04 July 2019

Wow what an amazing place - if there's a heaven on earth the Cook Islands comes pretty close! We arrived feeling pretty good after our Air New Zealand flight and were driven to the Pacific Rarotonga resort - a gorgeous boutique hotel on the beach after the friendliest greeting from the Cook Islanders. This was an ongoing experience - honestly the people who live there are just so lovely, and it seems like all of them can sing too. Ukuleles are brought out as often as possible for a singalong. Such wonderfully happy people and I can see why - living in the paradise of a tropical island! While we were on Rarotonga we went to the night markets where I had one of the best curries I've ever eaten. We also went on a fairly hair-raising tour of the island by jeep - right up to the top which seemed incredibly remote. For some reason I kept expecting to see dinosaurs appearing through the mist but all we saw were (a lot) of chickens and an incredibly large pig. For the remainder of the time we kept ourselves amused by snorkelling and kayaking and drinking large cocktails! So far, so awesome but we had to leave to travel to a small island called Aitutaki after a few days. We flew over in a small but comfortable plane which gave us an incredible view of the gorgeous islands and turquoise sea. I thought nothing could top Rarotonga but Aitutaki was just breath taking. Picture the most beautiful beach in the world and you're somewhere close! We stayed at the fabulous Tamanu beach resort - a family run hotel where they put on a great show in the evenings with traditional dancing and (of course!) singing. The food and the atmosphere there were great - they also have some adorable cats wandering around - some may try and join you for dinner (see photo!). I also must give a special mention to the Vaka cruise that we went on - a fantastic day out travelling to a lagoon and islands including the one they film the reality TV show 'Shipwrecked' on. The snorkelling was just amazing - we saw so many fish and they swam right up to us. In fact, a bit too close as one of them rudely bit me on the bottom! A wonderful friendly tour with all the warmth of the Cook Islanders and singing and ukuleles (obvs!) We were genuinely sad when our time in Aitutaki came to an end - we made some incredible memories there and would love to go back there one day. We headed back to Rarotonga for our return journey but first stayed over for the night at the Islander hotel which was a fitting last hurrah for our journey as our arrival coincided with Happy hour! The next day we headed to the airport for our flight home feeling relaxed and re-energized and with a new found love for the ukulele!

07 November 2018

My husband and I were lucky enough to win an amazing trip to LA and the Cook Islands. We flew out to Los Angeles with Air New Zealand where we had the opportunity to experience one of their Sky Couches. This is such a fab idea - you have a whole row to yourselves and the bottom part of the seats can be pulled up to make a comfy flat bed. This plus the great food, lovely New Zealand top of the range wines and second to none entertainment system meant that the flight just, well flew by! We arrived at the extremely hectic LAX airport feeling very well looked after. Be warned the queues are pretty epic so be prepared to wait a while and leave plenty of time if you have a connecting flight. We emerged after 2 hours and had a hair-raising cab ride to our hotel - I've never seen so many cars! We were staying 2 nights at the fabulous Grafton on Sunset. It's right in the middle of all the action but when we got to our large comfortable room, complete with pictures of Hollywood icons, a big round bed and leopard print pillows (opulent much?) We couldn't hear any of the traffic outside at all. It also has a lovely pool area - you'd never guess you were in the middle of the city when you're chilled out sipping a cocktail next to it! We had a great night's sleep and decided to get the open top bus around the city the next day. Before catching the first Starline bus we had an enormous and delicious breakfast at Mel's diner on Sunset Boulevard - it was so big I thought I might never need to eat again! We hopped on the bus and headed to the famous Santa Monica pier which is great fun to wander round - we saw friendly sealions and had a good walk around. Then we hopped back on and started travelling back, listening to the commentary which they clearly keep very up to date. We decided to visit LACMA on the way back - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which was incredible - works by Picasso, Matisse, Warhol and many more. You could stay there for hours! Then we headed back to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. We saw many of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame stars along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street - there are over 2,600 of them and we walked a long way that day! LA is huge and has a lot of traffic so be prepared for it to take a while to get between the different areas by bus and what looks like a small way on the map can be a big walk in reality - don't plan to do too many areas in one day. After a luxurious shower it was time to get dressed up for a night out. We went to the early show at the Comedy Club - ridiculously cheap for the hilarious talent we saw - I laughed until my sides hurt! Then we headed back up Sunset to the famous Whiskey a Go Go where we saw an awesome band called Memphis Drawl - not famous yet but they should be! We met them afterwards and they were lovely guys. We then ended up at a Halloween party in the nearby Rainbow rooms which was a surreal but very fun experience which involved an Alice Cooper tribute band and quite a lot of gin. Partway through this we realised that Cypress Hill (the hip hop guys in case you didn't know!) had just come out of the building next to us where they'd been playing which was very exciting (well to us - all the LA folk were too cool to be impressed!) We wandered home much later than we'd meant to after a brilliant night. The next day we checked out after a lovely stay and headed on the bus to Marina Del Rey which is a gorgeous little seaside community with a Marina (obvs!) As luck would have it they have a band on every Sunday and the locals come out and dance - it's like an elderly flash mob - super fun. We grabbed a bite to eat at a lovely Italian place where they were horrified that I put parmesan on my spaghetti al vongole - apparently cheese and seafood is a no no. I still think cheese is good with everything though! We then checked out the famous Venice Beach - fabulously bohemian it's the home of artists and poets and also men with big muscles who parade around working out on Muscle beach. There's great and original shopping on Abbot Kinney street and a lot of live street performers to keep you entertained. Sadly, after a couple of hours it was time to head to the airport to board our Air New Zealand flight for the next adventure in Rarotonga...