Mr Bear and I managed to grab a week to ourselves and jet off to the Pacific paradise of Rarotonga a couple of weeks ago (the biggest of the 15 Cook Islands, 3 hours flight from Auckland).
We spent a day exploring Auckland before our evening flight out to the island, where we enjoyed a week of lounging in the sun reading our books, zooming around the island on a scooter, snorkelling in the crystal clear waters of the surrounding lagoon, learning how to husk coconuts, crab racing, eating all manners of tropical fish and drinking many MANY pina coladas!
It felt like a dream. One afternoon I found myself floating on my back in the dazzling blue waters of the lagoon, watching a gentle breeze rustle the leaves of the 25ft tall coconut trees on the white sandy shore, listening for the sound of a conch shell being blown to summon us to our Polynesian BBQ feast. I thought I'd died and arrived in heaven!
I'll let the pictures on our Flickr account tell the full story. And, no, they haven't been photoshopped!
Landing back in Christchurch on a rainy, miserable day with a temperature of 10 degrees, we felt as if our week in the sun had been only a dream....except we had the tan to prove it!
We both went back to work feeling refreshed and ready to face our individual challenges, including Martin finishing up work on the Cardboard Cathedral (more to come on that this week)!
