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!