ARGH! Bugs in Sydney

Ok... I am not your typical get-on-a-chair and scream type of girl around bugs. I never kill spiders - they eat all the things that like to eat me - I am quite fond of spiders.

Most bugs don't bother me - flies, bees, creepy crawlies... all generally fine - except silver fish and ear wigs... HATE silverfish and earwigs (I think the ear wigs comes from Dad making me watch Wrath of Khan of some Star Trek movie where bugs crawl in your ear and take you over.)

But the bugs in Sydney are the size of sub-compacts! The cockroaches - and everyone has them - are so big they crunch when you step on them, and they are big enough to un-seat your stiletto heels. These things are about the same size as your average Japanese cell phone.

Just survived an invasion of some god-awful cross between a coackroch and an ear wig the size of my thumb, put on earth to make me realize that living in chemically sterilized houses is a great, great thing. I know this isn't generally in the spirit of my travel blog... put how's that for a view of Sydney you don't hear every day, eh?

Tara's random fears relieved

This is a post dedicated to those who know me best, and who realize this is a quintissential Tara "moment."

One of my re-occuring nightmares is that I would be driving along in the middle of nowhere, have my car break down/get stuck. The only way out would be to drive a stick shift car, and I wouldn't know how, and I would end up starving/eaten by cougars... I don't know. It was irrational, I knew it and it still freaked me out.

So last year when I got a car I got one with a stick shift si I could learn. Now, I didn't drive manual - I had to test drive the automatics. Generously (some might say death wish... ) my Dad, my uncle, and various friends taught me how to drive on the car (for future reference, try to do this not on a new car) . Famously, I was able to drive the car off the lot, in front of all the salesmen who knew I couldn't drive stick without incident, but I think I might have taken a few years off my father's life attempting to drive it home down Georgia steet through downtown Vancouver in a Friday night.

Well - offcially, I have survived my nightmare! (you knew this story was going somewhere, right?) Now, it wasn't in a desert, but an island marooned in the middle of the Pacific on a Sunday when everyone was at church counts.

Dad had to get to the ATM (about 8km away in town) sooo... he and I rented the only car available on Aitutaki - a red convertable Mazda Miata manual transmission car (seriously!). Dad and I took turns attempting to shift smoothly with the gear box on the wong side, the pedals in the same place and remembering to stay on the other side of the road without hitting the windsheild wipers instead of the turn signal. I tell you - hours of Sunday morning fun! (well, minutes maybe - the Island wasn't that big)

I will work on developing another neurotic fear to conquer... e-mail suggestions :-)

Cook Islands: Aitutaki

We arrived for a stay in Aitutaki for a little less than a week. Dad booked a super-swish resort, with our rooms right over the blue, blue waters of the Aitutaki Lagoon. We were sorry to miss our walk-off-the-beach snorkeling maze we had in Rarotonga, but having the puffer fish, crabs, some strange-looking flying-type fish (and the plague-like quantity) of sea cucumbers underneath our feet was quite a novelty.

Unfortunately, the lagoon wasn't as user friendly for reef snorkeling, there wasn't lots of coral (or very deep water) and the white sand was no good for reef fish - no where to hide!. The view was however, was just spectacular, and we made up for it by taking the kayaks out for a spin instead to soem of the smaller islands in the lagoon.

The first night we were there, we caught the boat off our island to the 'mainland' (biggest piece of land in the lagoon) to head out to another Island Night celebration. The cafe we arrived at looked a bit more like it might cave in under the heavy rain, but unlike our last Island Night, at this one the locals outnumbered the tourists about 3:1. The Island night was a real opportunity to party, and to teach some of the younger boys and girls how to dance. As per usual, the tables groaned under solid spreads of local food, especially Ika Mata, a raw fish with lime, coconut milk, tomato & cucumber dish that rapidly became a family favorite.

We took the opportunity to take a lagoon cruise, that got us out to Aitutaki's coral reefs. Unfortunately, it was obvious how much damage had been done to the reef by global warming. The coral bleaching scarring was really obvious. Happily, the coal was still home to hundreds of species of tropical fish, and gigantic clams (fun to tease, if you keep your fingers to yourself). Our guide also led us on a tour of the other little islands in Aitutaki lagoon.. Deserving the rep as a wedding destination, two of the other islands had simple outdoor wedding chapels. And one of the islands that was the scene for "Shipwrecked" a UK series where they stick people on a "deserted' tropical island and see how long they last (2nd season: 3 months, this upcoming season: 5 months). Apparently it took them a fair amount of camera magic to ensure local fishing boats and tours didn't show up in the shots :-) The Shipwrecked cast had built themselves a home made work out gym, bar (with stools), drawing room and multi room 'apartment' - it was quite the site.

Feb 6 was Dad's birthday, and he took off with a local guide to stalk "Bonefish" for the day, which left the girls (plus Wade) to figure out to what to do for his birthday. We decided Champers was a must, so we biked into town (about 8km... I think it's all the exercise I did in the whole 2 weeks) to pick up the finest Aitutaki had to offer... something that tasted like sparkeling apple juice from the local internet cafe/liquor/grocery store at $19 a bottle. It's the thought that counts, right? We got the hotel to make up a chocolate and (what else) coconut cake with some special decorations. Dad insisted that under no circumstances on this vacation would he drink a drink with umbrellas in it. He should know better than to challenge us, we got umbrellas in his red wine, the servers to put it in his beers when they brought them to the table, and had the baker cover the cake in little bright parisols.

Dad (and the guide) came up empty handed (not a huge surprise... Salmon, once hooked swim at about 5km/hr - Bonefish - 25km/hr) He had one hooked, and it got away. (right... ) Well - we had to get hima fish for his birthday! Alden cut down a palm frond a weaved Dad a bonefish from the fronds (Tara at this moment seriously impressed and thinking I would invite my sister to help me survive a shipwreck). Check out the photos to see a shot... it roates through at some point. I have a heap of photos, but apparently I have maxed out my account this month, so you'll have to wait to see the photos from the Island Nights.

Cook Islands: Rarotonga

My family arrived earlier than I, so our first family day together was Sunday. The Cook Islands are highly religous, so the only thing to do on the whole island is go to Church.

Just down the street from our hotel, was one of the oldest churches in the Cook's, a lovely little white washed chapel. Now, i have to admit, for me - it's been awhile. The singing of the hymns was absolutely, well, heavenly. the hymns were sung mostly in Cook Island maori, some in English,with the women and the men splitting up to harmonize at parts. While the sermon was about as riviting as sermon's go, hearing the whole congregation in song and being invited for tea and local baked goods after it, was more than worth it.

Our first few days we were treated to beautiful sun, but January is cyclone season, and unfortunately that means cloud cover and showers. Really, really big showers. You would think less sun would be OK - you would miss getting some nasty sunburns. Despite all precautions, I burnt my butt snorkeling so bad the second day, and all of us were getting those little funny-shaped streaky burns you get from re-applying sunscreen badly.

I did manage to pick up my Cook Island's driving license ($10, most unusual souvenir) during one of the torrential downpours. We had so many rainy nights, that the women who ran our little hotel (Rongo, she made our stay) decided to organize something special - a champagne patangi (bacci, or lawn bowling) tourney on the beach. After a few glasses of chmapers, none of us could remember whether it was raining or not anyway, and the whole hotel (about 14 of us) trooped down the beach to the nearest restaurant and had dinner together.

Basically, we spent all of our time reading, eating, snorkeling and drinking. It's tough being on vacation....

Hello Paradise (and back to reality)

At the end of January, one of my great friends from University, Thais,
popped over from Hong Kong. Thus followed a whirlwind of entertainment,
parties, and general good times. My contract was over at work, so instead of
being responsible, Thais and I scooted down to Melbourne and saw more of the
sights (I can't get enough of that city!) We picked up another
friend-of-a-friend, and took an intersting drive down the spectacular Great
Ocean road, one of Austraila's great surfing destinations and to visit a
rock formation called the 12 Apostles. This was about a 10 hour drive, but
worth it - like the sea-to-sky only with white sand beaches.

Back in Sydney, knowing I had to catch an early morning flight to visit my
parents, Thais and her buddies took us out for a night on the town... and I
got home just after 4am, which gave me plenty of time to have a solid 2
hours of sleep before my airport suttle came in the morning (thank you Thais
+ buddies, & thank heavens I didn't miss it.)

Instead of Christmas at home this year, my parents, one of my sisters, her
boyfriend and I all met in the Cook Islands for my father's birthday. The
Cook Islands are part of the chain of Polynesian Islands in the Pacific, the
Cooks are basically a few hours flight off the coast of New Zealand. If you
have heard the explorer's stories of the paradise of Tahiti, the Cooks do
the vision of a tropical paradise more than proud.

The Cook's (not found by Captain Cook - but you gotta love history!) are
spectacular - volcanic islands surrounded by reef-protected lagoons of white
sand, azure water and lush vegitation. I will load some photos on the blog
as soon as I can. The Cook's are on the NZ dollar, and their main sources of
income are 1- tourism, 2- aid money, and 3- black pearls and 4- stamps (not
kidding) minimum wage is $4.50/hr (beer - local bar - $4, resort, $7).

I can't put it any better than the guide book when it said "Cook Islanders
may not have much money, but no one is going hungry" The island is covered
in food & Cook Islanders are very, very obviously well-fed (not as tall as
Samoans, but the size across). Everyone's house is a cement-block, 1 floor
house, and on the property you'll find coconuts, breadfruit, banana, taro,
papaya (pawpaw), passionfruit, kumara (sweet potato) pigs, chickens, and
goats.

Everyone is near the water, so seafood is on every plate - lots and lots of
seafood (broadbill, marlin or tuna mostly. Actually, mostly broadbill -
after a while we just stopped asking what the fish was in any dish. 99/100,
it was broadbill). Everything they ate was in season, or tinned. It makes
the menu's at all the retaurants pretty predictable, but the food was so
fresh.

On Rarotonga (the largest island, at 32km around), we stayed in lovely
little beach bungalows. Dad found a rock that was covered at high tide, and
this was our watch. When the "snorkeling rock" was covered, we put on our
stuff and snorkled in the lagoon through a maze of coral rocks. When we got
back, we drank passion fruit, papaya and mango margaritas until dinner, ate
dinner, then sleep, rinse and repeat. I think it was a good four days before
we broke routine - it was fabulous.

We also stayed on another one of the islands in the chain, a 1 hour flight
away, the honeymoon paradise of Aitutaki. Aitutaki is many islands within a
much larger lagoon. I am telling you though, travelling with two couples in
honeymoon-central was a bit wierd. I was the fifth wheel... all the tables
are set up for 2 or 4, all the hotels are gigantic king size beds... all
props to Wade and Alden who had me sleeping on a cot in their bedroom (sorry
guys) the whole vacation.

While I was in the Cook's, I attended heaps of the "island nights" - the
Cook's rendition of the Luau, with umu (underground oven) cooked meats,
massive (massive) buffets, and the fabulous hula-dancers, drummers and
singers. You can believe those missionaries (Cook's are very religious -
7th Day Adventist, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses) would have gotten the of
their lives. The dances and drumming are incredible.

I got back Friday morning, and my old boss has hired me to start again
Monday AM (good thing too, because the zeros in my bank account are
unfortunately growing in front of the numbers, and not behind them.) So,
back to work at the bank.