And then onto Rarotonga………..wow, what a place!

Thanks to Lyn at Cost Vacations for this one……………what a bonus to be able to touch down in the Cook Islands en route to NZ!   The lovely Kiwi steward gave us a parting gift from the plane of a bottle of bubbly and we arrived to a Cook Islands musical welcome….yeah! 

   NY day at our Scots run hotel was celebrated in pure Scots style with a mush of potato and corn beef hash – surprisingly yum....oh, and more bubbly.   Check out the photos for how beautiful the island is – we say GO!  It’s a wonderfully chilled destination, with delightful people and a great Christian heritage.  We snorkelled, sunbathed, watched incredible sunsets, mopeded the full circle of the island, drank fizzy pop and just ENJOYED.  Shame we only had 3 days.....but we'll be back!

The main peak of Raro, with our hotel (Castaway Beach Villas) in the foreground.

Fitting in with the local custom for hair accessories

The view from the centre of the island down to the coast and reef beyond.

Arty sunset island paradise shot....nice one Fill!

Early morning read.

Hey team!

Beautiful bougainvillea (excuse the spelling!)

Phil's arty coconut shot .

Chillin'

A hello handstand to all our fellow handstanders out there...Matt, Caz, Dad! (Joey is still in handstand surgery...[Ed - to reattach her leg!])

The lagoon at the south of Rarotonga

Can’t quite get away from being a teacher – this is one of my students from last year at EGGS - Sieni, who we bumped into over there.  She is from Rarotonga so I guess not overly surprising to see her!

Finally, Fill gets to drink his coconut!

Cook Islands dancing.

Ahrr! [Ed - one assumes the author can't quite work out whether that's supposed to be Ahhh or Grrr!]

Yo dudes! We did the whole circuit of Raro on this mean machine - great fun to see the whole island and it felt pretty safe as people generally drive slowly.