Hello Rarotonga!

We left New Zealand today and flew to Rarotonga.

Let's start by saying it was an early morning, without much coffee. The flight was good and we filled out arrival cards enroute.  The plane was put in a bit of a holding pattern and landing was delayed then a tad bumpy. As we taxi'd I noted the waves crashing onto the airport. Bit close... but how were we to know that wasn't normal?

We also had to wait for confirmation that the winds were low enough now to use the portable stairs.

All that was forgotten of course, when I showed up at passport control with an arrival card featuring some errors. Turns out I ticked the wrong column and answered YES to carrying into the Cook Islands:

• Medicines, weapons, indecent publications, endangered species, drugs etc
• More than 2 L of alcohol
• More than 200 cigarettes or 50+ cigars
• More than $750 of gifts obtained elsewhere
• And more than $10,000 in NZ cash!

Oh but it gets better...
I also ticked YES to being a criminal and suffering from an infectious disease! 

The gentleman at passport control looked me square in the eyes and said "I think we have a problem. You are a criminal?" 

I was mortified. At the same time confused. REALLY? That's the only issue you have with me?!

Luckily he was nice enough to tell me I could just cross out my errors and re-tick boxes before customs took the form from me 5 minutes later.

It was still super windy and many of the roads around the island were closed due to the high water. Turns out Rarotonga had a bit of a cyclone this morning. They just reopened the airport in time for our arrival!

At the Crown Beach Resort, other guests reported we missed the drama of the morning, when the sea entered some of the beachfront villas and the beachy cabana got claimed by the waves and dragged out to sea.

It was too windy to do much except lounge about by the pool and seek out an amazing dinner later on.

Rotorua Highlights

With one day up our sleeve, we set about stuffing Mark full of Maori culture education. Throwing in some geothermal activity too, so he could get up close and personal with the Ring of Fire we stand on.

Michael was our guide at Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. A living Maori village. A place to visit bubbling hot mud pools, enjoy traditional singing and dancing and hear stories of Michael's childhood too. Make no mistake, Micheal is funny and his stories are super entertaining. We enjoyed our time with him very much.

Just enough time for ice cream and a walk along the lakefront before exiting the area, bound for Tauranga. We got our ice cream from Lady Jane's which is reportedly the 9th best ice cream parlour in New Zealand. (Like we needed a better excuse than "I just want it".)

Today was new year's eve. We spent the night in Welcome Bay at a friend's house. I met Jandhe 20 years ago when we worked together in London. The last time I had seen Jandhe was when she was pregnant with her now 17 year old daughter! We had a lot to catch up on and that we did...

I TOTALLY enjoyed an evening of wine and chatting. Where did the time go? Just like that, 7 hours passed and honestly, we had just scratched the surface when I dragged my tired butt to bed at 1am.

Bummer that I totally forgot to get a selfie of us.  :-(

We saw in 2020 as the first time zone in the world this year!

New Zealand Childhood House

And we're off!

I had a small list of activities and places that I wanted to show Mark. Let me preface the next paragraph by saying that Mark is a sentimental sort of man. He likes to show me around Madison, WI when we visit... to see his elementary school, the house he grew up in and all the haunts of his youth. He had also voiced his enthusiasm for seeing similar things from my childhood, so that was high on the list.

We took off from New Plymouth on December 30th. Dad driving, mom navigating. Mark and I in the back, eating Licorice Allsorts and Cadbury mini's. Welcome to my childhood, Mark!!!

The first stop was actually Te Kuiti... for cabinet food and a flat white, of course.

I introduced Mark to a custard square dessert. They are hard to cut in half while still keeping the "square" shape but using a butter knife clearly doesn't help!

Then Mark got up close and personal with a shearing dummy before we headed off to Otorohanga, for the first event for today, the Kiwi House. We DID see a kiwi shuffling around in his dark enclosure, but sorry, no pics allowed.

Kea - NZ parrot

Tuatara - NZ lizard

And then we cruised through Tokoroa. I lived in this small city (17,000 people) for the first 13 years of my life. Mark got to see my childhood house, 12a Dalmeny St - which has seen better days. And the neighborhood it sits in, which looks shockingly the same!

Driveway

12a Dalmeny Street... 35 years after my dad painted it, it has not been repainted. The residents may or may not have been home when Mark and I crept up the driveway to take this pic. Mom and dad waited in the car on the street. I think the condition of the house that my dad lovingly built would have made him sad. 

A couple of burned out houses on my street? Just sitting there... with no plans to change?!

This is my elementary/primary school. I was super glad to see that it has had a lot of positive changes and looks great. 

We finished the day in Rotorua. All I can say about the hotel I booked, is that I didn't have that many options and it seriously looked much better online.  There were red flags the second we drove up. It didn't get better when the manager "showed off" his thermal spa pool which was in slimy green condition. But OMG I laughed so hard when dad found his reading light was attached to the wall with first aid tape! (At least his had a light bulb... mine didn't.)

See... I wasn't exaggerating.

On the bright side, Mark is still hanging in there with me.  :-)