Palmtrees, hot and the blue lagoon

Well, we arrived on Cook Island on schedule. We weren't sure when we got on the plane how long the flight would be, so we didn't really prepare for anything. The first thing Henke does on the plane is noticing that you could put your own USB-memory in the seat-TV so he did. We saw one photo, then the TV crashed. The flight attendant tried restarting it three times, but no luck... Henke was offered another seat, but turned down the offer. He regretted that later, since the flight was over 10 hours... I got to see two long TV-shows + one movie :)
On this flight we were surrounded by children. One Danish boy behind me who started to kick my back (but stopped at once as I turned around and told him to stop) and then the Dutch child infront of me... Honestly, if everyone around you are sleeping, or trying their best to do so, don't you tell your child to be quiet instead of saying ”Hello” everytime he shouts (yes, shouts) out ”MUMMY”? Believe me, if I ever become a Mum, I will keep that episode fresh in my mind... :P

Anyway, back to Cook. We got to our hotel, Muri Beachcomber, by shuttle-bus and was positively surprised by the state of the hotel.We see the ocean from our veranda and we have our own little villa. Very nice and very comfy!
We were also met, as we got in, by flowers everywhere (even on the toilet!) and a massive rain outdoors. Yes, rain. Well of course.
But it stopped fast and then we had sunshine. Took a walk along the beach, and I must admit that the pictures and postcards from this island aren't fake. It is as beautiful as it looks. Paradise beaches indeed... And we got company, two cute dogs that wouldn't leave our side.

A bit later we jumped into our bathing gear, had borrowed snorkelling gear and took off in to the turquoise water in the lagoon. Henke had never tried a snorkel before, but he got the hang of it fast. My snorkel wasn't tight enough, so I had to get up and empty out some salt water every now and then. We saw a lot of sea cucumbers (at least that's what we think it is) in various sizes, some long, spiky, brown cucumbers and fishes. Very nice colours on some, even the Swedes were saluted with blue and yellow fish! :) Henke was looking at a big one swimming by some smaller fish and, oups, one of the small ones was turned into food. That same fish got very close and personal with me later on... He wasn't scared at all, I guess he wanted some warmth or something, haha. Henke was glad it wasn't him, because he would've panicked (doesn't like water nor fish so...).
We had walked into the ocean not paying attention at all, but when we got back with snorkel on we saw that there were sea cucumbers all over the place. We must've walked on some of them, poor things. Now Henke is regretting wearing the snorkel since he now knows what's under the surface.

Today we took the bus into the town Avarua (the biggest town on Rarotonga) where we bought some groceries and had a look around. We ate lunch while being there. Henke enjoyed a smoked ham, potatoe, asparagus and blue cheese pizza while I was supposed to have a Greek salad with chicken, but the waiter forgot about the chicken... So I asked for bread with different sauces instead (was too hungry to wait for another chicken...) and he came out with just warm bread... Haha, not much going right there... I got it later though, some sticky hommous (really good!) and guacamole. Yum!

Once we got back I booked a 30 minutes massage for tomorrow (yay!). Then we sat on the porch for a while before I got the brilliant idea to sit out on the veranda facing the lagoon and ocean instead. Was enjoying the sound of the waves, looking up in the palmtrees and then suddenly I was wet and hit in the head and shoulder – by a coconut! Ouch! Could've been the end of mrs Medvik Hultin there... Got some ice on the head and I guess I'm still the same nutter so nothing dangerous (my shoulder hurts though...). The funny thing is that I looked up to see if there were any coconuts ready to fall, but they were all yellow and not mature. The one that fell was yellow indeed, but someone had been eating on it... :P So I warned the others coming to sit there after me, told them to wear a helmet :)

Well that's it. It's raining again, so I took a break. Still humid and the temperatures are like a very warm Swedish summer's day (around 25-30 degrees I guess).

O a o

Well, just to tell you about today as well, since we couldn't go out and publish the blog yesterday. Today it's Wednesday and I had my massage. A lovely outdoor massage done by a beautiful Cook Maori woman, listening to the sea breeze, birds, roosters and a lawn mower. :) Felt good, although not on the spot where my bruise from the coconut is...
What else have we done today? Not much... We walked about a kilometre to get to the better beach for snorkelling, but when we got there it was too much coral to walk on without reef shoes, so we walked back along the beach to our hotel, where we jumped into the ocean. Less sea cucumbers today, but that might be because the lagoon had more water in it, or?
I've become the talk of the complex here, everyone knows I was hit by a coconut... Oh well, haha! Landlady told me that they would ask the gardener to shake the palmtree to see if anymore fall down... :P Too late!

Sorry Mum for scaring you... A bit slow on the internet here, but we're ok :) And your warning came to late. Hehe
Song for the days on Cook so far have been, hold on Björn - sing it!

Ok, o a o once again.