Not one to rub it in .. but ... we've just got back from a week long stay in the lovely Rarotonga!  

It's actually a funny story how this holiday came about, as originally hubby and I were to go away for a long weekend sans child.  Child was going to go to
stay at Grandma's place, Grandma and Grandpa had arranged their annual leave, an itinerary for the four day's was planned.  Preparation for this event
started months prior to departure, with trial stay over's at Grandma's to get said child used to the situation.  Hubby and I were counting down so excited, excited that we would be able to sleep in .. actually sleep at all!, we would be able to go to a cafe eat breakfast, have coffee, read the paper - all at our own leisurely pace .. we were salivating at the thought.  

Until about 4 weeks out from departure it started to dawned on us that we would be leaving the country and leaving our only child back here without us!  All
those thoughts start running through your head, what if something happened to her, what if she got sick .. what if there was an Earthquake here and we were over there .... !  The excitement started to fade and worry started to set in!  

To cut a long story short ... we just couldn't do it!  We just couldn't bring ourselves to leave her so we cancelled our plans, and decided to go away as a family instead!!!

I know - we temporarily lost our mind.   I was seriously questioning our decision when we were 3 hour's into the flight and child was still awake (despite Phenergan!) bouncing on her chair, kicking the seat in front of her and basically hubby and I taking turns walking her up and down the aisle trying to tire her out!  Pretty safe to say, we walked our way to Rarotonga!!

Aside from that, it was a great trip!  I'd heard mixed review's about Rarotonga and children and whilst it's not the child friendly mecca of Fiji, it certainly kept us occupied!

The endless swimming for starters.  A reef surrounds most of the island so the lagoon is perfect for swimming - clear blue waters, barely past waist height even as you venture out closer to the reef, and the snorkelling is amazing.  There is a great resource - http://cocotots.com - where you can hire babygear .. portacots, highchairs, buggy's, toy's even!  They pick up and deliver and quality is great.

It's not as expensive as it used to be - we did take a suitcase full of fresh meat for our stay though!  And I would recommend that to anyone visiting - it's easy enough to get through customs and the meat that they do have over there is not that great and comes from NZ anyway .. but they have everything else and prices are sometimes even cheaper than NZ!

We had a family staying next to us who had two children - 3.5 yrs and 16 months - and also saw a few other families there so it may be starting to appeal to the family market, and if you do happen to strike luck like we did and have another family staying next to you - immediately you have increased your entertainment options ten-fold!  Playdates sorted!

Anyway that's what I have been up to the past few weeks .. hope you have all had a great few weeks also, and I guess we are all on the countdown now until Christmas huh!  Someone told me 6 weeks and 6 day's today which made my heart rate go up a few notches!
 

Until next time,

Sovita.