hello Arrived in the Cook Islands on saturaday after another long flight and were immediately greeted with temperatures of 30C which is pretty different to those of California a few days ago. The airport is one of the prettiest i have ever seen with women handing our flowers and 3 guys playing music as you get off the plane. There is only about 7 arrivals to the airport every week so they still see it as a special occasion. We were picked up by a shuttle bus and a very camp guy. The bus was so stuffy, we were desperate to get to the hostel for showers but he stopped int he local market so we could look at the stalls. Everything is so basic, there was pretty much only 3 things for sale- pearls, shell necklaces and fruit. The island just has one road which follows the beach all around so its pretty easy to get to grips with where things are. Veras beachouse is where we are staying, but this is a small complex made up of a main group of hostels on the beach and several other ones scattered around the island. The driver told us that Jenny would be staying on the beach front and me and miranda about 15 minutes up the road on a bit of pebbly beach with nothing else around. Managed to get us altogether in a hillside dorm though-its not next to the beach but only a couple of minutes down the hill and so much more convenient. Seems this place gets booked up really fast. After dumping our bags we made our way to the beach. Its exactly how I imagined with palm trees and clear water and travellers playing guitars by the beach. The day was really cloudy and we were only in the sea for about 10 minutes but still managed to burn our shoulders and necks so we look like real tourists now. Most of the other travellers have already been to fiji so are almost black. For our first night we wandered up to the Pacific resort which is a hotel and had dinner there. The menu was awesome and when we got the bill it was amazingly cheap. have stocked up on food from the shop for the rest of our time here though to save the budget. Our room is like a villa with kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 3 dorms but there's only 7 of us in there at the moment. 2 welsh guys arrived the day after us (Arron and James) and we've got on so well-they're giving us some great tips on what to do in fiji and New Zealand. Unfortunately they are off on a trek America tour 2moro though. Having a big BBQ tonight which should be good but its so chilled out here its hard to find anything else to occupy the time. Still got a few days so I'd like to hire a ped out to see the rest of the island and go snorkling. Having a great time and very very hot xxx