Fun in the Sun....

My favorite tree here...the Flame Tree..and yes those are all flowers!!

Kia Orana!!


Time is flying by here for us. We have officially passed our 1 month mark....two more to go, and that doesn't seem nearly enough! The thought of going home creeps up every now and then....but we quickly changed the subject to more important things....like what time low tide is or something like that! (Which by the way is VERY important...low tide is the best time to find lost jewelry on the beach!)



Christmas Party in the Lagoon



It's Christmas time here in the Islands....it's funny to hear them talk about summer and Christmas at the same time. No complaints here!! Trevor and I pretty much get a default invite to all the holiday parties or events that Paul and Jane (the resort owners) or Chrissy ( the restaurant manager) go to. Last Saturday we went to the Padling Club's Christmas party on one of the little islands accross the lagoon. It was such a great time....everyone brought their kids and there was delicious food. It was neat to see all the kids playing in the water...basically unsupervissed. They're all half fish I'm sure....I can remember not being allowed to go into the lakes past my knees!!! haha It was a beautiful day just hanging out in the lagoon and metting a lot more of the locals. Next up is the staff Christmas party here....again all the families are invited...so if anyone can make it I'm sure I can reserve a spot : ) This one will be held here at the restaurant on site,, so we are looking forward to that.

 
 

Creature searching in the ocean...

We also had some guests arrive!!!! It was a short visit, only a day and a half, but we packed in all the activities we knew of.  Larry, Laurie and their son Ben, the owners of where we live out at Hubbles Lake  made a pit stop here en route to New Zealand where they are meeting up with another one of thir sons. We picked them up bright and early at the airport and took them on a speed tour guide of Rarotonga. We showed them the island...only a 45 minute drive around the whole thing! We went snorkling....somewhat of an experience for me....I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually! The guys took some kyaks out into the lagoon and explored an island and a shipwreck....we had some great (as always) island fish.....stopped at the local ice cream spot for some of the best ice cream in the world I'm sure....Kiwi is my new fave! It was really nice to see some familliar faces, and especially nice to be able to share some of our favorite things here with people from home! They were sad to go....but we have a sneaking suspicion that they will make it back to Rarotonga.

 

Every night of the week one resort puts on a cultural Island night. We finally made it to one with a couple that was staying accross the lawn from us from New Zealand....Kylie and Dan...good peeps, we will miss them too! We went to the Highland Paradise Island night. It was really neat, situated up in the mountains with an unbelieveable view down to the ocean. We ate buffet style with all traditional island fare. It was delicious!!! The show was great too....traditional dance and costumes as well as the story of how the Maori lived before the Christian Missionairies came to the Island. A great show with great music, dance, food and new friends. It's an absolute must if any of you ever make it here!

We're missing everyone from back home....hope the Holiday preparations are going well and that the cold isn't too bad. We met a mother daughter team from Edmonton last night at the table next to us at our restaurant here on the resort. Edmontonians officially made up 50% of the guests at that point! They assured up that it wasn't too bad back there....although they seem to be getting the same "hate-mail" from home with wished of sunburns and choking on fish bones ; ) He He

.....oh and I know...I know....don't worry I wasn't going to forget. Sampson is still going strong. He's been a little more absent lately....but I have a sneaking suspicion the neighbours were feeding him better food than us! But they're gone now...so he'll have no choice but to chill with us again! Meeeowwww!

That's all for now.....signing out from the South Pacific....

Kia Manuia (May good fortune shine on you)

Happy December!!

It's been another eventful week here in Rarotonga!

Last time we left you we were just entering the "Big Event"-Vaka Eiva is the biggest outrigger paddling event on the island. Teams from all over were here to compete in the week long event. The town was a BUZZ and there was stuff to do everywhere. The owners of our resort are paddlers and Paul even came in 3rd on one of the mens events! Chrissy our restaurant manager also did VERY well in here women's events. Last year she was the first local to finish in one of her big events. As you can see...we are VERY proud of our friends!! : )

We've been making some great friends here. Frances and his wife take us to all the good local spots. We went for the best fish and chips on the island at the Fishing Club, where Trevor and Frances kept getting their butts kicked at pool playing against one of the local Doctors. Dr Carmen Pool Shark as he is now known to us!

The worst part about being a long-term stay at a resort is the fact that every week our friends leave us!!! : ( It's especially hard to say goodbye to all the little kids! Our play buddies in the pool up and leave us at the end of every week! We've had some good times and have got some great new iPod games thanks to the wee ones!! Here's a pic of some of them playing by the pool. What a better way to entertain both the kids and adults than with good old fashioned Crab races! That's what they were doing here with about 7 little crabs they collected off the beach.

Slowly but surely we are figuring out the best places to eat on the island. Trev's favorite is Palace Burger, where they serve the biggest burger on the island. Everywhere has great food we are deffinitely getting spoiled with that! The fish dishes are the best. Ika Ma'ata is my favorite from our restaurant in the resort. I think today we are stopping by the fish store to pick up some fresh caught tuna for steaks tonight...Mmmmmm.

....As you can imagine, i'm very busy here and have to get on with my day. I think on deck is watching the plane land from New Zealand ( a favoritre local thing cause you stand at the end of the runway and it looks like the plane is going to land on your head!!! Watch out for the jet blast though!!)...I've got to go to the book store to see if they have any good reads and probably some pool time!!!

I'll sign off with this video of a guy here getting some coconuts for us to drink....which we did later...with just a "splash" of Island rum!! (vid upload didn't work..sorry...upload speeds here are too slow...but I'll save it for home : ) )

Oh and don't worry about Sampson....he's doing well...feeding off our leftovers and I even saw him catch a mouse or rat (I try not to think about the latter). He's living a cats dream for sure!

Hope it's warming up there....we've been entertaining people with tales of the north and the daily wind chill estimation!

Wish you were here!!!!

C & T Hunzo!

LAX to RAR

We made it!!!


Kia Orana!! (This is the traditional Maori Greeting)

Breakfast by the pool....our usual spot! : )



After a rather loooong drive to LA....thanks to the mass Exodus of Californians heading back to the LA "rat-race" after their weekend partying like rock stars in Vegas!!! We did get caught in a few traffic jams and even came to a complete stand still at the Fruit InspectionStation on the California Border. Other than that we had a nice drive through the Mojave Desert, with PLENTY of time to spare before our flight.

I was expecting a lot more from LAX, it was no nicer than the Saskatoon terminal though. We did have one Celebrity Sighting. (with assistance from our Celebrity Correspondant Melissa Rizzuto!!) We saw Neal Mcdonaugh....who is that you ask....he was in Tropic Thunder, Desperate Housewives for a bit and will also be in the upcoming Captain America. A nice fellow from what we overheard. It was one of those moments when you think it's someone you know....but you just can't place them. In this case...we didn't know him...we had just seen him on TV! haha

Our flight was very comfortable, we had a great meal and best part....Free Booze!! Even better than that...they had on-demand Dixie Chicks!!! Whooo!

Our landing was smoothe and we were finally free to get off the plane. Then it hit us....the heat and HUMIDITY! Woah it was major! Even hard to breathe at first! We were met at the airport by the driver from the resort, Margaret and off we went. It was about a 15 minute drive from the airport to our resort. Rarotonga is actually indescribable. There are more trees flowering the most beautiful flowers than anywhere I have ever seen!!! It's so lush and dense! It will take a while to get over the natural beauty here.

Our accomadtions are great. We have our own stand alone bungalow....#8 for now. From our kitchen window we can see straight into the Lagoon....Very Beautiful. We have been spending our time getting settled and comfortable. We have arranged for a scooter rental for the duration of our stay....it was delivered to the resort the other day for us. Very cute. We both went to the Police station in town where we were issued our very own official Cook Islands Drivers License. Picture card and all! I even got designated to drive the scooter without having to take the special test! An, advantage to having the card printer break down and coming in the next day with big line-ups!! We also have been to the supermarket and local "get-whatever-you-need-here" store and have stocked up on all the pool floaties we will need. Although, here floaties are only for kids, if you're an adult on one it's called a "lie-low". Makes sense! haha

We are slowly picking up on the Aussie/New Zealand venacular. Like ordering a flat white coffee rather than a double double! We have also adopted another cat. Apparently Trevor likes all cats except for mine!!!! Sampson is his name, (given to him by the resort, not us) and he likes $12 hot dogs that Trevor has decided Sampson will like more than me!! Ha Ha Luckily I don't mind! : )

Sampson, the best fed cat on the island!

So far so good, the weather has been good and the food even better! We have a daily routine of floating around the pool and then off to town, back to the pool and then dinner. So far enjoying every minute!

On deck for tomorrow, we are going to one of the biggest events of the YEAR!!!! We're going to the boat races!!!!! Teams are here from all over the world for the event, so stay tuned!!!!!

XOXOXOX

C and T

Trev...chillin for once!!!

Bungalow # 8 our home sweet home!!!



sideways view down to the lagoon from our breakfast table.



National Finals Rodeo....or sometin' like it!!!

So...tonight we went out for dinner with our good friend and realtor David Fuller and his wife Monica! They have a place that you would not believe unless you were in it, and they have become more like family than anything else here in Nevada!!



After dinner, we (surprise surprise!!) hit the Roulette and Blackjack tables for a bit of entertaiment. We had read that it was the National Finals Rodeo, although that didn't seem normal since we had thought that was a few weeks later. Upon closer inspection of the name of the rodeo, we saw that it was the 'INDIAN National Finals Rodeo'....and all of a sudden it made sense, since we saw FAR more Alberta Plates than Nevada Plates on the cars in the parking lot!! Plus made us understand why we felt like we were sittingin the Stony Plain Casino rather than the Las Vegas one! Here is a pic of a very friendly Blackfoot indian we made friends with  from Calgary!!

All in all it was a great time and a good ending to our trip to Las Vegas since we will be heading to the Cook Islands right away. We will let you know when anything else happens!!

xoxox

~C~

Next Stop : Rarotonga...

Cook Islands Flag

Everyone seems to be pretty curious about our next 'hunzo-venture'. To clear the air.....we are headed to The Cook Islands!!! The main island of Rarotonga to be exact. We leave on Sunday from LAX and won't be returning back to Vegas until Feb 26th. We are REALLY looking forward to this trip. Trevor has been once before, so we were lucky enough to already have a good idea of what to expect. He had checked out a few of the resorts when he was there and we will be staying at the Muri Beach Resort. Click the link if you want to check it out. Also, you can get the Coles notes on the cook islands by checking out the Cook Islands Wikipedia site, a one stop shop for all vital info on the Islands in 90 seconds!



Muri Beach is on the bottom right where the 3 smaller islands are!



Viva Las Vegas!!

....Ok I suck, I admit it...my commitment to this blog lasted for 2 posts!! ARGH!!!

Please forgive me and continue to read. I've re-commited to updating this especially since on our next journey there will be what is being described to me as "limited internet access"!! I don't know how I'll cope with that!!

Ok...so here it goes...Post # 3!!

Las Vegas Part Deux....


Hunzos...Home sweet Home in Las Vegas 2010

 We finally made it back to Vegas under the wonderful driving skills of  Trevor Baker! We left on a cloudy day from Fort Saskatchewan (Thanks for the free rent Mom and Don!!!) We decided to be very aggressive in our trek and made it all the way to.....Calgary Alberta! Opting to visit with some good friends instead of continuing on to the border...thanks for the bed Kathleen and Chad! Although their "street cred" (questionable as it is) may not be as high as it was before they were seen out in public with Trevor Baker in Crocs!! We had a great time with them and look forward to many more nights like that!

A late start the next day, we drove until we could drive no longer, down to Helena Montana.....but alas, the town would not have us. There was a Montana teachers convention in town and not a Vacant room to be had....just Trevors Luck : ( so on we went to Butte Montana for a lovely stay at another Classy Motel 6!

We must have been eager to make it to Vegas because we only slept till around 4AM and were pounding the pavement by 5......a long 12 hours later we were pulling into Las Vegas.....Home sweet home!


One of Trevor colleagues, (the one and only Terry Jantz from Edmonton) came to visit us over the Halloween Weekend. We had the place ready for all kinds of Trick or Treaters....too many apparently because we still have bags of candy left! Not that anyone is complaining about that! I also carved some pumpkins for the first time in YEARS! It took quite a while, but the final outcome was pretty good I think!




My Punpkin Creations!!



The Sculptor hard at work...



It was nice to have some company, we got to re familiarize ourselves with this great city.  We got in all the good touristy things that one needs to see on a trip to Vegas.....Some Outlet shopping in Primm, the Beatles Love show at the Mirage,  people watching on the Balcony at Mon Ami Gabi, a trip to the brand new Clark County Shooting Park,  a drive to the Red Rock Canyon, our favorite...Bowling....and a picture taking extravaganza down Las Vegas Boulevard. It was a jam packed 3 days, but a lot of fun had along the way!



Christie and Terry @ Red Rock Canyon



Clark County Shooting Park



.....Stay Tuned for more fun!!

Jeopardy....

....Nothing makes me happier than beating Trevor at Jeoplardy...it makes him mad...and I know he's mad when he starts eating leftovers.

...I write this as Trevor sits beside me feverishly eating pasta from two nights ago...

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

It is our first Friday night of the "winter" season, Friday night date night...movies, 20/20, wine, proschutto and Brie....does it get any better than this??

Although we miss the lake dearly, and our family we made there...it feels good to be home.

:)

Stay tuned....

Christie.