Dear Friends and Family,
Long days, fear of falling coconuts, running out of gas on my moped, getting pulled over without a local license, getting bit by mosquitos, cutting myself on the reef, sunburns and eating; beans, eggs peanut butter and jelly, pasta and finding my towel are my biggest worries lately, it's tough but as they say, someones gotta do it! As i am typing our cat that lives here, Marmalade, is walking over the keyboard trying to get my attention and she just fell off the desk, so add that to another one of my worries! Internent is super expensive here, go figure, so I'll keep this entry relatively short...
Island life has been so nice, going from packing and repacking and moving from one place to the next for the past almost four months now has been getting a little exhausting so to end our trip on islands and relaxing was the best idea we could have come up with. It was a little odd at first when we got here and realized there was about 10 or so other people and it felt like maybe a couple hundred on the entire island, which can be drove around in a half hour! The first day was Meadows birthday but I'll backtrack a little bit to our journey here from Auckaland. We were suppose to get picked up by Tom, our friend there, and stay at his place but there was some miscommunication and we ended up staying out by the airport which was a nice little 60 dollar detour. These detours are what has my bank account down to triple digits and closing in fast! Anyway it turned out to be nice to be in a hotel and so we made the most of it and took off the next morning to get to our little paradise we're at now, Rarotonga which is the main island amongst the Cook Islands.
As I was saying, the first day we celebrated Meadows birthday lounging around and than drank of course at night. We recruited a cute Kiwi chick and played what the college kids know as beer pong (you throw a ping pong ball into cups of the opposing team and when you sink a cup they drink it), not rocket science which I learned from a English kid in Thailand who studyied rocket science isn't all that difficult! Really fun night and glad we got to a least get a little drunk for Meadow's birthday as tradition dictates.
Next day we didn't do much but get mopeds and meander around town where we ended up hanging out in a sports store watching old Michael Jordan videos for like a couple hours! That night I met some local kids next to our hotel/hostel and grabbed one of their boards and some fins and got a surf in for a couple hours. There is a super shallow reef that surrounds the entire island but if you walk out about a hundred yards there's a fairly decent break but it's a short 4 second ride and than you gotta barrow out or else you'll get scrapped up from the reef, I know trust me!
Next day we went on a hike through the mountains in the center of the island and it was reminiscent of Hawaii and some of the inner island hikes I did there but I would say the mountains here are a little more dramatic and beautiful. The hike was super good as at one point we found ourselves scaling vertical up a cliffside with ropes and little bars cut into the rock.
The other days we have gone out a couple times with a South African girl, a Swiss kid we call Swiss and an English fella. Here's my normal routine, wake up and eat eggs and beans, jump in the pool, moped around to the store or somewhere, eat a sandwhich, read or listen to music, chat with the people here, watch a movie, play with Marmalade or the puppy that wonders in and out, play cards and eat dinner usually pasta or something cheap and filling, and than chill out have a beer and go to bed.
The peolple here are super nice and friendly, last night I was in a bar and this really good world renown rugby player who was in town happened to be at the dive bar we were at and bought us all shots, it should be noted that this is a huge Samoan dude that could break me in half if he wanted but he was really a big puppy dog! It's really easy to hitch hike and get around here, Meadow has been doing it the most since Jay and I have mopeds now but everyone really is so homely and chilled out here.
Meadow and Swiss left us today and then there were two! Meadow and I over the last three years have logged in quite a big amount of miles together and it's always sad parting with him and all his games but we both talked and we'll probably see each other within a month or two anyway so no worries! I do love that kid, and Swiss will be missed too with his Arnold accent and hilarious sense of humor.
We are having a pig roast Christmas dinnner which should be really good and fun with the other people here and the locals and their families that own this place. Anyway, I h ave to run, short on time on my internet card, miss you all and love you lots. I have to go get some rest as Jay and I have a big day tomorrow, actually I think tomorrow might be our day off? I love you all and I'm sorry if it feels like I've ingored a lot of people but communication out of everywhere is just so expensive and plus it'll give us more to talk about when I get back, that's if I still have friends haha! Love you all! Merry Christmas!
Cheers,
Grant
The weather has
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