Rarotonga & Arriving in NZ

Apologies for taking so long to get this post up! It's been a bit crazy back in NZ, getting settled in and starting work etc......

We arrived in Rarotonga in the early hours of Jan 3rd. Good old Lucy came to collect us from the airport at the crack of dawn. It was HOT when we arrived. Rarotonga airport is hilarious. After you get off the plane on the tarmac, they make you shuffle through a narrow corrugated iron tunnel thing with zero ventilation. You're then greeted with the sounds in the arrival hall of an older gentleman strumming away on his ukulele and welcoming you to Raro with his lyrics.

I've always wanted to go to Rarotonga and it didn't disappoint. This place is beautiful, that's all there is to it. We were AGAIN spoiled rotten by our friends. Lucy and Justin were able to get us into a five star villa for about four days. There was a gap in the tourists, so we took their spot! The place was amazing. You'll see what I mean in the movie. Thanks SOOOO much Lucy and Justin.... I was speechless when you guys showed us around Te Manava. What an AWESOME bonus!

It was also cool to catch up with Bjorn and Kells who were there on holiday from New Zealand. There's a tiny piece in the movie of Bjorn kite-surfing. He's a brave man! Oh - some funny footage of his diving attempts into the villa's pool as well!!!!

Did everything we could here.....Kayaked, slept in, sunbathed, snorkeled, afternoon naps, ate and drank coconuts straight from the tree....just everything you'd imagine doing in paradise.

Perhaps one of the coolest and unexpected experiences of the trip was being able to sit in on percussion with a local act. They're two very talented gentlemen that have residencies at a few of the resorts there. The first night, we were the supporting act for a guy touring there called Peter Morgan. He was very talented! I was privileged enough to play percussion with him too on one of his songs!!! Here's his site: www.petermorganmusic.com - very nice guy and very talented! Anyway, I put up a second vid of the second night of us playing at the Pacific Resort.

Our trip to Raro ended with Lucy taking us to a road that runs along the end of the runway. You can literally get within feet of the runway and watch the plane that you're about to board, land. That was a scary site!! And we caught it on film too!

For anyone thinking about travelling to New Zealand from the States, you can fly via Rarotonga with Air New Zealand. Raro is on the way, and it caters for all budgets, so you've got no excuse!

The movie finishes with us breaking the news to our Mums about our bubba on the way! We had to include this in our last movie as it nicely sums up the end of our roadtrip blog and why we're here......at home.....

Thanks for reading and watching and coming along with us on our journey!....Hmmm...maybe we'll do a baby blog or something.....ha ha ha ha......

Daniel and Margot