Wednesday to Saturday

The rain stopped long enough on Wednesday for us to go to the town on the bus to look around at the jewellery shops (black pearls harvested locally) and other craft shops. We also went to the Cook Island national museum which was very small but worth a visit. The bus journeys are great; there are so many flowers and fruits to look at along the way, lots of school children use the bus - most are barefoot (through custom rather than poverty) and the other day the bus driver serenaded us with Elvis songs. Thursday's weather was still not brilliant so we went on the bus to town for a walk on the beach and a beer.

At last the sun came out on Friday so we could spend the day on the beach snorkelling and relaxing. The manager of the apartment very kindly let us use the apartment until 8 in the evening on Saturday as our flight out to Los Angeles wasn't until 23.45 so we spent the day at the beach again before catching the bus to the airport.

This is the walk up to our apartment - pitch black at night. 

The mosquitos hang around outside our screen door just waiting for us to come outside so the insect repellent has been put to good use. Yesterday we had to usher out a lizard. When the sun came out we saw some beautiful butterflies and we have avoided some mean looking large hornet type insects. On the beach the other day at the canoe races I saw a humongous spider....... running up towards the rocks I was sitting on - I stood up swiftly and remained standing for the last few races!