Ten wonderful days on a very remote place on earth with no telephone reception, no television (thanks god!), the time seemed to stand still for us here on the Cook Islands!

The first day and night we spent on the main island Rarotonga. The island has only one circular road which we drove around in a small rental car in less than 45 min..there are also 2 buses on the island- one called “clockwise”, the other “anticlockwise”, passing by every hour. What we felt when landing at Rarotonga mini-airport was pure relaxation! Very lush vegetation and big hills in the centre, while all around white beaches -and the best- there was nobody else..

On a small propeller plane we then flew over to Aitutaki, our new favourite island! All around the small and very quiet island there was this perfect lagoon with its surrounding reef, perfect for snorkling. And we saw hundreds of fish! (-: The water was soo warm and felt like swimming in a bathtub (Martina was very happy!). We had a bungalow right at the beach and a scooter to drive around and really felt like heaven. On the other side of the world, we also met interesting fellow travelers, among them our new friends and favourite Canadian couple Pat and Rick who have already been to the Cook Islands 35 years ago. Now almost retired, they have started to travel 6 months each year and believe me – they have incredible travel stories to tell!

The Polynesian greeting “Kia Orana” actually means “may you live long” and already reflects their genuine hospitality. What we felt is that Cook Islanders really love their islands and are simple, happy, very religious and incredibly welcoming people! When we went to the local catholic church to join the Sunday mass, they were so happy, kissed and huged us. It was very touching and nice to see how they all -young and old- very dancing and singing in the church!

Before I forget- we are actually famous now, as we have been part of a photo shooting on Aitutaki! On the very first day we met a film crew making an advert movie about the Cook Islands, who spontanously asked us to be part and come along the next day. Hence, the next morning at 6am we drove out with them on a boat to an unpopulated island called “Honeymoon Island” for sunrise, where we were filmed having a pique-nique on the white beach. In a few months time you will see the advert online- watch out!

At the end, we really had trouble to find our way back to the airport and actually extended our stay on the island by rebooking the return-flights 4 times! :-), as we liked Aitutaki so much….

Also, we changed our further plans for the next two weeks in the South Pacific. As next destination we had originally planned to fly to New Caledonia and Vanuatu. But it’s rainy season and the weather forecast for both countries was rain, rain, rain. But we then discovered that Air Tahiti flies once a week from Rarotonga to Tahiti and decided very spontanously to buy a ticket to French Polynesia!