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.