Raro Update with Pics

Hello All,

There is a scene in the Tom Hanks movie, Castaway, where the character waits for the shifting of the wind to make his escape off the island he is stranded on. He builds a makeshift ‘windsock’ and waits. He feels something change in the air one day and watches as the sock drops, only to be picked up by a new wind coming from a new direction.
I’m not suggesting that we are ‘stranded’ but we certainly have felt the shift of the ‘Trades. It was remarkable actually. For those Socials/Geography geeks out there we watched an amazing sheet-lightning storm roll past south of Rarotonga and the wind became calm. There had not been much wind in the first five or so days here anyway but then… Within moments the wind shifted to come out of the South East, which is where the Cyclones develop out of here, and in a rush it hit. No, not a Cyclone (they usually don’t appear until January or early February), just some strong Trade Winds. Our extremely flat, idyllic lagoon has turned on us. We are still enjoying every minute of our beach but if we want flat lagoon area to snorkel or explore we have to go to the west of the island which now lies leeward.
The girls are doing great! They have ‘school’ each day and are in the water constantly. We bought a Tropical Fish water card and have checked off about 15 fish from its list – the water is clear and the fish are everywhere – lots of them. Snorkeling has definitely been a highlight here.
It’s day 9 here for us and we are starting to get tanned, we are learning to relax and finding out the ‘tricks’ of hanging out on a South Pacific island. I’ve made friends with a Kiwi fellow just down the way who has graciously given us his password so that we can use his internet. A great guy who is on a long-term rental of a gorgeous house as he runs his Cook Island travel magazine called ‘Escape’ – Pretty apt isn’t it? Everyone seems to want to ‘escape’ here. So we are able to catch up a bit now with on-line activities, like posting more pictures.
Not only do we have the blog but I will be posting pictures from time to time too. Click on the following link to see some highlights of Rarotonga so far – http://picasaweb.google.com/SoJAYMM/Rarotonga1?authkey=HLqrYLAohLM#Thanks so much for all of you that posted a message to us on the blog or have emailed – keep them coming as it is a great way to at least feel a little connected with each other.
More to come…. Kia Orana

Cook Islands....Paradise Found

Hi Everyone,

Sorry this took a while to update for the first few times but we are having trouble with internet - so finally....here we go. We got here realtively easy and Air NZ was really great. Stepping off the plane we hit warmth! Ahhhh, just what we were looking for. The Cooks are pretty well visually stunning. It is very warm, with some great rain downpours but lots of sun. Unbelievable oceanscapes and we have absolutely the best place on the Island - and I'm not kidding. The beach, water and snorkelling couldn't be better. I'll attach a few pics to let you see. I will also update more at a later time but for now this will have to do.

Day One!

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to our Blog. We are sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting to take off in the next hour or so. After such a long time of waiting our trip is finally here! We are going to try and update this page as often as possible and fill you in on our happenings.

Sophie and Ayden have been such great troopers. Marn and I are very proud of them for all their patience. They teach us so much. We are sure hoping that this next 6 months or so will build memories that will last a lifetime and, perhaps, change their lives.

Thanks so much to all of you that have been such a big part of the build up to this adventure. Off we go....