad loves chocolate too. We sampled some different chocolate flavours like sea salt, lemongrass, lemon and black pepper....okay so you're probably thinking, why would anyone eat those combinations?? Well, so was I and I don't have an answer. We did buy a couple bars of ones we liked.

Off to the airport for our last real stop before heading back to Vancouver, reality and work....ugh!

Martinborough

We had planned to visit some of the wine country and Katherine graciously offered to drive us. This gave us the chance to hang out again as well, which was really great. Thankfully my bout with whatever I had the day before was gone. We had seen this interesting restaurant called FInc (Food Incorporated) down the street from the hotel on one of our walks and decided it would be great to try it for breakfast before Katherine came to pick us up. This place was great. I had ricotta and blueberry hot cakes with a berry compote while Ziad had French toast with Canadian (can you believe that?) maple syrup, bacon and haloumi cheese. Of course we both had a flat white coffee as well. The food was awesome, the atmosphere really cool and the staff great. Highly recommend this place if you're ever in Wellington. It's located Wakefield Street if I remember correctly. Our total bill came to $40 and was worth it!

We had a little time after breakfast still so we went back to Te Papa Museum so I could see some of the exhibits I missed the day before. It's quite an interesting museum with lots to see and it's too bad that I didn't have much time to explore it more. It's here that I learned that New Zealand is a relatively newly settled country with the first settlers coming from the Polynesian Islands somewhere between 700 to 2000 years ago. I really like learning these types of historical facts about places I visit. I also learned that the Kiwi Maori's have a slightly different dialect than the Cookie Maori's. The Kiwi Maori's say Kia Ora (hello) whereas the Cookie's say Kia Orana, which I think sounds better (sorry Katherine).

Anyway, the drive to Martinborough was about two hours through some very scenic lush green valleys and mountainous ranges. The road is very windy. It kind of reminded me of the Sea to Sky highway, except we didn't end up in Whistler. Along the way, we had to pull over because a herd of cows was making their way up the road either on their way to get milked or on their way back. They literally took over the entire road, traffic had to pull over in both directions. It was quite a scene, something I've never experienced before. We sat there for a good few minutes before the road was clear to drive on again.

When we arrived, we decided to visit Tirohana Estate for a little wine tasting and lunch. Unfortunately it was between growing seasons and so the vines were bare, but it was quite picturesque nonetheless. Another thing I learned was that New Zealand is known for their Pinot Noir wines. We tasted some wine, Ziad tried their Pinot Noir while Katherine and I tried the Chardonnay. I quite liked the Chardonnay, but didn't have much more than the taster glass because I still wasn't 100% sure if I would feel sick again. Ziad liked the Pinot Noir so much that he bought a bottle. In fact there is a cool story behind the bottle he bought. The 2007 vintage was just about ready for harvest, when bad weather hit and practically ruined the entire crop. They managed to salvage what they could and ended up producing and bottling only 100 1/2 litre bottles and Ziad now owns one.

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day while we were there so we had lunch on their outdoor patio. Lunch was amazing. I had cream of tomato soup with fresh bread, Ziad had lamb shank with veggies and Katherine had Italian meatballs with a green salad. The food all tasted so fresh and home-cooked. The meal was capped off with some dessert. It was all just such a wonderful experience and the sunshine just made it all that much better. The staff at the vineyard was very attentive, knowledgable and very friendly. Our lunch bill came to $90, which included Ziad's glass of Pinot Noir. Very reasonable in my opinion for the quality of food served.

We didn't want to ruin this experience so we decided not to visit any other vineyards. Instead we stopped back in the town at the wine centre before heading back into Wellington. Again, something I did not know about New Zealand is that they are also an olive oil producing country. They not only sell regular olive oil, but also different infused oils. I purchased a bottle of lemon infused olive oil for myself (no I haven't had a chance to try it yet). Katherine dropped us off back in Wellington and we said our good-byes. I was sorry that it was time for this, but we'll keep in touch. It's now her turn to visit Vancouver.

Wellington continued

I'm not sure if it was the drinks the night before (only had one Guinness and two glasses of wine) or perhaps my meal wasn't as good as it tasted or perhaps the travelling caught up to me, but I was KO'd for most of the day after we arrived in Wellington. To this day I can't figure out what caused it, but I felt weak, felt sick to my stomach, couldn't really eat and had one of my famous headaches, which probably was causing all the other symptoms. To spare any unnecessary details, let's just say I had to stay in for most of the day. This was very unfortunate because we only had 3 days....I tried really hard in the morning to go to Te Papa Museum (the national museum) with Ziad, but just didn't have the energy to walk and so he walked me back to the hotel and went back himself. Great thing about museums in New Zealand is that they are free!! They do ask for donations to keep them free, it's great. He said the museum was really great and I did eventually get to see a very small part of it the next day. Still wasn't feeling well when he returned, so he decided it was time to go for a run along the seawall, so off he went. He came back from his run with a fresh smoothie and had considered getting me one called "Move Over Hang Over". :) I was still trying to finish the beer he brought me in the morning....GINGER beer that is. I guess that's their version of Ginger Ale. It really tastes good and has little pieces of ginger in it. I have to find out if it's sold around here (mental note made).

I finally mustered up some energy mid afternoon and off we went to the cable car which we took up to the Botanical Garden ($5 return). There are great views of the city from up there. We walked around there for a while and went into the Cable Car Museum. It seems like a popular place for walkers and I'm sure it's absolutely stunning there in the summertime. There are different walking routes/trails around the garden and some of them actually lead you back down into the downtown area. We were told the walk back down would take about an hour depending on your speed. I was still feeling somewhat weak and it was rather cold up there, so we took the cable car back down. I wanted to get back to the hotel so I could just go back to bed, but along our way we did stop at one of those many coffee shops for an overpriced coffee and so I could rest a little. I have to say that Ziad was amazing in trying to help me feel better and make sure I had anything I needed. Because I wasn't feeling hungry whatsoever, I kind of left him on his own to figure out what he wanted to do for dinner. He found the grocery store down the street and brought back dinner for himself, some chicken soup for me and more ginger beer! What a waste of a day...we had plans to go to a bunch of different sites and unfortunately never did get to them in the end because the next day we were heading to the wine country with Katherine and then it would be off to Auckland.

Wellington

After settling into the hotel, we decided the best thing to do was just get to exploring. No need to rest. First thing first though....need to unpack and change into some of the warm clothes packed for this leg of the trip. No more warm bikini weather for me...time to layer to keep warm. We walked along the seawall before heading into the tourist centre. The part of the seawall that we walked along had a bunch of plaques which commemorated different wars the Kiwis were involved in. From reading those plaques and from visits to other museums, that the Kiwis were afraid of the Russians invading many, many years ago. It struck me as odd that they would have feared a Russian invasion given the geographical distance between the two. Along our walk we also saw a bunch of modern art and depending on your taste it could be explained as either creative or just plain weird. We found our way to the tourist centre which is called i-Site and found some cool ideas of places to visit during our short trip. We ended walking up to the Parliament buildings to catch the last tour of the day. The tour lasted about an hour and our guide was very informative. The House was actually in session during our visit and we were invited to go watch the session. So after our tour we went to the gallery to watch the circus, I mean parliament session. OK, in reality it was more like watching a bunch of grown adults act like 3 year olds arguing at the playground. It was quite entertaining to see these elected officials continously talk (and "talk" is being used very loosely here) over one another. I'm not sure how any business gets accomplished during these sessions. And unfortunately their parliament system is similiar to Canada's....well you get the picture especially if you've seen our Parliament sessions on TV. These people run our countries and that's a scary thought. BUT, I highly recommend this entertainment if you ever get the chance. It's good for a laugh.

Afterwards we continued walking around trying to see as much as we could before it got dark. Seems as though that started happening around 5pm. We found ourselves on Lambton Quay, which seems to be their Robson Street, only better; much wider sidewalks for people to walk around and it just seemed to be longer. We did recognize a lot of the stores as ones we have here. And yes we did see Starbuck's a few times, but did not spend any of our Kiwi dollars there. Something that all coffee lovers need to know about New Zealand (well at least about Wellington and Auckland) is that you'll never have to go far to find a coffee shop. There seems to be an abudance of coffee shop options. And the best coffee by far is the flat white (a version of the Americano, but the milk is more silky than foamy). AWESOME!! Oh, how I miss those.....hmmmm....OK, back to the blog...

For dinner we met up with my friend Katherine, her daughter Caroline and Caroline's middle son Mathew. For old times sake, Katherine took us to and Irish Pub for drinks where I had to try the Guinness of course. As expected it did not come anywhere near tasting as good as the Guinness in Ireland. We ended up at a different restaurant for dinner and more drinks. It was really fabulous to catch up and to get to know Caroline and Mathew. It was really a lovely evening.

At Home Wellington

So this is the first time that I ever got to experience "losing" a day...somewhere during our flight to New Zealand we lost the rest of Monday (which was looking pretty good in my opinion) and ended up with Tuesday. From Rarotonga we flew into Auckland first before connecting on through to Wellington; the capital of New Zealand. Auckland is situated in the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand, while Wellington is situated in the southern part. I can officially say that Wellington is the furthest south I've ever travelled in the world. Perhaps the South Pole is in the future? We had to clear customs and immigration in Auckland and they are quite particular and stringent on what you can and cannot bring in. They don't want any unwelcome "pests" introduced to their country. And rightly so. Good thing I was able to smuggle in those sea shells from the Cooks without getting caught! :)

Anyway, after a short layover in Auckland where we got to hang out in another one of Air New Zealand's lounges, and I must say this was by far one of the best that we got to hang out at during this trip, we boarded our one hour flight to Wellington. We were greeted by our welcoming committee at the gate when we arrived. Okay, our welcoming committee was actually just one person...my friend Katherine whom I roomed with for 10 days during our Ireland adventure last year. Katherine was actually the main reason we ventured down to Wellington because I knew that I'd be in a lot of trouble if I went to New Zealand and didn't visit her. It was really sweet of her to pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hotel. We did meet up afterwards to catch up, but that will come a little later. Oh, when you land in New Zealand, be sure to pick up the one of the many city specific visitor guides. They contain a bunch of useful information, great tips on places to see, things to do, places to eat and coupons too! (more about that later)

Our hotel was a very nice boutique hotel called "At Home Wellington". It was located about a block away from the harbour and ended up being very conveniently located for us while we explored Wellington. The hotel is owned by a lovely lady named Leanne. She was very friendly and quite cheerful for someone who along with running this hotel was going to school for midwifery. She didn't even get a credit card imprint from us when we checked in. In fact the subject of payment was never brought up until we realized we would be leaving the next day and decided that we better ask about the check-out procedures.

Ziad found this hotel on the internet and what a great find it was. Have I mentioned yet how resourceful he is and how good he is at finding great deals? Our hotels in New Zealand were definately great deals! The rooms at this hotel are apartment-style trying to give you the comforts of home while you're on the road. Each room has a fully useable kitchen with a stove and oven, a tiny but cute dishwasher, fridge and freezer. There were sufficient dishes available for use as well. It even had an all-in-one laundry machine, like the one I have at my home, in the room. One of the cool features, which was a first for me, was that the towel rack in the bathroom was heated so your towels were warm when you went to use them and also dried that much faster. Had it been a little warmer outside, we probably would have made use of the good sized balcony as well, but it was the start of their winter while we were there. This place really had a "home" feeling to it. Leanne told us that by the time we come back for our next visit (does she know something that we don't?) they will also be offering a continental breakfast option. This is something that they felt they were missing ever since the restaurant below them went out of business. We thought it wasn't really necessary because the rooms have a kitchen if you want to store breakfast foods and there are also plenty of other restaurants around where you can get a great breakfast, like FInc. just down the street. There's also a grocery store about 2 blocks away so you really could do a grocery shop for your stay.

I would definately recommend this hotel for anyone going to Wellington. It's a short ride from the airport. On the trip back to the airport after our stay, the taxi only cost $26. The hotel's website is: http://www.athomewellington.co.nz/ for anyone considering a trip there. Tell Leanne we recommended them!!

One last thing about Rarotonga

Before moving on to New Zealand, I totally forgot to make mention of something that is a must visit...every Saturday just outside of the city of Avarua they have the Punanga Nui Cultural Market. It's on from 8am to 11am. We were told that if you didn't get there early, you miss out. Well, have to listen to those that know, right?? Now, when you're on holidays the last thing you want to do is set your alarm clock especially for an early morning....seems like we ended up having a couple of those wonderful, much loved early mornings. Anyway we weren't exactly sure what to expect so we had a quick breakfast at the resort before heading out. We arrived around 9am and quickly found out that we could have just had breakfast at the market as well as lunch if we wanted to stay around. There were lots of different vendors selling all sorts of things like hand-made crafts, clothing, jewellery, and art. Then there was the food sections which had fresh fruit and vegetables and also plenty of vendors selling cooked foods. One vendor was selling waffles with fresh fruit and whipped cream...could've been breakfast. You could also get fresh fruit smooties and I got a tropical one which was made of banana, watermelon, paw paw and cocnut juice. It was quite delicious. Ziad bought a chicken kebab, which was also quite tasty. The locals go here to buy their fruits and vegetables and just hang out and socialize with others. It seems like the thing to do on a Saturday morning as we saw entire families out together enjoying the market and having lunch. There was also live entertainment while we were there....island dancing and drumming. Ziad bought some local artwork directly from the artist who painted the piece. She was quite friendly and we chatted with her a bit. The market is definately worth going to, just don't eat beforehand because you won't go hungry there!

Kia Orana

A few interesting tidbits that I haven't been able to include in the other posts:

The native language on the Cook Islands is Maori. Kia Orana means "hello" and is the easiest phrase to learn. Rarotonga is the capital of the Cook Islands and has a population of about 9,600. For this population size, we were quite surprised to see the number of churches we did. The Cookies are very religious people and we thought it would be need to experience church so on Sunday, we dressed in our best vacation Sunday wear and scootered off to a Cook Island Christian Church. The service started at 10am and was done just after 11am. The Cookies were nicely dressed with some men in full suits. The women wore colourful dresses and generally all wore hats with flowers around the brim. The service had a lot of singning in both English and Maori. The sermon itself was in both languages as well and I think that was done to help all the tourist guests understand what was going on. The church itself was plain inside, but nice. I'd say there were probably about 20 Cookies in attendance and for that little number, man could they sing loud!

The island is lush green, with a tropical rain forest in the centre with mountain peaks. The road around the island is only 32 km. This is definately a place to visit. It is absolutely beautiful! There are so many other islands that form the Cook Islands with the other most popular one being Aitutaki. We considered doing a day trip there, but the weather wasn't cooperating enough for us to risk spending the money to head over there. The resort we stayed at had a sister resort on this island and another option was to split your time between the two. Perhaps next time....hey Ziad still has a valid driver's licence for a year....

Alas our time in Rarotonga came to an end...I had to say good-bye to the beach and say good-bye to the lagoon and fishes. It was a very sad time indeed. The worst part of this was that wake-up was 4am to catch the shuttle to the airport and everyone knows how much of a morning person I am! Even worse was the scheduled wake-up call never happened...but thankfully the alarm clock was set and unfortunately the plane was not missed. Great memories, and awesome pictures to keep those memories alive.

Next adventure started 4.5 hours later, but in actual reality started the next day due to that invisible International Date Line. Next up.....New Zealand.

Cuisine in the Cooks

If you like seafood, then the Cook Islands are for you, particularly fish....if you don't, then not so much. Menu options are rather limited for those, like ME, that aren't so fond of seafood. With the island surrounded by a reef and so many fish living in the lagoon, fish are plentiful and a staple food. The fresh fruit on the island was fabulous and so tasty. It's amazing how different things taste when they aren't transported thousands of km's. Every morning breakfast included fresh fruit like coconut, paw paw, star fruit, bananas, apples, pears, pineapple and grapes. I just couldn't get enough of the coconut and paw paw.

We were told by others who have visited the Cooks in the past to avoid eating at the resort because the food isn't that good and it's overpriced. Well, that's true. We did stay at the resort for two theme nights: "Legends of Polynesia Island" night where we experienced an authentic umu feast and "ura" (hula) show. This was a good night, though I felt that some of the food tasted too smokey from the umu. The show after dinner was great and we were treated to island drumming and dancing. I'm still amazed at the ability of the hula dancers and the way they can shake their hips. The other night we participated in was the Island Carvery night and I thought the food here tasted average.

We ate out at a few really great restaurants, which we found through tripadvisor. Handy having that iPhone afterall to look up things even though I couldn't work on my blog. The following restaurants are a must if you visit Rarotonga:

Paw Paw Patch Restaurant - This was about a 15-20 minute scooter ride from the resort. Total bill $82.50 which included a beer for each of us, and a cappuccino for Ziad. I had the Thai Chicken Salad, which the waitress warned me was spicy. It was delicious and spicy so she ended up bringing me a glass of milk to help with that. Ziad had the fish curry which he says was spicy but manageable. We also had dessert which was Paw Paw Brulee which was really tasty. That evening (Thursday) there was also live music which was a nice treat. Two Kiwis playing aoustic guitar and singing. The ambience was great, the staff friendly, the food tasty and the price good!! It was a great way to end the day which started out with a really frustrating round on the golf course.

Cafe Salsa - This is a good lunch spot right in the main town of Avarua. This was the lunch spot after that frustrating round of golf. The food was good, but for the quantity of our lunches I did find it a little pricey. I had a tropical salad with paw paw and a very sweet chocolate milk shake. I can't remember what Ziad had, but I'm sure it involved fish of some sort. And I didn't write down the price of this meal for some reason. Still recommended as a place to try though.

Vaima Restaurant and Bar - This was a short 6-10 minute scooter ride from our resort. Total bill came to $72.80. The atmosphere was nice, and the staff very friendly. Ziad ordered the catch of the day, which was whu (spelling) fish and I had the Cajun Chicken salad. The salad part was great and very fresh. The chicken did not taste cajun at all and was served with the skin attached, so I ended up having to take that off. That was the only draw back for me, but what should I expect if I don't eat the main dishes the island serves? We also had dessert here which was quite lovely...warm chocolate cake with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. We each had a beer as well. I found it funny that I could get a Heineken here for only $5 and the local beer, Matutu which tastes quite good, costs more. I thought this place was pretty good value.

Kikau Hut - Scooter ride was about 10-15 minutes. Total bill came to $73.This place is a quaint place with two resident cats walking around like they owned the place. We were the first guests to arrive that evening and it turns out there were only 2 other sets of dinner that night. Not overly surprising given the amount of restaurant options available on the island. The staff here was friendly and there was live music as well performed by a guy named Julian who sang and played keyboard. The food was really lovely. I had chicken breast (see a pattern forming yet??) stuffed with garlic, shrimp (yes, I eat a little seafood) and cheese. Ziad had the John Dory fish from New Zealand. Ziad thought his meal was excellent even though it was not fresh this night. We both had mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables as our sides. We had chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. This piece of cake was enough for 4 people, not 2.

It is recommended that you make reservations at the restaurants at least a day before. This is most likely done so the owners can gauge how much food to have on hand, instead of thinking that the restaurants fill up each night. There really are a large number of restaurants to choose from. Overall we felt the piece of these meals was worth it especially considering these are all priced in Kiwi dollars and the Canuck buck is currently stronger than the Kiwi.

Golf in Rarotonga

I had to play in a golf tournament a couple days after our trip was over, so we thought it would be a great idea to get some practice in while on vacation. The sun was still playing hide and seek come Thursday so after breakfast (oh yeah, I have to still talk about the food) we decided to head off to the Rarotonga Golf Course. Now, you're probably wondering what kind of course could this been?? A full course, executive course?? Neither. It was more like a pitch and put style, but had some good length holes. Of course I can't relate the distances to any courses I've played back home because they don't measure in yards there...they follow the metric system and boy does that screw one up!! We were able to rent a full set of clubs, a pull cart, balls and tees and shared it between the two of us. I'm not sure if that's standard protocol there or if it was because the course wasn't too busy. It cost us $35 each and we played 9 holes (I'll explain a little later). Their website advertises prices of $20 green fee for either 9 or 18 holes and another $20 to hire clubs plus another $20 for carts. So I think we got a deal.

Even for a tropical island golf course they have a dress code. No jandals (I think they mean sandals) or flip-flops, no boob tubes or singlets (I don't know what either really is), tank tops or bikinis. So appropriately dressed in dry-fit t-shirts, capris for me and shorts for Ziad, socks and running shoes we set off to play a round of golf. Now the course itself has a very scenic background of the lush inland hills of the island. The grass on the course itself was very long which made it challenging to play on the fairways. There are a few obstacles along the way. There are a lot of cables holding up these airwave/radio transmitter towers; at least that's what we think they were and they are situated right in the line of your shots down the fairways. Hit one of those and your ball goes in a completely different direction than you intended. I'm sure they had a rule for if that happened, but I didn't read it nor did we play by it. This was the first time out for both of us this year and Ziad's first time after taking his lessons. I ended up having a very frustrating time because on hole 4 I got stuck in a very steep sand trap and just couldn't get that damn ball out. I had doubled par and was still stuck in there and finally gave up on that hole. Not a good way to play, but I was becoming really frustrated and well everyone knows what I can be like when I'm frustrated. So needless to say I didn't play very well after that. Ziad on the other hand had some really good shots, though on the last hole he had to play off the wrong fairway. In all fairness to him, so did I....both had bad first shots.

So as I mentioned at the beginning the sun was still playing hide and seek. Well, it was a little more than that...on the 5th hole, I started to feel rain drops and then by the time we got to the 6th hole, the sky just opened up and it just started to pour....and pour....and well you get the idea. It probably lasted about 5-10 minutes and then stopped and we were able to resume our game. After this downpour it became extremely humid and it was actually quite uncomfortable and so after playing 9 holes we decided that was enough and scootered off for lunch.

There are a few activites that one can take part in at the resort, but the activities' staff did not do a very good job of promoting them; unlike my last stay in Cuba. People tended to do their own thing at this resort, which is fine. But they have activities like tennis, beach volleyball, foose-ball, table games including two big chess boards, a pool table and of course ping pong. Ziad doesn't believe me when I say I haven't played since Cuba. He thinks I've been secretly practising because he thinks that I'm pretty good. Though I have still yet to win an actual game against him.

When the sun finally did co-operate on our last three days in the Cooks, we hung out at the beach the entire time and spent time snorkelling to cool off from the sun. Yes, I mustered up the courage to go snorkelling and it was amazing. The water is so clear and was at times a little cool, but once you get under it's fine. So with Ziad protecting me through the mazes of coral, we set off to find some colourful fish. It didn't take long at all before seeing them. Actually all you had to do was stick your head under water and they were all around. Yellow, blue, big, little, striped, bright coloured and some not so bright, sea cucumber, parrot fish, trumpet fish, puffer fish...you get the idea. I did even see some purple and pink coral, but very little. There were a few blue starfish hanging on some coral as well. It was just absolutely stunning. Nothing like I've ever experienced before. There was a small school of yellow with black strips fish that kept following us. I think they were rainbow fish. After my initial feeling of panic each time I stuck my head under water, I quite enjoyed myself. The water wasn't deep enough to drown either. Reef shoes are a must though as you can cut your feet open if you're not careful and the shoreline is a little rough with broken shells.

Ziad had an underwater camera, so I really hope the pictures will turn out and hopefully do all the beauty in the water justice. The snorkelling was a lot of fun and a must for anyone who visits this area.

So the resort internet is quite slow and I was trying to use Ziad's iPhone to keep this blog up and for some reason that wasn't working.

Back to Rarotonga...the resort as I mentioned in located on a protected marine habitat. Unfortunately the activity manager, who gave us an orientation tour at the resort doesn't educate the guests much on protecting this habitat. They basically tell you that you are not allowed to fish, but don't say anything about not stepping on the coral. As a result, the coral is all pretty much dead which is really sad because it would be so beautiful. Instead it's all black, and for me, considering I have a fear of drowning, it was scary looking. For some reason I kept thinking that it would attack me or something would swim out of it and attack me. Neither happened thankfully.

The sun decided to play hide and seek for the first few days we were there, so my tan isn't as dark as I would like, but it's a start at least. Cloudy days in the Cooks, just like Cuba, are still much better than a day at the office. On our second day, we rented a scooter and Ziad had to go to the police station and get a Cook Island driver's licence. The cost was $20 and because he already has his class 6 back home he avoided having to take a driving test. His licence is good for one year, so it would make sense to head back here before it expires to get his money's worth. :) Afterwards, because the sun was not co-operating, we decided to scooter around the island after having lunch on the wharf at Trader Jack's. The food was good and reasonably priced. We ended up at some much better restaurants through our stay, which I'll get to later.

Driving around the island doesn't take very long, about 45 to 60 minutes depending on the speed you drive. If you don't wear a helmet you are supposed to maintain a speed of no more than 40 km/h, which of course is difficult to do...so I'll let you try and figure out whether Ziad was able to keep at that speed. Ziad told me we were breaking every safety rule he's every been taught while riding this scooter....we didn't have helmets, wore flip-flops mostly, shorts, t-shirts and of course, no gloves. It wasn't that dangerous though, there is only one road around the entire island which is one-way in either direction and once you figure out which side to drive on, not the side we're accustomed to, then you're fine. Only important thing was to keep your mouth shut, especially during the 6 o'clock hour when the bugs are out or you'd get a little appetizer/protein before dinner. There aren't any traffic lights on the island either, so you don't really get any traffic hold ups unless someone is driving slow and you just end up passing them anyway.

We were searching for a particular beach called Muri beach, which was supposed to be really nice. We ended up finding a really sandy beach and the others at this beach said the snorkelling was really good here. We were trying to figure out exactly where we were and it turns out it was located right next to our resort. We drove all the way around the island in search of a really nice beach and it turns out to be right next door. We could have walked...even funnier we never did go back to it once we figured out the beach right in front of the building we were staying in was sandy, unlike the other half of the resort.

We landed in Rarotonga Int'l airport at 6am after a 9 hour flight. This airport is quite small and can only handle one commercial airplane at one time. The Cookies are quite concerned about the swine flu so we were greeted by the immigration officers wearing masks.
Our resort is quite nice. There are alot of Kiwi's here and I don't mean the fruit! Our first day was full of relaxing on the beach.It's not a sandy beach though. It's more shell-like. The island is surrounded by a reef so the water is quite shallow. I found it a little on the cold side but Ziad went out snorkelling and said it was amazing. Lots of really colourful fishes swimming around. The resort is part of a protected marine habitat, but they don't tell you not to step on the coral.

Rockin' LAX

Well, just hanging out in the lounge trying to catch some zzzzz's before the flight when all of a sudden the entire building shook...never experienced an earthquake before, but LAX got hit by one this evening around 8:40pm...it felt quite powerful with the building shaking for about 10-12 seconds, with a small after shock about 5 minutes later. No time to duck and cover either, it took me a bit to realize what was going on. No one panicked here and everyone is talking about it now...early reports say it was a 5.0 magnitude, nothing on where the epicentre was yet. Not sure at this point what the effect is on flights departing and arriving, but I think I just heard a flight arrive. Not much information on the internet as of yet....

Today is flight day. As everyone always asks me "Where are you off to now?"
Well this trip sees me heading to Rarotonga, Cook Islands for one week and then Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand for another week. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to travel so much. In the last four years I've been to Germany, France, Cuba twice, Ireland, Disneyland, London and now this! And I'm so fortunate that Vancouver and the west coast is where I get to live.
Today started earlier than I had hoped, 4:30am wake up all because I had to go to the bathroom. I managed to fall asleep again, but woke up at 7:30am, probably from the anticipation. I stayed in bed until my alram went off at 8:45am and then all I wanted to do was stay in bed. Mornings just really aren't my thing.
It's a beautiful sunny day today, but I get to spend my day waiting at airports and sitting in airplanes! Let the adventure begin....

Mom and Dad drove Ziad and me to the airport and once we checked in, we walked around the U.S. departures area for a bit. It has been re-done with a bunch of great shops since I was last there. Next stop was the Air canada lounge where we had lunch. It pays to travel with Ziad!! :) Not only is he fun to travel with and explore things with, he has connections. We boarded our non-eventful flight to LAX. I watched "The Reader" and was glad I watched it on a plane because that would have been 92 minutes of my life I couldn't get back. It was a good movie overall, but quite slow at times and probably at least 30 minutues longer than needed to be. We landed in smoggy LAX and as we were about to leave the plane, Ziad was paged by Air Canada and told to meet a personal concierge outside the plane. Rita, the personal concierge, then took us to the Air New Zealand lounge were we get to spend the next 5 hours!! It's a really nice lounge and we're going to get escorted back to the gate when we need to leave. Don't I feel special. Now the waiting begins.....