I thought everday was Halloween...

Greetings from the land of OZ. We arrived here in Auckland on Nov 1st due to dateline issues (Happy Birthday Petey!!!), entirely missing Halloween (which isnt a big deal to me as most of you know.)

Lets see, how to update quickly... So far we have been to LA, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Honeymoon Island, One Foot Island, Aitutaki, and now New Zealand.

Highlights from each island:

Bora Bora: we had an amazing room over the water. Fed the fishes through the floor of the bungelow. The lagoon there is brilliant. The water is so clear that when we were swimming with the sharks in the ocean, we could see the scuba divers at the bottom. Thats pretty freaking clear.

Moorea: The resort sucked and we cant say enough bad things about it. However, the island is so beautiful. French Polynesia is the only place I have been where the postcards dont do it justice. Not even close. Did lots of shopping for pearls there, amidst complaining to the hotel. Swam with dolpins there, and then Jamie jumped in to swim with some humpback whales. I was way too seasick to move. During this whole portion of the trip I wasnt feeling well. Both having a major freak out about all the change in my life, as well as not feeling well. Have since calmed down and been stricter about what I am eating.

Tahiti: We were only here for a day while waiting for our 4am flight. What we really loved about all these places is that you are always greeted with music at the airports. So beautiful. we spent most of our time in the main square watching the food vendors set up, then watching the band play. We walked around a bit, but frankly all the traveling really gets us tired.

Aitutaki: Met a fantastic Australian here, and some wonderful Italians. Meeting up with the Australian in Sydney. Aitutaki is an atoll, which a group of tiny islands. THe main island is home to 2k people. Really really small. It boasts being the best lagoon in the South Pacific. It certainly must be one of the largest. We were only here for 2 nights, but long enough to fall in love with the really kind people. everyone knows everyone. We also took a trip to Honeymoon Island and One Foot Island, which says it has the worlds smallest post office. Tropical paradise indeed. Cant wait to see those pictures.

Rarotonga: we only stopped here because the plane was stopping here and I heard that the singing at the church services was really good. And I did a terrible job of planning it because we were only there while all the stores were closed. However, the church services were out of this world. No freaking kidding. I might go back there just to see it again. The entire church singing in 6 part harmony, men and women, men calling out to the women and the women responding. I cried almost the whole time. It was so beautiful. Each week a village is featured (they sit together in their villages) and sing a lengthy song in the middle of the service. Wow. Cant say enough about it. We also voted in the Raro Idol competition, which is the Cooks version of American Idol. Some really really good singers, although most of them have never sang solo like that and were really camara shy (it was being televised.) Met some wonderful med students at the contest who we might meet up with in Christchurch. Speaking of which, the nasty thing on my finger that kept bleeding is now really gross. I am heading out to the doctors after this to get it taken care of. Its probably a wart, but it weeps all the time, and is really painful. The med students highly recommended getting it taken care of.
Here we also saw a 65 year old man climb a coconut tree in his bare feet in 8 seconds. Amazing. We also made an entire traditional meal over hot rocks by wrapping chickens in banana leaves, as well as lamb, and bananas. It was really interesting. Met a great Australian and Italian couple who insist they take us and ICC out in Melbourne. We will definitely give them a call as they were really nice. They live half the time in Italy and the other half in Melbourne. Rarotonga was really nice and we wished we'd had more time.

Auckland: Well, we are frankly being really lazy here. Watching some movies, just wandering around, and I had a Starbucks! Mainly we are planning the rest of NZ. We realized that neither of us noticed that there was no transportation in our budget so we are in some serious sticker shock. But we are renting a camper van on the South Island and going to just cruise around and suck it up. We think its what Pamber would do. The van is spray painted with Asterix, the cartoon character. Hysterical.

Well, I am running out of time on the computer as I got to IM D for a bit and hear about Peteys birthday which Eagle and I are both kicking ourselves for not emailing him. We really miss everyone, but are having a fabulous honeymoon. Sorry there is so little detail here, but so much has happened. Hope to get more detailed shortly.

Lots of love and kiwis!