Career Break Central

Oct 15 – 17

So we had finally left the South Pacific behind and it was time for some adventure in New Zealand. Thank goodness we had already gotten our fill of sunshine and warm temperatures, because we certainly weren’t visiting New Zealand for the weather. Our plane landed in Auckland in a grey drizzle that continued off and on for most our visit to New Zealand. We had allocated three weeks to see both the North and South islands so it was going to be a challenge to fit it all in. After landing in Auckland we quickly found a cheap rental car with only 275,000km on it for only $21/day. As an added safety bonus, it pulled slightly to the left which helped to keep the driver alert at all times. After spending our first night in a cheap airport motel, we headed north the next morning. Read the rest of this entry »

From Merry Christmas!

For those of you who didn’t receie a personal email from us (we had several bounce back at us), here is our Christmas and New Years email to family and friends. I realize I am a little behind on the blogs right now but stay tuned and as soon as I get a highspeed connection, there will be several coming down the pipe: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s funny how easily friendships are formed. A few days before we left for Aitutaki we met an Australian couple, Rob & Linda, who were vacationing with their daughter, Bridie, and were supposed to be staying in the beach bungalows next to us. Unfortunately for them, through an administrative glitch, they had ended up double-booked and with no place to stay. They had arrived at 1AM the previous night and had had to sleep on the couch in the common room of the hostel. We met them as they waited good-naturedly by the pool the next morning while Paul, the hostel’s owner, scrambled to find them accommodation elsewhere on the island. Alexa and Bridie quickly became new best friends and played happily together while Rob and Linda and I sat by the pool and got acquainted.

From cook islands

They were warm and friendly and the girls got along famously and even though they ended up staying elsewhere on the island, a connection had been made and we invited them to dinner the next evening. The kids were ecstatic to have a new playmate and Claude & I soon felt like we’d known Rob & Linda for years. Alexa actually decided that she didn’t want to go to Aitutaki because she would miss Bridie too much. Read the rest of this entry »

When we first decided to include the Cook Islands in our RTW itinerary, I did a little research and discovered that Rarotonga is only one of 15 islands that cover an area in the South Pacific the size of India. We couldn’t visit just one island! Aitutaki is one of the smaller southern islands and is famous for its huge sparkling lagoon that is a startling shade of blue. This tiny sleepy island is the perfect place to truly “get away from it all,” so we decided that a three-day side-trip to Aitutaki would be our first big splurge of the trip. So after ten days in Rarotonga, we caught a 5:30AM flight to Aitutaki and it was worth getting up at 4AM just to see the sunrise from the plane.

From Aitutaki (Coo…

The flight only took about 45 minutes and the view of the lagoon from the air was breathtaking. Read the rest of this entry »

After a week of sun, snorkeling and relaxation in Rarotonga, we were ready for a little adventure. We had heard and read about the fabulous “Cross Island Walk” which traverses the island through deep jungle and reaches some of the island’s highest points including “The Needle,”

From cook islands

a well-known landmark which provides spectacular views of most of the island. The path through the jungle is not well marked and the guidebook recommended doing a guided walk. Although the island isn’t that big, the jungle can be very dense and disorienting and hikers have been known to get off course and have to spend the night in the jungle. Of course, being the experienced and budget conscious world travelers we are, we decided it would be more fun to strike out on our own and trust in our finely honed orienteering skills (learned 20 years ago in basic training). Read the rest of this entry »

If you ever want to really mess with someone’s head, ask them to figure out dates when crossing the International Dateline. Somehow, our itinerary has us crossing it three times on our trip. The first time was when we flew into Fiji. We only saw about an hour of September 30th in Honolulu and arrived in Nadi at 7AM on October 1st. However, going to the Cook Islands, we crossed back and managed to see both October 6th and 7th twice! We flew out of Nadi on the afternoon of the 7th and arrived in Rarotonga on the evening of the 6th! Our third and last crossing of the dateline occurs when we lose another day flying to Auckland after leaving the Cook Islands. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever sat on an airplane and been the only person not watching the in-flight movie? You’re enjoying your book or just gazing out the window when, all of a sudden, the cabin erupts with laughter and you almost jump out of your seat. You look around and smile sheepishly and pretend you got the joke. It’s even worse when you’re the only one watching the movie and you laugh out loud and everyone looks at you like you’re insane. The harder you try to keep it inside, the harder it is not to laugh. It’s like when we were kids and our parents would tell us to stop laughing. My cousin, Kelly, and I used to say we’d been drinking giggle juice and couldn’t stop or our heads would explode. Read the rest of this entry »

After conquering Haleakala we headed for the famed town of Hana on the infamous Road to Hana. This narrow, curving, breathtaking road is a must-do for all visitors to Maui.

From Maui

Along the way we stopped to admire several beautiful waterfalls and bamboo forests and marvel at the amazing tropical flowers of Maui. Read the rest of this entry »

We spent our first week hanging out admiring the surfers and windsurfers at Ho’okipa Beach, practicing our own surfing skills on the less challenging waves at Kihei and exploring the island. We fell in love with the laid back granola town of Paia with its cool surfers and windsurfers, aging hippies and local artists. We drove through the lush mountains to Iao Valley State Park and visited the incredible lava fields on the eastern slopes of Mt Haleakala. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally we were off! No question now, our trip had now truly begun. Our first flight of the trip was uneventful (the kids slept most of the way) and we arrived in Maui tired but excited to finally be in Hawaii. We had chosen to stay on Maui’s windy north shore in the tiny community of Haiku in order to get away from the tourist crowds and to be near the surfing and windsurfing mecca of Ho’okipa Beach. Read the rest of this entry »