From: Bexxoliver@hotmail.com

Sent: 20 May 2004

Subject: Email 2, Rarotonga

Hi everyone.

We had a great time in Raratonga. We managed the cross-island trek, which was very strenuous, took 5 hours and we climbed over mountains. The highest mountain we climbed was over 400metres. Then it was down hill the rest of the way, which sounds easy but was even harder as it was slippery from the heavy rain we had 2 days before! We managed to cycle around the island once again but in the opposite direction and viewed a beautiful sunset on the west side of the island! Andrew went up in a microlite for 30mins and flew over one side of the island, the pilot even handed him the controls for a few turns.

Fiji was disappointing we were not impressed on the first day! There is not a lot to do there but relax and relax some more. The beaches on the main island are not very attractive! You have to go to the outer islands to have nicer beaches and activities. We went to South Sea Island, which was tiny; we walked around it in less than 10mins. We enjoyed it here, as there was plenty to do! We snorkeled, viewed the corals from a glass bottom boat, kayaked and Andrew played volleyball with some of the locals and other travellers.

We didn't think it was worth staying in Fiji any longer, it just didn't compare to Raratonga. Therefore we decided to get an earlier flight to New Zealand and arrived in Auckland last night. First impressions of New Zealand are a Big Thumbs Up!! Today we spent the whole day looking around Auckland and booked our tour with the www.kiwiexperience.com (Sheep Dog), we start this Monday and will travel over both islands over a month.

We will email towards the end of our kiwi experience tour and update you on
our travels!

Love Andrew & Kathryn
xx