Friday 9th July - Tuesday 13th July

The relaxing continued at a breakneck pace down at the shoreline, etc, etc.

That's how it has been mostly for us with the exception that the kids made a couple of Kiwi friends and played with them happily for quite a few days. The love of the water for both Molly and Amelia got stronger with Molly getting into snorkelling big time by the end of our week and Amelia riding the the light current along the shallows. Cries about "this yellow eel" or "this blue starfish" could be heard in all four corners of the beach - I'm sure you can imagine her sombre tones. The temperature went up a few notches, as did the suntan, and Leigh and I ploughed (Brit spelling again) our way through a few more pages of our latest book.

We did however break up the laid back approach with a trip into Avarua, the only town and capital of Rarotonga, for the weekly Saturday market. It was all good stuff with the four of us catching the longer anti-clockwise bus route around the island instead of the shorter, but busier clockwise one. No numbers needed here as there is only one circular available. The market had plenty more cultural showpieces of dancing and drum banging, as taught daily in the government run schools, and we wandered around the stalls taking it all in. Needless to say the kids managed to acquire a nice flowery Polynesian dress/top, each hand made by a local stallholder. We strolled along the harbour front and made our way to the Cook's Corner bus terminus via the ice cream cafe. Funny how chocolate here still doesn't taste quite how it should. Think we'll have to wait until Australia for that one.

The so-called solar eclipse was nowhere near being 100% coverage for us and for a change clouds made a point of getting in the way around the momentous

8:20AM mark. It was decidedly darker for whatever percentage of eclipse we received, but for all those stargazers up in the Northern Islands they must have been well cheesed off if they had failed to catch the full moment and the surely hefty holiday bill to boot.

We were doubly disappointed on Sunday morning

post-eclipse when Holland failed to get past the slippery Spanish in the World Cup final. The majority crowd around the pool were pro-Spain so at least the days events carried on in a positive light. I was still buzzing off seeing some Aussie in an LFC kit at least eight years old - away one, green and white - and wondering why on earth he

thought it was the right time to don his best clobber. Other than the mandatory overseas Man Utd wearing fan the only others showing any allegiance were our own kids. They were so disappointed with Johnny Heitinga's sending off for Holland that post match we needed an extra long table tennis session to snap them out of it and set them back on the steady Raro pace all over again.

Leaving was a little hectic purely because we were up at 4:15AM to get ourselves in order. Most Americans wouldn't bat an eyelid at that kind of an early rise, but now we were back in Brit mode we most certainly did. Oh and $55 departure tax, what a rip off. Good job we had some cash left at the airport as the ukelele-playing singer bade us farewell otherwise we may have had to stay!! We couldn't have managed the powdered milk anymore I'm sure, but Rarotonga will certainly remain a special place for us all, even if it is just the memory of the clear as crystal waters.

Once again I took exception to the fact that we essentially lost the 12th July - Val's birthday, so hope it was a good one, we tried to enjoy it - and Amelia still pulled a funny face when trying to work out why the International Dateline was what it it is. At the exact "12th to the 13th moment" both kids were making the most of "G-Force" courtesy of Air New Zealand's in flight entertainment, Leigh was in the toilet and the geek that I am took a pic of the airshow as it sat on the mysterious dateline.

The only other downside was realising that Amelia had let her ipod shuffle and headphones fall down the back of her Rarotongan bed prior to us doing a runner, so hopefully we can contact them and get them back. She was very upset at the time, but we'll sort it out once we get a moment in Oz. If the cleaner has Scouse lineage somewhere then maybe we'll just have to buy Amelia a new one.

Both kids managed brilliantly and even with a couple of hours worth of layover in Auckland to change flights they were still going strong when we landed in Sydney. So from "Kia Orana" to "G'Day Cobber" and the jetlagged foursome made-do with room service before getting some kip. Gaining another four hours, as we had done from Denver to the Cook's the week before, left us pretty knackered by 6:30PM when Leigh and the kids dropped off. No idea what time we will actual wake up tomorrow but I'm sure penning this (8:00PM now - 4AM Denver tmw, midnight Raro, 10AM UK) and being the last one to bed will leave it's mark on us in a cool and blustery, but sunny Sydney, when the kid's body clocks kick start during our peak REM sleep no doubt.