Richard & Jana's Honeymoon May 2009 0 Leave Heathrow for honeymoon 11-MAY-2009 13:40:29 Flight thankfully left on time (always a good start to a honeymoon!) and to be honest, the 9-hour flight flew by. In-flight entertainment has improved a lot this past decade so we both just watched a good selection of films and TV shows 0 Arrive in Beijing 12-MAY-2009 09:35:33 Flight arrived on time. The signs in the airport were very well marked however information on the best way to get to the hotel was very limited. In the end we caught the express train to its end point (DongZhimen) then a rickshaw (those guys are suicidal on the roads!) to the hotel. The Regent hotel really is a beautiful place and even though we got there 3 hours before official check-in, they got us a room and rushed off ahead of us to put rose petals on the bed, in the bath tub and gave us a large selection of fresh fruit. We spent a bit of time relaxing/sleeping in our hotel room and checking out local TV (AXN-Asia is our favourite) then went for a stroll to the Forbidden City. One thing we quickly found is that the maps are very deceptive about how big this place is... took us an hour to travel 3cm on the map!! By the time we strolled along the northern edge of the Forbidden City, we were insanely thirsty and ready for food. We hadn't really seen any nice restaurants along the walk so strolled back to the hotel, stopped in a food store across the road for provisions (bottled water, iced tea, Pocky and crisps) then had dinner in the hotel Cantonese restaurant Li Jing Xuan. Had prawn dumplings, wok-fried vegetables, noodles, scallops and Peking duck (bones included). Was expensive but nice - only fault is I'm not keen on eating duck meat off its spine (and definitely not with chopsticks!). Shared a bath filled with salts and rose petals then went to bed. 0 Tour of a Jade Factory, the Ming Tombs and Great Wall of China 13-MAY-2009 08:00:24 Felt surprisingly awake when we got up at 07:00. Had breakfast (traditional hotel buffet) then met our guide Stanley in the hotel reception. As this was a personal tour of just us and him, he was happy to detour the trip slightly if there was something else we wanted to see so our first stop was a Jade factory. I know a lot of people speak negatively about these since it is basically a hard sell by the government to buy their stuff, but to be fair the people are very talented artists and it is predominantly a family trade (children learn how to carve jade from as your as 8). Some of the largest pieces such as the boats are amazingly well detailed and very impressive pieces since only made of a single piece of jade. We had a brief introduction on the history of jade within China and how to tell its quality before being sent into their store. The key we found was to just wander and never look at 1 item for very long unless taking a photo - the moment you show any interest in a particular item they will start trying to sell it to you. We had already decided that we did want some jade as a souvenir so found some very pretty translucent green Temple Lions - did some bartering and managed to get 25% off the marked price. From here we went to the Sacred Way and Ming Tombs. The site for the tombs were chosen by using the ancient Chinese Feng Shui principles and the Sacred Way is a massively long and straight road that leads to these. Stanley first took us to the Shengong Shengde Stele Pavilion erected during the Qing dynasty. Inside this pavilion a massive stele is found on the back of a giant tortoise (one of the 9 children of the dragon). After this the road has 18 pairs of statues of various real/mythical animals and humans. For each type of animal there is a pair of statues showing it stood and another pair showing it kneeling (to allow for changing of the guard). The last 6 pairs are the humans depicting each of the classes represented in China (e.g. Generals, ministers, officials etc). It really is a peaceful place first thing in the morning. After the sacred way we went to the Changling tomb where Zhu Di was buried. Zhu Di was the 3rd Emperor of the Ming dynasty and responsible for moving the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and then building the Forbidden City there. As a result of his accomplishments, he is buried in the largest of the 13 Ming tombs. The tomb is truly huge and a very impressive yet peaceful place. All the buildings have yellow roofs as this was the colour of Earth so therefore the Emperors colour - only he could have yellow roofs, clothing etc. As you look around it is very impressive how many of his possessions survived the elements/looting and also how much the Chinese still respect their Emperors - everything is very well looked after and regularly repainted. From here we drove to Badaling for a buffet lunch and then a walk along the great wall. The buffet lunch was very nice with a large selection of food including vegetarian dishes - the black pepper noodles were deceptively spicy! Standing over 5000 miles long, the Great Wall of China is the largest of its kind, is one of the new 7 Wonders of the world. Contrary to popular belief, it is not visible from space due to fact that it is only 7m at its widest sections. Because of its popularity with tourists, the Badaling section is regularly rebuilt and well preserved however this also means it is one of the busiest sections of the wall. We had read a lot of reviews stating that this section is full of people trying to sell you stuff however we found this was not really the case - a few people tried to see you drinks or souvenirs but they left you alone if made it clear you were not interested. Once you are on the wall, travelling north-east is certainly the easy direction however we recommend you go south-west if you want to avoid the crowds - plus you get much better views of other sections of the wall. There are very steep slopes and steps however so take good shoes! We didn't quite realise how steep some sections were until heading back - this caused Jana a few issues since she has vertigo! If you get to go on a bright sunny day like we did however, the views are absolutely breathtaking! Although you hear and read how long it is, you can't quite grasp it until you see it disappearing off in to the distance in both directions. Stanley took us on the scenic trip back to the hotel so that we could see the Olympic village and stadiums. Once there we were shattered so just spent the evening watching AXN-Asia, drinking copious amounts and eating snack food. 0 Tour of Tian'anmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace 14-MAY-2009 08:00:48 An even earlier start to the day! It wasn't as sunny today however this also meant it wasn't as hot as yesterday. Filled ourselves up with another buffet breakfast then popped downstairs to wait for our tour guide Michael. This was always going to be a group tour but turned out to be with just three other people so that was a happy surprise for us! First stop was Tian'anmen Square which was not what we expected. I know it's hard for a large area of pavement to look impressive, but there isn't a lot to see or take photos of. The square is surrounded by the government building, Chinese museum of history, Forbidden City and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The Mausoleum is only open for a few hours a day so the square is insanely busy first thing in the morning with Chinese people queuing to see his body. From the square we walked in to the very impressive Forbidden City. Built in 1406 when Emperor Zhu Di moved the capital back from Nanjing to Beijing, it was home to the Emperors of China during both the Ming and Qing dynasties. You really do not realise how big the place is until you're stood outside the first of its three entrances. The city contains 999 buildings to show that it is almost as important as the great Jade Palace in heaven which has 1000. The buildings are repainted every five years and with great care to detail but despite all this renovation, you can only view about 40% of the city. This is still a LOT and you could easily spend a day just here! Our guide was very knowledgeable about Chinese history, architecture and pointing out useful features of the city without overwhelming us. Each of the buildings are just stunning and the Imperial Garden was just beautiful. At first you think it must've been very lonely for the Emperor in such a vast palace until you realise there were probably thousands of people maintaining the city. Most tours in Beijing take you to a factory to show off an aspect of Chinese manufacture for which they are famous - this time it was a silk factory. We got taken on a brief tour showing where they get the silk from and how then convert this in to items such as a duvet. Some of the clothing in the store was very nice and well made but we weren't that interested in purchasing anything and prices are not that much cheaper than back here in the UK (unless you can haggle really well) so spent our time chatting to the others on the tour. Eventually they showed us where the exit was and we continued to the Temple of Heaven. Built in 1406 at the same time as the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven is a complex of buildings used by Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties to pray for a good harvest. The main temple is a very beautiful, 3-tier circular building that was impressively made solely out of wood and using no nails. You are unfortunately not allowed inside any of the buildings here but as they are all designed for prayer, you can see most things from the entrance. The central Vault of Heaven is a smaller structure and surrounded by the Echo Wall. Because the wall is circular so an excellent shape for reflecting sound, they reckon people standing against it can clearly hear noises made anywhere along it although there is a barrier in the way to preventing us testing this. From here we went to the Heavenly Centre Stone where the Emperor used to make his prayers to Heaven for favourable weather. It's a very pretty location and does not take long to view. Lunch time! Unlike the buffet yesterday, today we went to a restaurant in a pearl factory where they brought a selection of dishes out for us to try. The meat dishes were very nice but Jana was unfortunately limited to rice, two types of cabbage and a bland tofu soup. We were then given a tour of the pearl factory and each allowed to take a pearl from an oyster Jana picked. As the group after us put theirs back, Jana took theirs too! Our third main stop for the day was the Summer Palace. It had started to rain very lightly by the time we got here but not for very long. Built later than the Forbidden City, it is actually larger however three quarters of the palace is technically water. The lake and gardens are very beautiful and it's very obvious why the Empress Dowager Cixi spent most of her time here. The garden also contains the "Long Corridor": a 728m long covered promenade that is officially the longest of its kind. The entire structure contains over 14,000 unique paintings and whilst we had no chance of looking at all of them, the ones we saw were very beautiful. When we got to the end of it, there was a very large Marble Boat built by Cixi to relax in. From here we paid the massive sum of ¥10 (£1) each to ride on a dragon boat back to the start. We stopped briefly at a Tea House where they showed us all the types of tea you can get in China (very nice if you like tea) then took a long drive back to our hotel via the "Birds Nest" again. We popped to the convenience store to buy some noodles/snacks for dinner then relaxed watching TV. 0 Arrive in Hong Kong on way to Sydney 15-MAY-2009 17:10:58 The trip from Beijing to Hong Kong was probably our most worrying since Austravel had managed to make it worse every single time we asked them to fix it - guess what: they still managed it when we're thousands of miles away! Took a taxi to Beijing airport (easier than using the undergroud and cheaper too!) then arrived at the Dragonair counter to find out that Jana can check in fine all the way to Sydney however Richard was unable to as apparently his ticket from Hong Kong to Sydney was cancelled on the 1st May! We showed them the printout from Austravel showing this should not be the case but all they could suggest was we collect our bags at Hong Kong, check in again and hope Qantas can see the booking. Cue Richard's most nervous 4-hours of his life (not helped by having the terrible looking film Elegy as the in-flight entertainment). Arrived at Hong Kong fine and customs were OK with letting us stay for up to 180 days since we're EU citizens. Went to departures only to find out that there were no Qantas staff there since they have very few flights a day. Had to hang around reading for another 2 hours before the queue opened up... and they could see Richard's booking! Checked in, changed some Yuan into Hong Kong Dollar so we could get something to eat and then enjoyed our first ever flight on a Qantas plane. The food was your usual average stuff and they were determined that Jana likes beans in all her food but otherwise a comfortable flight and good choice of films/TV. We're on our way to Australia!!! 0 Arrive in Sydney 16-MAY-2009 09:30:05 Qantas flights are nice enough but lets face it... the food is always either really nice or really bizarre! Dinner was a nice enough for us but breakfast for Richard involved a slice of omelette and Jana had beans again. After having to fill customs forms twice (they didn't like green ink!), customs was fine for Richard however Jana got taken to one side and asked various questions - apparently they weren't entirely happy with her passport. The train station is just a nice short walk in the terminal and - once we got off the train - found that our hotel was a 2 minute walk from the Circular Quay station! Got our first look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House... wow! These are landmarks we are all familiar with and to actually see them in real life is just truly amazing! The Quay Grand Suites was another hotel more than happy enough to find us a room hours before check-in. The suites aren't as opulent as The Regent but a LOT bigger and just has a very relaxing feel. It was really cool but surreal to see a famous landmark outside our hotel window. We originally planned to view the botanical gardens once we got here but sleep deprivation from the flight once again meant that we spent most of it either sleeping or relaxing in the suite. Found that Channel 7 and 9 are the best here... bizarrely they don't have a channel 8?! Took a stroll down to the Opera House then found a convenience store to buy some dinners and milk etc for breakfasts. Watched the sun set behind the Harbour Bridge then dived in our very comfy bed. 0 Lunch at Guylian, Opera House tour and walks through Botanical Gardens and The Rocks 17-MAY-2009 12:00:35 We woke up at a leisurely 9am, made ourselves breakfast in bed then chilled out in our living area enjoying doing nothing for the first time! The day before we had spotted a Guylian cafe down the promenade from our hotel so strolled down there for lunch. We both had a really nice ciabatta before indulging in some delicious chocolate desserts (so nice we had to photo them!). By the time this was finished, it was time to head to the Sydney Opera House for their "Essential Tour". Designed by Jørn Utzon and taking 14 years to build, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most distinctive buildings in the world - inside and out. This tour isn't as in-depth as their behind-the-scenes tour but we didn't mind. Our guide still took us to the venues not in use, gave us a very detailed history on the building and highlighted a lot of details about the Opera House we didn't know (how they get the curves etc). The final room to our tour - the Utzon room - is the only one designed completely by the original architect although to be honest, it was a bit too spartan and industrial for our tastes. We would have loved to watch a play whilst in Sydney but there unfortunately wasn't a lot that took our fancy whilst there. If you ever go, you must use their toilets... they are really very cool! Upon exiting the Opera House we decided to stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens back to our hotels. The garden is split up in to various zones and we went through "Bennelong" which contained the Government House and manicured lawns. When we got back to our hotel we found that there is a market every week in The Rocks so took a stroll over. The Rocks - established in 1788 - is the oldest part of Sydney although very few of those buildings still exist. Despite this, it still has a lot of character and even more so when the market is there. There's quite a lot of the "usual" market stalls but also a lot of aboriginal and local craft stalls with some very pretty pieces. It's a shame we got here when stalls were starting to close as we would've enjoyed experiencing it in "full swing". We took a stroll along Sydney Cove back to our hotel for dinner and curling up together on the sofa. 0 Visit our friend Jakob 18-MAY-2009 12:23:43 Another lie in for us with home-made pizza toast for breakfast. We'd never met our friend Jakob before although we'd known him for years on the internet so we were a little nervous for this day to have finally arrived! For a previous Christmas present we had bought Jakob a custom [SOD] t-shirt (SOD is the Guildwars guild we're a member of) and ourselves ones too so we just had to wear them for the first time we're meeting. The train network in Sydney is very easy to figure out and with regular trains so was easy to catch a train to where he lived (we had pre-arranged what time we were meeting). Once there however we realised we that we had no way to let Jakob know what we had arrived as we'd left his phone number at home! It took Jana a while to get the phone number from directory enquiries but then Jakob was there before we knew it... also in his [SOD] t-shirt! We had a guided tour of his place, dinner and played a load of games - it was really nice to meet each other in real life and hated leaving. We almost had to stay the night after we missed our planned train but thankfully there was one more that evening although it took a slightly longer route. Our most relaxing day of the honeymoon so far and a truly memorable one. 0 Explore Sydney 19-MAY-2009 10:00:52 Today was our day to just relax and stroll around Sydney. As our meet with Jakob yesterday felt really brief, he kindly agreed to catch a train in to Sydney and stroll around with us. After meeting at the Circular Quay station, we strolled around Sydney cove, under the Harbour Bridge and up to the Sydney Observatory where we had some nice views of the surrounding coves. From here we headed down to the famous Darling Harbour then on to the very relaxing Tumbalong Park (would've been even more relaxing without the school kids on field trips!). We were going to head in to the Chinese Garden of Friendship but decided in the end that our bellies were more important so headed back to Cockle Bay Wharf to hunt down somewhere nice to eat :) If finding a Guylian cafe near our hotel was great, imagine our joy at finding a Lindt Chocolat cafe!! After the initial hassle of the counter woman throwing away our order, we had some very nice sandwiches then ordered ourselves some yummy desserts to take away with us. We strolled through the city centre to see the Sydney Tower before going to the relaxing Hyde Park and St Mary's Cathedral. There was a very pretty fountain there we took some photo's of then crossed the road to The Domain and Royal Botanical Gardens. You really could spend a whole day just walking and relaxing in this place - it is that vast (you can also get lost as we found!). We found a nice promenade in the rose garden where we could get out of the light rain to eat the VERY delicious cakes, then walked to the Sydney Opera House (where we viewed a very pretty rainbow in Farm Cove) and back to the hotel. Bizarrely, it was an advert telling us how unhealthy pizzas are that made us decide we wanted one for dinner. Despite the rain we headed off out in to the city centre to try and find a pizza restaurant that did takeaway (e.g. Pizza Hut) but after 30 minutes walking could not find a place. Defeated we headed back to our hotel only to find out that the Italian on the ground floor would have delivered it to our room!! The very helpful manager not only took our order but delivered it himself to our room - very impressive! We pigged out on pizza then watched TV until it was time for Jakob to catch his train home. 0 Trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park and Blue Mountains National Park 20-MAY-2009 08:00:54 0 Wild Australia Experience tour of Taronga Zoo 21-MAY-2009 09:00:11 0 Spent time with our friend Jakob, meal at Aria restaurant then night-time photos 21-MAY-2009 19:00:26 0 Arrive in Cairns then travel to Palm Cove 22-MAY-2009 16:35:36 The morning passed by pretty quickly - got up, checked out of the airport then caught a train the domestic terminal of Sydney airport. Richard had realised he'd forgotten to pack any swimwear for this honeymoon(!) so bought a pair of shorts from duty-free. Had a croissant and cinnamon swirl for snack then caught our plane to Cairns. This airport is a lot smaller than we were expecting... it's almost quaint really! We picked our bags up then organised for a bus company to take us to our hotel and pick us up on the way back. The hotel is a very pretty and impressive place to turn up to - the whole front and back walls of the reception area were open doors giving a very open feel. Once we checked in to our room we relaxed on the bed for a bit before heading down to the pool bar for drinks and free canapés. We strolled along the beach (a nice alligator warning sign to scare you a bit!) and investigated Palm Cove. We found a supermarket so bought ourselves some snack food before heading back to the hotel to relax. Palm Cove really has a peaceful aura to the place and the wildlife sounds from outside the hotel are very soothing. 0 Snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef 23-MAY-2009 06:50:58 Today's the day we swam with the fishes (not in the way old films meant!). Woke up at the luxurious time of 6am and got picked up at 6:45 by a minibus to go to Cairns Harbour. The ride there was pretty quiet but then it was very early - got to the harbour a little after 7am and boarded the vessel Tusa 5. We got greeted by the very friendly staff and given the obligatory safety talk (wonder how dumb some people must be for some of the things they have to outline!) before being told that we would be going to the Thetford Reef. Weather turned out to be absolutely glorious with almost no wind and no clouds... perfect weather for being outdoors. Got kitted out with our snorkelling gear and given an overview of the barrier reef whilst on our way to the first spot - this took us a little over an hour. Once there we put on the sun-cream, snorkel, fins, a noodle flotation device (saves us having to both keeping ourselves afloat) and jumped in. Jana has always been a little nervous about deep water etc so took her a little while to put her head in and look down, but once she did she saw it was a completely different world. I know it seems daft saying this but the reef really is teaming with beautiful colours and so much life it is unbelievable! We saw fishes of every colour in the rainbow, coral of all shapes and sizes, even some Clownfish (Nemo) in sea anemone! We just drifted around looking at one of the most beautiful things we had ever seen - if you stop still for long enough the fish all just come back and swim around you. By the time we went back to the boat 2 hours had passed and it was time for lunch. Lunch consisted of what turned out to be a very varied and enjoyable buffet. There was a very good selection of food including vegetarian and after "pigging out", we went up to the top deck to relax in the sun whilst the boat took us to the next destination. The next spot was a "Horseshoe" reef named after its obvious shape. This reef wasn't as flat or shallow as the last one but this obviously lead to more varied types of fish. We had the boat photographer take some nice shots of us before we spotted a family of 5 Clownfish swimming around an anemone. We watched these little guys for a while before we had to go back to the boat and rest (time passes very quickly in the reef!). For the trip back we swapped from the top deck to the front for a while which proved a very good choice as some dolphins decided to join us on the trip back! We'd never seen dolphins swimming with a boat before and were very majestic to see - a great bonus. We purchased a couple of photos from the day the bid the boat fair well and took the bus back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel we relaxed for a bit before strolling along the beach in to Palm Cove itself. We watched the sun start to set then ordered a take-away pizza and strolled back to the hotel. Move TV whilst eating before catching another early night. 0 Helicopter ride over the Great Barrier Reef 24-MAY-2009 10:30:39 Woke up nice and early then headed down to the hotel lobby to wait for a taxi... a taxi that the trip organisers forgot to book! Called the company and they eventually got one to us 40 minutes late. Thankfully the helicopter company didn't have an overly busy day so didn't mind. We had a safety briefing with another elderly couple who were celebrating the wife's birthday so going with us. I suppose if you're not a confident flier then this bit could freak you out a little as he warns us everything that could go wrong... but the bloke was very confident as to be honest - if it happens, it happens. We got a couple of photos taken before lift-off then took off. The trip took us east to Green Island then north to a couple of smaller Cay's before heading back - the trip absolutely flew by but the perfect weather helped make is absolutely spectacular. We really would recommend to anyone that if you want to experience the Great Barrier Reef, make sure you see it from the air. Seeing massive coral reefs disappearing off in to the distance is really breath-taking and we would have loved to spend longer just flying over it. It was a bit sad to head back to Cairns but we got some great views of the coastline including Palm Cove. Once landed (this is so much smoother and quicker than planes!) we headed back to the hotel and relaxed reading in the sun. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Jana had delicious Kingfish with a side order of "the best" mashed potato she has ever eaten. Richard had the Outback Trio which consisted of Yabby (a small crustacean similar to a lobster), Crocodile and Kangaroo. The Yabby was very delicious although you can only eat a small portion of it. Whilst good to say he has now tried Kangaroo, Richard found it very tough and not that flavoursome despite the best efforts of the chef. The Crocodile on the other hand had a consistency of chicken and tasted absolutely beautiful - would happily eat it again! 0 Arrive in Brisbane on way to Cook Islands 26-MAY-2009 07:35:09 This was the first and only airport where we didn't have to collect our luggage - made even more worrying by the fact that we arrive at the domestic terminal then had to catch the train to the international terminal. Thankfully they give you vouchers so the train is free, otherwise our stay here was brief and very painless! Still getting very average food from Qantas (including Jana's Rhuberry muffin - a strawberry/rhubarb muffin made without any dairy products... yum!) on possibly the oldest plane yet (no buttons on the armrests, just twisty-dials!). Our trip to Auckland showed the very poor Paul Blart: Mall Cop. 0 Arrive in Auckland on way to Cook Islands 26-MAY-2009 14:55:27 Why is it that the fine for not declaring something is $200, whilst the fine for making a false declaration is $10,000? Surely that just prompts people to see what they can get away with? As we didn't have pockets full of coral or turtles, the customs process was the same as everywhere else - simple but lots of queueing. Got checked-in straight away then went through to departures: big mistake! Turns out that whilst the airport itself has a large variety of dining options, the only thing through in departures is a Burger King with no vegetarian option and a Cafe Expresso with only a few bits of food left. Both got ourselves a pie and drink to keep up occupied then hung around waiting for our plane. Was quite interesting "people watching" and trying to guess who else was going to the Cook Islands for their honeymoon. This was the first time we had a row of 3 seats to ourselves - was quite nice for Richard to not have someone punch him in the ribs every 5 minutes with their elbows (made up though by the unruly children in front). 0 Relax on Cook Islands at the Rumours of Romance 26-MAY-2009 01:05:27 When Rumours say they give you the VIP treatment, they really mean it. Tino met us at the airport giving the traditional flower garland then drove us to our villa. He also drives you back again at the end of the trip so you never have to worry about taxis late at night. From the moment we unlocked the door and saw our own private pool and jacuzzi we knew we'd picked the right place. The "beachfront villa" is huge and beautifully furnished. The four-poster beds are beautiful, the marble flooring with streams (containing fish) are beautiful and the view is just perfect. Even the lighting has been carefully thought out to make everything look high quality, romantic and beautiful. If you want a romantic place to stay in the Cook Islands we could not rate this place high enough. The island is so peaceful/romantic that all you can hear at night are the birds and sound of waves hitting the coral reef. You get a complimentary basket of milk, juice and snacks then free daily breakfast at what ever time you want - or delivered the day before - and have the option of continental (breads, cereal, fruit juice, yoghurt and muffin/croissant) or American-style (eggs, bacon, hash browns, tomatoes and bread). They triple-filter the water at Rumours of Romance so that you do not need to rely on bottled water (a very nice touch!). Each villa has 2 kayaks and they can supply snorkelling equipment when you want it. They have a massive DVD/CD collection free for Rumours residents which is very useful for the evenings since there is only 1 TV channel (it's very cute though as everything has a "home-made" look). The coral sand beach is quiet and the coral reef is so close there are shells, hermit crabs, broken coral and wildlife everywhere you look. You don't really need to swim or use snorkelling equipment to see all the fish! Whilst you can easily rent a scooter or car, a bus was fine for us - Richard still got a Cook Islands driving license though from Avarua (costs $20/£8). The main town is very quaint - there are no big-name supermarkets or fast-food restaurants anywhere so there is a great local charm about the place. Lots of souvenir/jewellery stores however the place has not been "tainted" by the 21st-century so everything suits the island. There is a law in fact where houses are not allowed to be taller than the nearby trees just to make sure the beauty of the island is not spoiled. Got approached whilst waiting for the bus by 2 people who work for the local TV - they wanted us to say a few lines for their new upcoming tourism video... obviously we agreed! We did find 1 big supermarket just a 5-minute trip west of Avarua which was very useful for daily provisions. Whilst there are activities on the island such as flights, jungle tours, boat trips, fishing and "Island nights" (dancing, fire dance etc), we chose just to relax here and spend our days enjoying the sand, sea and sun. It's very easy to get used to "Cook Islands time" and just go with the flow. 0 Arrive in Auckland again on way home 31-MAY-2009 05:00:00 Got to Auckland just before 05:00 - Jana had her cheese sandwich confiscated whilst clearing customs (also getting really good at these arrival cards now!) then went to see if we could check-in for our 17:55 flight. Teresa the check-in attendant was very helpful making sure we could get the best possible seats for both this and the LA-London flight then also tryied to make sure Jana stopped getting Lactose-intolerant food. Then began the 12-hour wait! There really isn't a lot you can do in an Airport and certainly not for 12 hours. After wandering around the shops and having breakfast at Subway, we found some empty seats on the 2nd floor in the "Lookout Lounge" (an area where family can look through and see their family in the departures duty-free area). We then spent the majority of our time - except for having lunch in the Spinnaker Bar - taking turns sleeping or reading our books. Eventually when through to departures around 16:00 and soon found that our boarding time had changed from 17:10 to 20:50! Qantas were initially very evasive about explaining why this was but eventually claimed that due to "adverse weather conditions" our plane had diverted to Christchurch airport. A lot of us felt this odd since other planes were landing and taking off but not a lot you can do... they gave us a voucher for $12 of free food to somehow cheer us up (this just led to huge queues everywhere). To make a long story short, 20:50 was a lie as well and by the time they had refuelled, resupplied and performed a security check it was 22:00. If this flight was perfectly on time we would have just 1 hour to get through customs and board our next flight in LA! The flight was OK and we both managed to get a brief amount of sleep but food wasn't very spectacular. 0 Arrive in Los Angeles on way home 31-MAY-2009 15:10:56 Unfortunately, with the flight from Auckland being delayed for so long it was 16:00 by the time we had waited for another plane to clear our bay, cleared customs and collected our luggage. Our original flight to the UK had therefore gone so Qantas automatically booked us on an alternative at 21:15. When we arrived at departures we noticed an alternative flight was due to leave at 17:40. We asked the amazing check-in attendant Erin if he could get us on that flight instead - this lead to us waiting around for 30 minutes whilst his colleague sorted us out but was worth it as they upgraded our seats to World Traveller, walked us through check-in to speed it up and we got on the same flight as Kate Bosworth (had to Google her when we got home as no-one could remember what she had been in!). The seats were really comfortable and the extra leg room made a lot of difference. Food seemed of a higher quality too - all good but doubt we'd ever pay the extra for all these minor things. Jana managed to get some sleep again whilst Richard filled himself on free drinks and watched basically every comedy TV show they had. Also found that "Marley & Me" has a really sad ending, "Bolt" is actually pretty good, whilst both "Happy Go Lucky" and "Easy Virtue" are both very very dull - only managed about 10 minutes of each. 0 Home again! 01-JUN-2009 12:10:11 Finally back in the UK! Customs at Terminal 5 is very quick and they have definitely sorted out the baggage issue. Was good to see even celebrities have to hang around the baggage carousel with us normal folk :-) Our taxi picked us up outside again and got us home just after 15:00. Have spent the rest of our time tidying up, unpacking and sorting this out!! Hope you all enjoy reading this and viewing our photos. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0