La ora Na!

Sometimes you fall in with a good crowd. Sometimes you fall in with a bad one. And sometimes you find the good crowd and then the bad one picks a fight with the security guard outside your window late at night.

Rarotonga was a blast. I changed the hostel that I was going to stay in so that I could spend more time with the girls that I met in Fiji. We hired a car and scooted around the island in a micra convertible for a day. I had a painting lesson and painted the man off the one dollar coin. We sat in beautiful clear water. And we went dancing with the locals in the Returned Services Association bar. All the English blokes from our hostel were there and got hammered, came home and tried to start a fight- ah, England, my home!

Two days ago me and Sam flew from Rarotonga to Tahiti which is where we are now- though we are counting down the hours until our flight to LA tonight. We spent last night in a place called Paea, the other side of Papeete and Faa'a airport (yes, three a's in a row, it is a mad place here). Tahiti is an odd place for us because it is French speaking. The people here are the Maohi, who are related to the Maohi on Rarotonga and the Maori in New Zealand. In the Cook Islands everyone seems to have a Kiwi accent and here they all speak French so it feels kind of odd to us here.

Yesterday we had a lot of sleep and went to the beach in the afternoon. We popped back later to watch the sunset. Today we got up a bit earlier and caught a bus to the airport to store our bags and then got a le truck into town. Le trucks are great- a big truck with wooden benches for half the price of a bus. Then we got on a ferry and went over to Moorea, another island in French Polynesia, closest to Tahiti.

It was very beautiful over there- lush green hills and clear water. We went for a walk and then a swim. This may prove to be something that I regret since I am sleeping in the plane tonight, in the airport tomorrow night and won't see a shower until Saturday evening. Hum, may have to see if there is a cheap motel near LAX for me to go and sleep and freshen up in. I arrive into LA at 2pm on Friday and then I am catching the red eye out of there at midnight and up to Minneapolis to meet my mate, Katie, who has organised something for the weekend. I hope to catch up with Chris from Korea and Erin from Dublin next week too before cruising into Milwaukee on Friday night to meet up with my family.

I have to admit that I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks- the lull before the storm of looking for work, I guess. Home in less than a month! Yikes!