Day 76 - "Last Day in Paradise" - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
It's the final day of our around the world vacation. We're very sad that it's all coming to an end. Tonight, we fly back to California.
It was a somewhat rough night last night. It was extremely stifling hot in the villa and unfortunately, we had no A/C. It was pretty rough sleeping without A/C when there was very little airflow through the villa. On top of that, I think I got food poisoning from the prior night's meal. I didn't do too well which stunk since it was our last night. Even worse, in the middle of the night, I spotted a big roach in the bathroom. It wasn't surprising since we're in the tropics and it rained the night before but I wasn't too happy since I was already feeling pretty bad. I took my misery out on that roach and Raided the heck out of it. Somehow it still managed to run away.
Gross recap but the next morning I heard Eric say 
"what the heck?!". Turns out that he found a wing and a leg of a roach on the wall in the living room. We suspect it was the Raided roach. Strangely, we never found the rest of the roach. Perhaps it was eaten by one of the many geckos co-habitating with us? Or was it like the commercial where after the roach is Raided, it explodes? "Raaaaiiiid? Poof!" It's a mystery we'll never solve.
Anyhow, back to our day. We finally got up and to escape the hot villa, we took the bus to the Saturday market where they sell fresh fruits and vegetables, clothes, souvenirs and food. We didn't see anything that we wanted to buy as a souvenir, but ended up filling our tummies with beef and chicken kebabs, shaved ice and ice cream. Actually, Eric had the kebabs and ice cream, I only had the shaved ice. I still wasn't feeling too well. Surprisingly, the snow cone made me feel a heck of a lot better.
We took a little internet break in the only place really open in town and then returned back to the villa for a massage for me. Rachel, our host, helped book me a massage with Janine, a kiwi who has been living here for 3 years. There is this nice gazebo right off the beach. We decided to do the massage there. While not the cheapest massage I've had on the trip, it was the most serene. It was nice laying there with the island breeze blowing and the sound of waves in the near distant background. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep. It really doesn't take much. While I got my massage, Eric took a lounge chair onto the beach and enjoyed the view (when he wasn't taking bad pics of me getting a massage).
After my massage, we went snorkeling again. We have been snorkeling every day that we've been here. It's just too convenient to pass up. This time, I think I did a better job capturing some nice fish pics. Sorry if there are too many, but rest assured that this is only 1/3 of the total number of pics we actually took. Due to the dark tan we got the day before, we decided to cover up today. Still no luck feeding the fish, but we got to get pretty close to large schools of parrot fish. They're so incredibly colorful it was really cool seeing many of them swim together.
After a long snorkel session, we cleaned up and 
walked about five minutes down the road to have dinner at the Pawpaw (Papaya) Patch where we enjoyed some local pork and curry fish. It was a pretty night and a nice end to an otherwise awesome time in the Cook Islands.
We begrudgingly walked back to the villa and packed up for our midnight flight back to the States. Rachel took us to the airport. The Cook Islands airport is pretty funny. The waiting area is basically just sitting outside on picnic tables, lounge chairs and the ground. We were very sad - not only to leave the Cook Islands, but to end our trip. Bye-Bye Paradise!
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5413106556563605105&authkey=Gv1sRgCP2gsd3a-5XZgwE&feat=email
THE RECAP
We got on that Air New Zealand flight and on the way back to the states, we thought we'd jot down a few of our favorite and not-so-favorite memories from the trip. Here we go!
Top Good Memories From Each Country
Greece: Ted's Sunset Cruise, Lobster spaghetti and cheap gyros, SmartCar drive around Santorini, View from Adamis Majesty hotel room
Thailand: Patara Elephant Farm, Two hour massages, Haircuts in Bangkok, Chiang Mai Sunday Market, Chiang Mai Le Meridien, Chiang Dao Waterfall swim
Cambodia: Boran/Warren and his Tuk Tuk, Banyan Temple and Ta Prohm
Hong Kong: Wedding dress (Theresa) and all the good dinners with family (Eric)
Vietnam: Day trip to Halong Bay, Halloween in Saigon
Australia: Diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Holding Lucky the Koala, George the Grouper, Sydney Bridge Climb
New Zealand: Hot Water Beach, Zorbing, Milford Sound, Glacier hike, Queenstown Sunset, Sky City Casino
Cook Islands: Snorkeling in our Backyard Lagoon
Top Bad Memories From Each Country
Greece: Running out of money on the Santorini ferry and eating scraps, Annoying restaurant guy at No Name Restaurant in Kamari.
Thailand: Unscrupulous cab drivers, Chiang Dao mosquitoes and roaches, Smelly flight to Bangkok from Istanbul
Cambodia: Jerks at the floating village, Siem Reap mosquitoes, Aggressive little saleswomen
Hong Kong: Theresa's drug rash and food poisoning
Vietnam: Traffic and feet everywhere, Toxic plane flight to Hanoi
Australia: Adelaide tour, Flies in Kangaroo Island, Smelly Euro Guy, Rat in convenience store
New Zealand: Speeding ticket, Sledging, Driving around Wellington at night
Cook Islands: Hour hike in the dark, Exploding roach and Hot night
On our adventures, we visited 26 cities, 8 countries, 3 continents, stayed at 30 different accommodations, and traveled on 29 different planes, multiple buses, trains, cars, boats, tuk tuks and songthaews. We got to see fish, sharks, eels, goats, sheep, lamb, cows, pigs, donkeys, oxen, deer, dolphins, elephants, wombats, tazmanian devils, echidnas, kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, penguins, seals, sea lions, rats, mosquitoes, flies, roaches, geckos, snakes, crocs, ants, spiders, fleas, bats, cats, rabbits, dogs, random scratching animals in the middle of the night and other indescribable bugs. We saw mountain tops, ocean floors and many amazing sunsets.
Throughout this journey, let's just say we got to learn a lot about each other. A few of the things we've learned:
5 Things Learned About Each Other:
1. Theresa gets a little nutty if she doesn't eat when she's hungry
2. Eric has an unusual fixation on icees, slushies, snow cones and any other ice-related drink/dessert
3. Theresa can sleep any where at any time and Eric loves taking bad pictures of her while she's sleeping
4. We both can't live without the internet
5. We both can be surprisingly low maintenance and can live off very little
We also learned that if we can get through 76 days of being with each other almost 24-7 without going crazy, we think this marriage thing might just work out.
It's time to bid our farewell and end our blog. Until our next world trip - peace out. Happy Holidays!
Day 75 - "You Can Call Me Mr. Useless" - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
We woke up early to catch our 9 am tour of the island with Tangaroa Tours. We were picked up in a 4x4 pick-up truck, where we sat in the back kinda like in the songthaew's used in Thailand. We shared our tour with a nice and funny Swiss couple. It was a very bumpy ride, but a rewarding one. We got to go up the "old road" into the mountains and get a panoramic view of the island. It was gorgeous. You can see where the reef surrounds the island and where it's been blown up so that ships (and sharks) can pass in and out.
Our driver, who told us to call him "Mr. Useless", was very informative. He told us how the island is made up of 5 villages, and each one has a chief. However, there are only 4 chiefs now because in one of the villages, the chief had 5 wives, and all the first borns 
are vying for the position of chief.
Mr. Useless also showed us some farms and some local medicinal plants that are supposed to cure everything from cuts, burns, asthma, rock fish stings, and cancer. We tried some of the "Noni" juice, which tasted like really bad coffee with a slight chocolate taste. Perhaps I should have bought some for my asthma. The leaf of this tree is used by the locals to bathe their kids from age 8 months to 13 years. They swear that it protects them from skin cancer. If you do that, you never burn. Interesting.
He pointed out this huge hotel development that was deteriorating. It was supposed to be a 1000+ room hotel, which was developed by an Italian developer. Unfortunately for him, the US traced his funds to the mafia and he's currently sitting in jail. The resort hasn't been worked on in 22 years. It's on prime real estate right on the water. Too bad.
Speaking of real estate, it turns out that all land in the Cook Islands is owned by certain native families and the ownership is registered with the government. The families are not allowed to sell the land, they are only allowed to lease it to people. This is to protect the indigenous people of the land so that they don't end up losing it to foreign investors.
So, the family that had leased the land to the Italian investor has cursed the resort development land. So, they are now waiting for the curse to end so that they can start doing something with the land again. Apparently, after 22 years, the curse remains.
There are not that many restaurants in Rarotonga. I asked Mr. Useless why there were no Chinese restaurants here. I joked that there are Chinese restaurants everywhere! He said it's because it's hard for foreign persons to come in to start a business because they need a license and the government makes it hard for foreigners to get a license. There is one Indian restaurant and that's only because the Indian guy married a native.
He also mentioned how the Rarotongans used to be cannibalists and how they used to sacrifice any persons that did anything bad. He showed us one site where they used to do these sacrifices. There are 115 of these "secret" spots all around the island. Interesting facts.
After our tour of the island, we got treated to a "umu" a traditional underground earth oven. We had placed the food in there at the beginning of the tour and came back to eat it. Our umu consisted of chicken, lamb chop, sweet potato, taro, pumpkin, taro leaves in coconut cream and a "mata" which is a raw fish (ours was marlin) marinated in lime juice, salt, and coconut milk. It was a really tasty meal and we were stuffed! For dessert we had papaya, watermelon and coconut. Yum!
After our meal we bid farewell to the Swiss and to Mr. Useless and came back to the villa to change into our swimsuits. It was time for snorkeling. This time we did a little better with the camera. We saw some big blue fish and parrot fish. When we were above water we saw this huge shadow of a fish darting in the water. Unfortunately, we never spotted it under water. The sun here is pretty fierce. Even after multiple layers of sunscreen we are still getting pretty dark here in the Cook Islands. We are becoming true islanders.
We were supposed to go to this island feast (similar to a luau) but our ride never showed up. Instead, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at one of the upscale restaurants on the island - The Little Polynesian. It was a beautiful setting with the 
restaurant situated on a hardwood deck overlooking the infinity pool which in turn overlooks the Muri beach with tall palm trees swaying in the wind. It was really gorgeous. We had some drinks, a goat cheese salad, a grilled moon fish for Eric and a spice crusted seared tuna for me. We were stuffed!
We then had the bright idea of walking to this other resort we wanted to check out which had wifi. We don't have any internet access at our villa and my blackberry doesn't work for the first time since we started our trip. It's been strange not having my blackberry, but I guess it's telling me to just let it go. Very appropriate really, as today is my official last day of work. As of tomorrow, I am officially unemployed. Eek!
Anyhow, I digressed. We started this walk to this other resort. Turns out it became almost an hour's walk - in the dark. It was not fun and, when we got there, it turns out it wasn't the same wifi network as the card we bought in town. So, we hopped on the local bus and came back to the villa to call it a night. Then it started to rain.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5412359405156920081&authkey=Gv1sRgCJivgIL3lPL18AE&feat=email
Day 74 - "Our Backyard Lagoon" - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Today is a repeat of yesterday - in the sense that we got to experience December 3rd twice. That was a pleasant surprise for us because that meant our trip was really 76 days, not 75! We gained a day! We time traveled - leaving Auckland at 9:45
pm on December 3rd and arriving in Cook Islands at 3 am on December 3rd. Bizarre. Almost like Groundhogs Day (the movie). However, this December 3rd was vastly different from yesterday's December 3rd.
In the morning, Rachel stopped by to give us a rundown of the villa and activities on Rarotonga. We made plans for tomorrow to do a half day tour of the island and an Island Night feast. Rachel then graciously offered us a ride to the nearby grocery store where we bought food to cook for dinner that night.
Once back at the villa, we decided to do some snorkeling. We had an awesome location. All we had to do was walk down a short pathway and we were right on the beach - less than a minutes walk. We were pretty much alone and had the whole lagoon for ourselves. The whole island is surrounded by a reef, so we were able to see fish immediately once in the water. The water is very warm and pretty clear. I saw some pretty big blue fish, while Theresa missed it and instead did some questionable picture taking.
For an early dinner, Theresa cooked up some tasty scallops, green beans, mushrooms and onions. It was nice for once, to have a large kitchen to cook in.
It was only 6:00pm, so we figured that we would 
check out the island's downtown area. There are two buses that go around the island, one goes clockwise and the other goes "anti-clockwise". Since it was night, we took the clockwise bus to city centre. We did not know that all the shops close at 4pm. So we ended up just wandering around a deserted town and used an internet cafe for about an hour before catching the bus back.
We ended the night with some microwave popcorn and a little Arrested Development in our living room.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5412354866227678913&authkey=Gv1sRgCOuw8fvIipeuEA&feat=email
Day 73 - "Where are all the Chinese Restaurants?" - North Island - Rotorua and Auckland, New Zealand
Before our drive back to Auckland, we wanted to stop at nearby Oppie's for its regional award-winning Fish and Chips. Interestingly, half of the place was a Chinese takeout. It was tasty, cooked in vegetable oil, but probably not as good as the ones we had in England and Ireland.
We then took our time driving up to Auckland because it 
was raining and we had no real plans before our flight later at night. Once in downtown Auckland, we were hoping to do a few things: find a laundrette to dry some of our clothes, find a good place to eat, preferably Chinese, check out some souvenir shops and if we had time, the Auckland casino. We kind of did it all. After drying our clothes, we spent about an hour looking for a decent Chinese restaurant on the main road called Queens. After no luck finding the restaurants we had in mind, we finally settled for this food court Chinese stand, where we had a vegetable dish with rice.
After our meal, which, surprisingly, wasn't bad, we split up with plans to meet at the car. I went to look for some souvenir shops, but instead ended up just wandering. Theresa took a brief walk through the casino, which was the largest in New Zealand. No time to actually sit down and play. We ended up buying some souvenirs just minutes before our Air New Zealand flight to Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Our flight was just four hours, enough to watch one and a half movies. Upon arriving at Rarotonga, we were surprised to see a guy singing in the airport to greet all of us at three in the morning. Our host, Rachel from Makayla Palms, was there to pick us up from the airport and drive us to the villa. We decided to stay at Makayla Palms because of an unheard of 98% recommended rating on Trip Advisor. It was like 75 excellent reviews and 5 very good ones. Definitely lived up to expectations. It was our biggest (upgraded to a two bedroom villa) and one of the best places we have stayed at on this trip. The whole villa was pretty modern, just three years old, and would be perfect to live long-term. Unfortunately, just four days for us.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5411900853951886081&authkey=Gv1sRgCObVje6w15fb3wE&feat=email
Day 71 - "Take Two" - North Island - Rotorua, New Zealand
We bid farewell to Queenstown and headed to the airport to catch our JetStar flight back to Auckland. We rented a little Mazda 3 from Budget and headed out on our way to Rotorua. Rain and traffic prevented us from getting there by 3:00 pm to see the Volcanic Valley. When we finally got there, it was raining too hard anyways to be able to enjoy the walk.
So we drove back to city centre and checked 
into the Newcastle Motel, dropped off our stuff and headed out to dinner. We had heard of a good restaurant called Bistro 1284, a so-called "high-end" restaurant in Rotorua. As it was still early, there was only one other table in the restaurant when we arrived. We chatted with them for a bit. They were dairy farmers from outside Rotorua. Looked like they were doing well for themselves judging by all the food they ate and wine they drank. They were very nice, as is everyone we've met on our travels through New Zealand. Since the restaurant won an award for best beef and lamb, we ordered the filet mignon and the lamb shank and Eric had a nice glass of local pinot noir. Both meals were very tasty. We enjoyed the meal very much.
Afterwards, we walked around town for a bit and checked out some souvenir shops. We also got some ice cream from a local convenience store. Since we were pretty pooped from the drive, it was a relatively uneventful day. We drove back to the motel and called it a night.
Day 72 - "Waterlogged" - North Island - Rotorua, New Zealand
Today, we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal 
Wonderland. As this part of New Zealand is under several fault lines, there is a lot of thermal activity that occurs in this region. Many volcanoes have erupted causing various craters - some of which have turned into lakes. Beneath the ground is a system of streams which are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. Water is so hot (up to 300 C) that it absorbs mineral out of the rocks through which it passes and transports them to the surface as steam. Wai-O-Tapu is one of the places you can go to see the effects of these natural phenomena. It is also where Lady Knox Geyser, a 150 year old geyser, is located that was discovered about 100 years ago by some prisoners. As it was set to go off at 10:15, we headed out early to catch the action.
The park is about 20 minutes south of Rotorua. We got there with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately, it was another wet rainy day. We got to see the geyser erupt (set off by some soap stone). It wasn't as amazing as we suspect Old Faithful to be, but it's pretty cool. Apparently, there are only four countries that have these geysers - US, Russia, Japan, and New Zealand. Cool.
After the geyser blew, we hiked the four km around the park and saw lots of bubbling, steaming pools of mud and multi-colored water. It was pretty cool how the colors in the water indicate what type of mineral is in the water - sulfur (green), antimony (orange), silica (white), manganese oxide (purple), iron oxide (red-brown), etc. Unfortunately, it was raining a lot so the day wasn't as clear to see all the awesome sights. We don't think the pictures did the colors justice.
Afterwards, we drove to the East of Rotorua 
to go sledging. Sledging is also called River Surfing. You hold this buoyant sled looking thing with your hands and you go down the river. We were expecting a leisurely swim down the river. It was a bit more intense than we had anticipated. First off, you had to carry this 20+ lb sledge about one km up and down hills and stairs. It was impossible for me to do, so one of the river guides graciously offered to carry mine for me. We had to hop over a fence and then jump into the river. It was incredibly warm but gushing faster than we expected. It took a lot of kicking and sheer grit to get to where we needed to go. After going over a few waterfalls and drinking a lot of water, I was completely waterlogged and tired. Eric and I were ready to go home. We now know why it's categorized as an "extreme" sport.
After that crazy experience, we needed to slow the pace down so we checked ourselves into the Polynesian Spa and soaked our sore muscles in the alkaline and acid-water thermal pools. It was glorious. It was also interesting because it was a melting pot of nationalities - Americans, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Austrian, Middle-Eastern, etc. After an hour, we were all pruney from the day's activities. We took a nice hot shower and then went to dinner at Seismic.
After another tasty dinner of rack of lamb and rib eye, we went to a few souvenir shops and then called it a night.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5411265926431771969&authkey=Gv1sRgCL2D29zr6baCcA&feat=email
Day 70 - "Leaving the Sound for a Good Burger" - South Island - Queenstown, New Zealand
We got a wakeup alarm around 6:45 am. Breakfast was being served. It was rough getting up. I didn't sleep very well. For some reason, I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep. it didn't help that I got bitten a few times by sand flies and was itching like crazy. Not sure how I managed to get up, dress, clean the sheets off the bed and make it to breakfast, but I did.
Breakfast was a tasty scrambled egg with 
sausage, bacon, hash browns, some cereal and yogurt on the side. Couldn't ask for a better meal for an early cold morning. We also warmed ourselves up with multiple cups of hot chocolate and green tea. It was cold in Milford Sound in the early hours! I think I had on five layers of clothes and I was still shivering.
We got to see some fur seals (tri fecta of animal sightings!) and got to pass under some huge waterfalls that were three times the height of Niagara Falls. We also got to get really close to the mountains. There is this one point where the rock just drops straight down from 700 feet up in the air. Gives you a true sense as to how awesome mother nature really is and how small we are in the grand scheme of things. We were told that some lady base jumped off of that mountain. Nuts.
We got
back to shore around 9:30 am and headed back to Queenstown. Much quicker this time because we didn't stop for any sightseeing (mainly because I slept the entire way back and didn't demand Eric to stop so I could take pictures). Our first stop was Ferg Burger, #1 on Trip Advisor. It was very tasty, mostly due to the BBQ-like sauce that they put on the burger. I still prefer In n' Out, but it wasn't a bad substitute.
As the Scenic Suites were booked up, we used points and stayed at the Earnslaw Lodge which was slightly further outside of town. That wasn't a problem for us since we had a car. I quickly fell asleep and slept for the next four hours! I think it was the anti-motion sickness meds I took. I was drowsy all day. I finally woke up and we headed out to grab dinner at Fishbone. We decided to try the New Zealand crayfish (lobster). It was pricey, but we justified it with our casino winnings from a few days ago. I had a half dozen raw oysters and the clam vongole linguine which was tasty. The oysters were ok, mushier than what I like, but still tasty. 
Eric went to town on his lobster. It was very meaty and he made sure to eat every single piece of meat on that sucker. I was impressed.
We considered playing black jack again for an hour or so but the tables were more packed than on Saturday. We suspect an Asian tour group must have pulled into town because the tables were full of Asians on a Monday. Hahah. So, we decided to just go back to the lodge and prepare for the rest of our trip.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5411253265369984369&authkey=Gv1sRgCMDjhbLJmqO1Sg&feat=email
Day 69 - "Sound of Silence"- South Island - Milford Sound, New Zealand
Today, we were heading to Milford Sound. We signed up for an overnight cruise with Real Journey on the Wanderer. As we had heard that there were many stops along the way that we would want to stop at to take pictures, we gave ourselves ample time to make the drive from Queenstown.
Now we realize why South Island always gets a better rap than the North Island even though both have a lot to offer. South Island is extremely scenic with lush green landscaping, rolling hills, clear lakes, and snow-capped mountains. At one point, we were stopping every 2-3 miles to take pictures. Some cool stops along the way were the Mirror Lakes, which reflected the mountains and sky clearly, and the Chasm, a huge hole in the ground carved out by a gushing river. It definitely looked like Middle Earth. I kept expecting to see little hobbit huts along the way.
After a brief lunch and bathroom stop at Te Anau, we made it to Milford Sound, which is not really a sound at all. It's a fiord. One is created by water (sound) and the other is created by glaciers (fiord). We checked in with Real Journey and boarded the Wanderer. Real Journey has two boats, one, the Mariner, is the higher-end boat where you get 
private cabins and bathrooms. The Wanderer is the "cheaper cousin" with quad shared bunk beds and co-ed bathrooms. Although we wanted to do the private option, at this point in the trip, we really are more like backpackers and decided to "rough it" with the Wanderer.
Luckily for us, the boat was not crowded so we got a quad to ourselves. The boat holds 61 passengers and there were only 31 of us. It was still pretty packed, so it's hard to imagine how they could actually fit twice as many people on the boat. We boarded around 4:30 pm. They greeted us with orientation and some warm mushroom and capsicum (pepper) soup. It was a perfect start to the cruise as it was pretty cold outside.
The overnight cruise was really nice because by this time of day you pretty much have the sound to yourself. It was so serene and it was nice not having other boats cruising around disrupting the view. After sailing out to this bay called Anita Bay, we had the option of kayaking, swimming or boarding a guided tender to see the sites. As we wanted to actually get somewhere, we decided against the kayak, and as it was about 50 degrees in the water, there was no way in heck that we were going to jump in that water, so we decided on the guided tender tour.
We were told that we had lucked out because the bay could at times be very rough with waves of up to 7 meters. When we went, there was barely a ripple in the water, although one girl still got really seasick. We lucked out on the tender and got to see some Fiordland crested penguins. They're 
pretty tall, over 1 foot tall with these bright yellow eyebrows. We saw a few on the shore and one baby one swimming in the water.
We were told that Milford Sound is full of jade, of the boninite variety. This one captain spent years mining for this jade to sell to merchants in HK. When he arrived in HK, turns out that the merchants wanted neophrite jade not boninite jade cause neophrite is a darker jade. Apparently, the captain was so angry, he dumped the entire lot of jade into HK harbour and it all still sits at the bottom of the harbour. Apparently, some divers went down into the harbour and found some of the jade down there. Not in good condition, but still there.
When we got back to the boat, some crazy girls decided to jump into the water. They literally jumped right back out after jumping in, it was that cold. Crazy kids.
After everyone got back to the boat, we were served dinner. Dinner consisted of a tasty roast pork with apple sauce, roasted potatoes, some stewed cabbage and mixed vegetables and a fresh salad. It was all very, very good. Eric got seconds. Dessert was a pavlova with raspberry coulis. Basically, it was whipped egg whites with a lot of sugar. Naturally, we ate it up.
After dinner, we were told to go outside because 
there were some dolphins sighted. We ran out and got to see at least 10 dolphins swimming and jumping around. They were following the wave of the boats for awhile. It was pretty neat to see. The crew said they only get about one dolphin sighting a week so we were in luck.
We then got treated to a sunset on the mountains. It was really pretty, casting a pink haze over the mountain top. Definitely a nice ending to a good sightseeing day. We ended the night playing scrabble (I kicked his booty) and uploading pictures on the computer. Then it was time to try some co-ed showering and to hop into our bunk beds for a good nights sleep.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409863946295422273&authkey=Gv1sRgCLSQo-qvuuPxrQE&feat=email
Day 68 - "Do you ever hit on 17?" - South Island - Queenstown, New Zealand
We left Fox Glacier in the morning to drive down to Queenstown, which was about a four hour drive. There were so many scenic stops on the way there, including Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawaea, lots of waterfalls and snow capped mountains, that it took us longer to get where we were going due to all the pit stops we made. 
We decided not to do one of those Lord of the Rings tours because it looked like pretty much anything in New Zealand could have been used in the movies.
Once in Queenstown, we checked-in to the Scenic Suites. The rooms were nice, but walking in the hallway was strange, it sloped down and kind of looked like the hotel was converted from a parking garage. Clean, modern, and convenient was all that mattered to us. We then took a five minute walk to city centre. Queenstown reminded us of Tahoe, a cool, small ski town. We had a late lunch at Winnie's Pizza. With a name like that, we had to eat there. Theresa had a pizza called "Zucha" which was made with roast pumpkin, spinach, olive, feta and roasted almonds while I had the "Tre Factor" pizza made with prime rib, bacon, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. Both were pretty good.
We then walked around the marina and decided to have ice cream at Patagonia for the free internet access. Since we were not hungry at dinner time, we went to Sky City Casino to play Black Jack. It was a pretty small casino with just a five dollar table and ten dollar table. A few differences as compared to Vegas - drinks at the tables are not free, dealer cannot accept tips,dealer gets his second card until after we've all hit or stayed, and there is a side bet called perfect 
pairs where you win if you get the same number card with either 1) different suits, 2) same color, or 3) the same suit. We were doing well. I was getting a lot of blackjacks, probably ten in all, but unfortunately, half of it was on a $5 bet. Theresa was winning some money off of the perfect pair bets. I walked away up $150 and Theresa up $108.
We played with one couple who were betting at least $25 at a time and knew how to play. Can't say the same for every other person who played at our table. There were a couple of people (yes, more than one) who split their tens with the dealer showing a high card(Dealer just grinned at us and said, "Sometimes it works."). Another woman kept hitting when dealer had a less than a six showing and staying when she had less than 17 but the dealer was showing an eight or higher. I could not believe what I was seeing and I think Theresa was getting
annoyed because some of these crazy hands were hurting us. The all-time worst was a guy at the table who hit on 17! The dealer kept on asking, "Are you sure?" Even the dealer recommended to us that we bet the minimum. That was our sign that it was time to leave. We hightailed it out of there with our winnings.
We were slightly hungry by the time we left the casino (around 10:30pm) but sadly nothing was open to eat. We ended up finding a KFC (which, btw, happened to be in every city we visited on our trip) and had a snack there.
Back in our room, we called Star Alliance to change our flight from Auckland, NZ to Cook Islands. Because we liked New Zealand so much, we extended our stay by two days and shortened the Cook Islands trip. Star Alliance made the change right away, no charge or hassle. It was so easy. We're fans of this "Around the World Ticket" and highly recommend it to anyone that has the time to take advantage of it.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409719272161486897&authkey=Gv1sRgCJCUyOCJi8CtiQE&feat=email
Day 67 - "Disgrace to the Race" - South Island - Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand
We bid our farewells to Christchurch and Steve and drove from Christchurch to Franz Josef Glacier on the west coast of the South Island. The drive was about 4 hours. Not too bad. There are two known glaciers here, the Franz Josef and the Fox Glacier. We decided to hike the better known Franz Josef because the tour times worked out better for us.
We showed up for our guided tour and proceeded to get our gear - trousers, waterproof jacket, gum boots, clamp ons, hats, socks and gloves. We looked like professional glacier hikers now! Our group was about 24 people. There was a big group of Asians that were part of our tour group, some were young, some were old.
From the get go, we could tell it was going to be a long day. To get to the glacier, you needed to hike across this long bed of rocks for a good 30-40 minutes. One of the Asians dropped out of the tour then, before even making it to the glacier. They always lagged behind the rest of the group, too. They said they would split up the groups between "faster paced" and "slower paced" people. We wanted to be in the faster paced group so that we wouldn't be stuck behind the slow people. Unfortunately, the groups were divided based on who got the clamps on their shoes first. We were too slow so we ended up in the slow group with the slow Asians.
It was pretty pathetic seeing this group of Asian people try to make it up the glacier. The older ones I understand, they're old, they need time. However, the younger ones had a poor showing of athleticism. The one girl in front of me was practically on her hands and knees for most of the climb. It was clear that this group had never done a day of exercise in their lives. It was pretty sad. One older Asian guy was really holding us back. Apparently, he had bad knees. Not sure why he thought it would be a good idea to go on a glacier climb with bad knees, but kudos to him for trying. 
We actually didn't mind the slow pace because it gave us time to take pictures while others were slow in climbing.
The other "faster paced" group wasn't too pleased though. They had to wait a good 20 minutes for our group to finish, so they were standing in the cold windy valley for a long time. It took forever to get back to the bus because the Asian group was so slow. We had to keep stopping and wait for them to catch up. Our tour guide, Harry, said that this was one of the slowest groups that he had ever taken up. By 8pm, we were all tired and grumpy and people were definitely getting impatient. The big group seemed oblivious, just taking their time walking 
without caring that other people were waiting. Hence, what a disgrace to the race!
Anyhow, the glacier hike was fun. It was neat climbing up stairs chipped out of ice and being surrounded by ice walls and an ice floor. We didn't go too high, but it was still a great view and the colors in the ice were amazing. I'm not sure the pictures did the surroundings justice.
By the time we got out of our gear and made our way to the car, it was already 8:30, a good 5.5 hours after we started our tour. We weren't in the mood to go to a restaurant and waste time eating there, so we just stopped at the local convenience store to grab some quick food to fill us up.
We then realized it was Thanksgiving in the U.S. So, we celebrated with our canned creamy chicken soup, Uncle Ben's microwave rice, a nuked corn on the cob and some smoked trout on sesame and poppy crackers. Happy Thanksgiving to us! I tried to find some pumpkin pie, but no luck. The closest I came was some roast pumpkin and capsicum soup in a can.
We had our dinner at our hotel for the night, the Sunset Motel, which was located in Fox Glacier. It was big and comfy and we had a good view of the mountains.
We had our meal, wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and called it a night.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409717768466862865&authkey=Gv1sRgCJS2hqTgitDIFw&feat=email
Day 66 - "Heading South" - South Island - Christchurch, New Zealand
We got up early to return the car and hit the airport. Interestingly, here, when you turn in a car, you just park it and go in the terminal to return the keys. There's no inspection of the tank or whether any damages were done to the car. Easy enough.
We had a good flight to Christchurch and had the task of finding another rental car company when we landed. We went from counter to counter looking for a cheap car and the winner ended up being Budget. 
We got the same car, a 2009 Toyota Corolla, this time it wasn't a hatchback and came in a nice red color. To avoid a repeat of the Wellington pain, we decided to get a GPS this time so that we always knew where we were going.
We made our way to our accommodation for the night, the Ashleigh Court Motel. The owner, Steve, was very friendly and spent a good 15 minutes telling us where and what we should do and eat while in town. On his recommendation, we had lunch at this place called Robbie's. A local pub type of place. I had a Greek salad and Eric had the beef schnitzel, which is the equivalent of what we call a chicken fried steak.
After lunch, on Steve's suggestion, we took a walk through the botanical gardens before hitting city centre. The botanical gardens were absolutely beautiful. The rose garden was amazing. Perhaps 100 different varieties of roses in that garden. I admit that I went a little crazy taking pictures in the garden.
We then hit the city centre and walked around. It's not a very big city, but it's nice. We stopped at the Canterbury Museum and the Christchurch Cathedral. We then walked to the local Casino to check it out. Unfortunately, we didn't make it past the front door as there was a dress code and our "thongs" weren't permitted. Thongs, btw, are flip flops, not dental floss underwear! :)
Since we already circled the town twice, we decided to call it a day and had dinner at the Dux Lux Pub and Bistro in town. It was ok, nothing special. I had some mushroom dishes and Eric had the nachos. Probably more fried food than we really needed to eat, but we could justify it with all the walking we did during the day.
We finished off the night with a laundry wash and a grocery run. They had about 8 varieties of apples at the grocery store and the biggest strawberries I have ever seen. Food is more expensive in Australia and New Zealand, but as one Aussie pointed out to us, this was because everything is fresh and organic. No chemically enhanced fruits and veggies here! The strawberries were huge and succulent. Like mangoes in Thailand, strawberries were my new obsession in New Zealand.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409713302561049761&authkey=Gv1sRgCPSqw7mxluj3Zw&feat=email
Day 65 - "Fish On! and Tackling the Zorb" - North Island - Taupo and Rotorua, New Zealand
We woke up early for our trout fishing expedition on Lake Taupo. As we had been told that this was the trout capital of the world, we had to do it. We met up with our captain for the day, Dan Basse, at 6 am on the marina to board the White Striker. Dan said most people average about 1 trout per hour. We averaged almost 3. In a span of less than 3 hours, we managed to catch 8 trout ranging from 3 lbs to 5.5 lbs. Eric was the angler of the day with the big catch.
Trout fishing is very different from bass fishing or even deep sea fishing. It's what Dan called "chardonnay fishing" cause you can sit and sip your chardonnay without having to hold the pole. He has an automatic reel that takes the lure down to 150 feet or deeper, and you sit and wait for the reel to start jiggering. Once it does, you have a fish and you wind it up. Trout don't fight as much as bass or grouper, but it's fun to see them jump in the air to try to get off the hook.
New Zealand is pretty awesome about maintaining its natural beauty. They don't allow any bait fishing on the lake, only lure fishing. They also don't allow you to fish between 12 am and 5 am which is the trouts' prime eating time, in order to prevent overfishing of the lake. They don't stock the lake, everything is au naturale.
After our fishing expedition, we took one fresh fish and one smoked fish with us. We dropped off the fresh fish at Waterside Restaurant. We told them we'd be back in a few hours to eat it, after we'd taken a trip to Rotorua to go ""Zorbing".
We then hopped into our car and drove the 1 hour drive to Rotorua. New Zealand is known for its crazy sports, they invented bungy jumping. Zorbing is another silly activity created in Rotorua, New Zealand - so we had to try it. Basically, you are like a hamster in a giant hamster ball. You can opt to do a dry run down the hill or a wet one. Also, either straight down the hill or on a zig zag. As it was highly unlikely that our stomachs would be able to handle being tied in and rolled down the hill in the dry run, we 
opted to do a tandem wet run down the hill. This required them to fill water about 1/5 of the way into this huge plastic ball, then we jumped in, and then they zipped us up. Then we proceeded to do the initial push off the plateau of the hill by walking like a hamster.
The ride down was pretty fun. Just imagine how it would feel like to be put in a giant washing machine. Basically, that's what it was like. We slipped and slid all the way down the hill. The video isn't that great cause I didn't manage to hold the camera steady when we went down. Just a lot of sloshing and us laughing. Maybe that's why they told us camera's weren't allowed. Oops. We were completely soaked when we got out. I was done for the day but Eric decided to go for a second run down the zig zag path. He said that one was more fun cause you got jostled around a lot more and you never knew which direction you were going in. It was funny seeing him roll around inside this giant hamster ball. So silly.
Running late, we couldn't really explore more of Rotorua and had to head back to Taupo to eat our tasty trout. The cook did a superb job cooking the trout. Interestingly, the trout here are pink, they look like salmon. It was very meaty and tasty. We couldn't get enough of it and picked the bones 
clean.
After our lunch, we knew we had a long drive ahead of us to get to Wellington. Since we were behind schedule, it wasn't likely that we would get there before 11pm, so we tried to make up the time by driving faster. Bad idea. I got busted going 115 kph on a 100 kph zone. In my defense, that really is less than 10 mph over the posted speed limit. Such bad luck. The cop was really nice though, smiled when he gave me the ticket, told me it wasn't the "crime of the century" and proceeded to talk to us for a good 10 minutes afterwards about our travels and how we liked New Zealand. Well, I liked it a lot until I encountered you, buddy!
We were then on our way again (going probably under the speed limit now). We made a pit stop along the way at the McDonald's. It was the trendiest McDonald's I have ever seen. So modern and clean, in the middle of nowhere. Guess "Maccas", as they call it here, is improving its image.
We finally made it to Wellington around 10:30 pm. We hadn't previously booked a hotel since we figured it was a Wednesday night and a big town. BAD IDEA. Every place we stopped at was booked full for the evening. The only place available was on the pricier side and we didn't feel like paying so much to be in a room for less than 8 hours. After circling town for awhile and having no luck finding a place, our next bright idea was to find a hotel near the airport since we had an early morning flight.
Well, finding our way to the airport was another issue. We had a map and it pointed us to the airport route but after 3 times of circling the town we kept ending up at the same darn McDonald's we ate dinner at. Ugh! We thought we were just lost since it was hard to read the tiny map in the dark. Finally, we realized it wasn't us, it was because the on ramp was closed due to construction. There was no on ramp to the airport in town!
We then found another route to the airport and got the heck out of Wellington. I'm sure Wellington is a great town, but I really have no desire to go back to visit after this ordeal. By this time, it was close to midnight, we were both tired and grumpy (probably me more so) and got even grumpier when we realized there were no hotels on the way to the airport.
We finally decided to head to the next town instead. We came across a place called "Airport Motor Lodge". It didn't look so great from the outside but by this time we didn't care. We were willing to pay 5 star prices for 2 star quality if it meant we could take a shower and lay down and sleep. Luckily, it wasn't too pricey and turned out to be a really nice motel. It looked brand new! At least one thing went right.
We finally got to take those hot showers and hopped into bed. Christchurch tomorrow!
For pictures of the day, we have two links (we exceeded our memory limit on the other account). Go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5409032816188534705&authkey=Gv1sRgCP325qL9qYrQmAE&feat=email
and
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=eric.chang1&target=ALBUM&id=5409045839040798513&authkey=Gv1sRgCNKMz93Dj9CqBA&feat=email
Day 64 - "Worms, Eels, Chickens and Moles" - North Island - Waitomo and Taupo, New Zealand
Today, we headed to Waitomo to check out their famous underground glowworm caves. The drive wasn't too bad, about 1.5 hours. On our way there, we called the original blackwater rafting cave company that is supposed to be the most popular. Naturally, it was booked up for the day. So since we were already on our way, without doing any research, we picked another one - CaveWorld. They seemed to be "wide open" - hmm, that sounds like a red flag. In any event, we had no choice, we were already on our way.
We finally got there and started with a boat ride through the original Waitomo Glowworm Cave. It was your typical limestone cave with stalagmite and stalactite formations. They were pretty strict in that you couldn't touch anything, couldn't take pictures, and had to keep quiet when in the glowworm area of the cave. The glowworms were pretty cool. When you looked up, you saw thousands of little glowing blue lights. It was almost like looking at stars in the sky. The light is emitted from the larvae of the fly, the purpose of which is to attract bugs to the light. Once the bugs go near, they are stuck by these sticky webs spun by the larvae. What's strange is that once the larvae hatch, they become mouthless flies. They only live a few days before they die from starvation. Not exactly sure of the purpose of these flies in the balance of mother nature, but they're pretty in their larvae stage.
We then had a quick burger lunch at Curley's before heading over to CaveWorld to check in. It turned out that we were the only ones signed up for the 3:00pm tour. Our guide's name was Wini. We went with him in a beat-up van (whereas we saw the van for the other company, which was new and pretty) down the street to this shed where we picked up our wet 
suit, hard hats, aqua shoes, and gum boots.
He then drove us up the hill to this secluded area. At this point, Wini hadn't said much, just telling us to watch our head and what equipment we needed. We were not sure what we had signed up for and were a little nervous. In the middle of nowhere, we get out, and walked down a path to pick up our inner tubes, then took a long walk up another hill to the entrance of the cave. With inner tube in one arm, we made our way through the narrow cave. Just two of us and the quiet guide going into this pitch black hole in the ground. After a brief walk, we eventually hit water, where we had the inner tube around our waist and slowly went deeper into the cold water in the dark. We made our way by holding on to the person in front with Wini guiding us by following the wall. It was then time sit on the inner tube for a ride through a glowworm tunnel. But before doing that, Wini showed us how to get in. He stepped up on this edge and with inner tube on his butt, just fell back. It was dark so you could not see how far he was falling. It seemed like a 6 foot drop to the water when we finally tried it (although when we later saw the picture, it was more like 4 feet). We then turned off the lights on our hard hats, linked ourselves from arms to legs as Wini led us down the glowworm cave. We then realized that the glowworm cave tour that we took earlier was just a waste of money since we saw it here. We really could not see anything except for the glowworms. And here, we were allowed to touch the walls, take pictures, and talk as loud as we want. Apparently, when you make loud noises, the glowworms are supposed to glow brighter.
As we are 
rafting in pitch blackness, Theresa asked Wini if there were ever any animals that go down into the cave. He said "sure, there can be crayfish...(OK, that's cool)...spiders (um, that's not cool)...rats (seriously NOT cool) and EELS (omg, Theresa freaked out now). Theresa really, really wished that she had not asked. Jokingly, we think, he said if something warm touches your butt that it wasn't his hand and that if that happened to make sure your butt cheeks are clenched when sitting, just in case. At this point, we kept our hands in our laps. (On the way out, we actually did see an eel in the water. Luckily it was at the end of the trip and not the beginning). The last thing we did was take an inner tube down a slide. Again, it was pretty dark and we could barely see how far it went. Pretty fun. Overall the innertube ride took about 1.5 hours. Now for the rough part, walking through the cave and up the steps to our van. We were all winded because of all the equipment we were wearing plus the water in our boots weighed us down. We were glad that we did this trip through CaveWorld because we got a private tour, could take as many pictures as we wanted, and we probably would not have as interesting of an adventure if we went with the other blackwater rafting trip which seemed a little more refined.
We then returned to the shed where we returned the equipment. While we were showering, Wini made us chicken soup in a cup, which was great after being in the cold water. We sat around and chatted with him about New Zealand and his one trip to the US. He did a trip years ago to LA, Grand Canyon, and Vegas. It was funny that LA and Vegas were his impressions of the country. We then said goodbye to Wini and drove back to the Executive Motel in Taupo.
For dinner, we went to a nearby restaurant called the Chicken and Mole, which seemed like a local hangout and supposedly known for their lamb shanks and seafood chowder. We had both plus the pan-fried fresh catch of the day. All the dishes were really good. Every spoonful of the seafood chowder had a piece of seafood in it - mussels, scallops and fish.
We came home and Theresa busted out her carton of New Zealand strawberries. They were huge! Food here is great because it's all organic. You know it hasn't been doctored in any way. According to her, they were really tasty.
We went to bed early because we had some fishing to do at 6AM. All in all, a pretty good day.
For pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5408890746103308545&authkey=Gv1sRgCLqKyqef1oOWoQE&feat=email
Day 63 - "Hot Water and Cold Sandwiches" - North Island - Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand
Our plan for the day was to take a drive over to the Coromandel Peninsula for a day of sightseeing. One of the skippers on our Ted Cruise in Santorini who was from New Zealand highly recommended the area. When we woke up, it was freezing! Since I had only one pair of pants and no long sleeved shirts, we decided to do a little cheap clothes shopping. The receptionist at the hotel recommended this store called The Warehouse so we headed there to look for some warm clothes. I ended up getting a comfy sweatsuit for $45 NZD. Not bad.
After breakfast - Burger King for me and a chocolate muffin for Eric - we were on our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. Part of the way, we came across a shiny red Ferrari. We had heard that cars here cost almost 3x the cost in the U.S., so we could imagine how 
expensive that car must have cost in New Zealand. It had to be the only one on the islands! We guessed the guy (in his late 60s probably) owned those Warehouse stores, cause after having gone to one, we notice them everywhere now.
We drove up the west coast of the Coromandel peninsula. We stopped at an iSite location (tourist visitor centers all over NZ) and asked for recommendations on things to do. The woman recommended this train ride that Eric had also heard about elsewhere. We decided to go there. Before that though, it was time for lunch. We had lunch at the Success Cafe in Coromandel Town. Eric had a chicken lettuce tomato sandwich and I had to try to famous New Zealand green mussels. The mussels were ginormous! Probably 3x or 4x the size of the typical mussels you see in the states. They were tasty, but after awhile, I was getting grossed out by the size. It's like eating one of those big slimy oysters after having tried a kumamoto.
After our meal, we headed towards the train ride, which was called Driving Creek Railway. The railway was built by a single guy who owned 60 acres of land. It took him 27 years to complete the tiny railway. The ride was a bit hokey, but it was cute. It took us to this lookout point which provided great views of the western side of Coromandel Peninsula. This side of the peninsula reminded us of Point Reyes, a bit hazy, rocky and grey. They farm oysters and mussels on this side of the peninsula.
After stopping at a few amazing lookout points, we decided to head to the eastern side of the peninsula. We had read it was completely different from the western side, so we had to see for ourselves. It is indeed different. More of a beach town with pretty blue waters and sandy beaches. Since we've been cooped up in a car for so long, we decided to take a 45 minute hike down to Cathedral Cove. The hike was a good workout with lots of uphill and downhill pathways. We think we saw a kiwi bird on our way there. It was a short fat brown bird that kept chirping at us while hopping around. It chirped and then ran into the bushes. When we got to Cathedral Cove, the cove itself was closed off, but there was a cave there that we explored, a small waterfall, and an almost deserted white sand beach. Water was on the chilly-side and there were some nice waves.
We had read and heard about this hot water beach that was nearby. Basically, when it's low tide, you can dig a hole on the beach and hot water comes out of the group and you have your own personal hot spa. Low tide was at 6:45 pm, and we got there around 7pm. We knew it was late and we still had a long drive ahead of us, but we couldn't resist stopping to check it out. At first we were skeptical because it was grey and chilly outside. When we got to the beach, we could see the tops of peoples' heads in the distance, so we decided to hike down to the beach. On the walk there we saw all these people carrying shovels, so we started to worry that we wouldn't be able to experience the hot water since we didn't have a shovel. Luckily, we found a deserted hole in the group and waded in (it's only about ankle to calf deep). Still skeptical, to our surprise, we were greeted 
with some super hot water! Certain spots were so hot that you couldn't stand there for too long or else you'd probably blister. It was amazing. You look around and you see people just chilling in these little water pits they dug up, some drinking champagne, others reinforcing their sand walls. These holes were about 2 feet from the surf. It was crazy how the surf was so cold but the water spas were so hot. You could see the water bubble up and steam come out from the ground - it was that hot.
Sadly, because it was so late, we didn't have time to actually change into our swim trunks and laze around. Instead, we got back in the car and started our long 4.5 hour drive to Taupo where we were staying for the evening. Since it was so late, we didn't want to stop for dinner at a restaurant. Instead, we went to Woolworth's, loaded up on some snacks, and Eric made us some ham and cheese sandwiches out of the back of the car. Sadly, that was the second night in a row we didn't have a hot dinner. Nevertheless, it was a tasty sandwich.
We reached Taupo around midnight and finally got to stretch out our legs and go to bed.
For the pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5408869393680249745&authkey=Gv1sRgCPCR1vuJrJyilQE&feat=email
"what the heck?!". Turns out that he found a wing and a leg of a roach on the wall in the living room. We suspect it was the Raided roach. Strangely, we never found the rest of the roach. Perhaps it was eaten by one of the many geckos co-habitating with us? Or was it like the commercial where after the roach is Raided, it explodes? "Raaaaiiiid? Poof!" It's a mystery we'll never solve. 
We took a little internet break in the only place really open in town and then returned back to the villa for a massage for me. Rachel, our host, helped book me a massage with Janine, a kiwi who has been living here for 3 years. There is this nice gazebo right off the beach. We decided to do the massage there. While not the cheapest massage I've had on the trip, it was the most serene. It was nice laying there with the island breeze blowing and the sound of waves in the near distant background. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep. It really doesn't take much. While I got my massage, Eric took a lounge chair onto the beach and enjoyed the view (when he wasn't taking bad pics of me getting a massage). 
walked about five minutes down the road to have dinner at the Pawpaw (Papaya) Patch where we enjoyed some local pork and curry fish. It was a pretty night and a nice end to an otherwise awesome time in the Cook Islands. 
