Beautiful Rarotonga

In the early hours of Saturday morning we arrived back in NZ from a ten day holiday to Rarotonga.

This was our third visit now to this beautiful island. 

On this trip we were joined by our best friends, Rose and Brendon and their children, Niamh and Dylan. Rosie and Brendon have also been to Raro before but the children hadn't so they were so excited for their holiday to begin.

We stayed at the same resort at last year, the Edgewater Resort and Spa, which is just ideal.  It's a large resort, but it never felt too crowded with people. The Edgewater has a wonderful lagoon for swimming and snorkeling, an outdoor pool, a free kid's club and fun activities happening every day. The staff are also very friendly and helpful, and nothing is ever any trouble. Once again we had a garden view room, right next to our friends, where we'd meet up late in the afternoon on the balcony, for some pre dinner drinks and snacks.

This time we hired a car for a few days to get around the island so we had several trips into town to visit a cafe, or go out for dinner or visit the very popular Saturday morning markets.

But much of our time was spent hanging out by the pool or beach, the kids happily swimming all day or participating in some of the activities, or hanging out with the staff in the activity hut.

Of course a few cocktails were consumed, I didn't quite make my way through the cocktail menu but had a good shot at it!

One of the days we booked a trip with Captain Tuma's Lagoon Crusies - an awesome day out, snorkeling, a beach bbq and then a show put on by the hilarious staff. I'd highly recommend this if you ever visit Rarotonga, lots of laughs that's for sure.

Another day, Glenn and the girls hired a kayak from Muri Lagoon and had a great time crossing the lagoon, backwards and forwards, the lagoon is probably only waist deep at it's deepest point so you can easily walk across it.

On our last evening we enjoyed a few drinks and a meal at the resort restaurant watching our last sunset in unforgettable Rarotonga.

Some of the other highlights from our holiday - spotting several whales swimming by the resort one morning while we were having breakfast, delicious food at the resort and the other restaurants we went to, hanging out with our friends - lots of laughs and good times, lots of chilled out time reading - I managed to get through four books, beautiful flowers everywhere, and the friendly people you meet make Rarotonga pure relaxation in paradise.

I'm already dreaming of our next holiday there, possibly next year xx

Almost Holiday Time

Today I start a two week holiday break as Glenn, Hannah and I are flying to Rarotonga, The Cook Islands for ten days!

We can hardly wait for our holiday, and this time our good friends and their children are joining us. 

Roll on the sunshine and warmth!  See you in a few weeks time xxxx

Unforgettable Rarotonga

Last weekend we arrived home from a ten day holiday in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands.

We flew out of Auckland at 5pm Wednesday 21st September and arrived in Rarotonga on Tuesday 20th about 11pm, its 22 hours behind New Zealand. When we arrived it was about 24c and most days it was anything between 26 to 35 c, very hot!

We chose to stay at the Edgewater Resort, one of the largest on the islands and it has a wonderful lagoon for swimming and snorkeling, an outdoor pool, two restaurants, free kids club and very friendly lovely staff.

Our room had a view of the tropical garden and was on the ground floor, a perfect spot to sit in the late afternoon, early evening to escape the heat.

Most of our dinner meals we chose to eat at the resort, including an excellent meal at the Spaghetti House, a restaurant at the end of the resort drive way. Breakfast was included in the room stay and for lunch we'd either eat out in town or visit one of the local bakeries down the road from the resort.

The cocktails were delicious, and what a gorgeous view.

Fish feeding every morning at 9am, amazing how all the fish just know to turn up, lol.

One afternoon Hannah and I were shown how to make flower garlands which we wore on Island Night.

We spent our time swimming, snorkeling, sunbathing, participating in various activities run by the resort staff and exploring the island. Its very easy to get around Rarotonga, you can either hire a car or scooters or like us, just catch the bus, this runs clockwise or anticlockwise around the island throughout the day.

Beautiful flowers everywhere!

One afternoon we booked in for a safari tour and spent an enjoyable few hours crisscrossing the island in jeeps, taking in some of the local sights.

We had planned to take a trip on one of the glass bottomed boats but due to the wind that came up during our last few days these were cancelled, never mind, something to put on the do list for next time.

If you are after a totally relaxing holiday, Rarotonga is the place to go. They use NZ currency, have wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables, very friendly people and you can chose to do as much as you like or as little as you like. No hustle or bustle, just pure relaxation in paradise.

I can't wait to go again!