Rain and More Rain

4/21

So we woke up at about 10:30 and it was raining so we just sat in bed for a while—I looked at pictures on my computer. Later on it was still raining so we played blisters. In the evening it was still raining, so we showered and had dinner.

When it rains in a place where the only real thing to do is be outside—its not so much fun. So you take little things, such as the preparation of your food, or bathing yourself—and make them activities. Perhaps toasted peanut butter and jelly would be more filling…If I wash my hair a second time with this cheap shampoo will it be any softer? How many souvenir postcards should I write each day to be finished with them by the time we leave this place? With the money I have left, what is my daily allowance?

At least in Lennox when we had our rainy week we had homework to do, and 30 other people to play games with or talk to. Here, not so much either of the two. Of those in the hostel, a lot of them are pretty odd. I should be doing my math, but the internet is too slow and costly for that to be a practical idea.

Rachael and Craig went into town to get money, but I stayed because I don’t like riding on that bike. I guess they talked to the girls and they are all having a miserable time and annoying each other to death.

Other activities of the day included: writing postcards, watching the second half of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (but the sound isn’t great and the end of the DVD wouldn’t work…and ps...someone never fulfilled their promise) making souvenir lists, “packing” which was done for the purpose of rearranging our baggage and getting rid of clothes because both Rachael and I had baggage that was significantly overweight for travel within the US. Neither one of us really wanted to get rid of that much, so we put heavy books and things in our carry-ons and made a bag of “could but don’t-really-want-to throw away clothes.”

In going through and repacking everything neatly we showed each other our souvenirs and got really excited about being home and giving them to people.

Yesterday, while I was on the beach all day, I didn’t really wish I was home. But we have now heard a forecast that calls for heavy rain until Wednesday.

Please God, send sun. I’m trying to go to church tomorrow, so just take that into consideration.

Our Kitchen I Sat in Most of The Day

Sunny Day!

4/20

We woke up at about 11 and went to the beach. It was actually sunny so I was quite happy. However, after approximately 10 minutes it began to rain. I thought it was just a little drizzle…but it didn’t really stop so we went back to the hostel. Rachael and Craig went and found a coconut and we proceeded to do all of the work associated with being able to eat it. They are delicious though!

The sun came back out so I v-lined for the beach. This time it actually was sunny and hot for a couple hours. I just sat on the beach, listening to musical songs and singing them really loudly. I’m excited about possibly being in University Singers or getting to do a show this summer. I hope one works out; I want to be back up on the stage. I’ve missed singing these past few months.

While I was laying out 2 American couples came and talked to me for a bit, they were on a cruise of the islands and they were astounded at how beautiful it was. I agreed, but told them that they were pretty lucky in that they caught a good weather patch. Randomness for the day: the sand here is different from Australia—here it is more like crushed shells, whiter. I haven’t decided which I like more.

Rachael and Craig came back from town, having made a booking at the dive centre, Rachael had money wired to her, and they picked up some bread. Craig went back and signed me up for a dive…or two for Tuesday.

We started making a lovely dinner. Rachael cooked pasta, while I cooked some stir fry vegetables. We opted for no pasta sauce and just had butter and peppercorn seasoning on our veggie noodles. Then Craig cracked another coconut and we all helped peel it from the shell and chop it up into little pieces to make coconut chips. Well, I made the coconut chips and they didn’t turn out exactly like Darcy’s. We called ours Americanized candied coconut—because it was swimming in an excess of thick syrup rather that just little crunchy pieces. It was still delicious though.

Craig taught us a dice game called blisters, so we played that and exchanged pictures before going to bed.

Making Coconut Chips

Rachael Eating Them

Sugar toast?

4/19

We woke up around 10:30 and got ready to go to the beach. Craig took the bike over to the girls to ask them some questions about diving and hiking. Both Rachael and my beach towels were in the seat of the bike so we sat on a lovely little red blanket down at the beach.

We’re both pretty wiped out today. Then the rain came so we headed back to the hostel. I stole pictures from Rachael and defragmented my computer so hopefully it should be running pretty smoothly. We all sat around in the kitchen, listening to music and playing games about paying attention to the people around you. Like the one up one down, two up, two down game. Ever heard of it?

The sun came out so Rachael and I went back to the beach. We got about 15 minutes of sun and then it started raining again. So much for sun shiny paradise huh?! I showered and then we had dinner. Ramen noodles. I took a nap and got ready to go see this native dance show at a bar in town. We were planning on two of us riding the bike and then paying the advertised “hostel bus fee” of 6 bucks a person for the third. That was leaving at 8:30 so we all sat around and waited until they came out at 8:35 and said they weren’t taking people because there weren’t enough of us.

So Craig took Rachael in, and then was going to come back to get me. While I was waiting, I decided t have a piece of sugar toast. I was all excited... the toast came out golden and the butter melted perfectly. I put sugar on top of it and spread it all around and took a nice big bite—only to discover that it was not in fact sugar…but salt. Lovely, eh?

It’s a fair ride into town so it was about 9:20 by the time Craig got back. The show had started at 9 so we were running a bit late. We got there and the place was pretty crowded. The voice of the band was pretty funny and he explained about all of the different instruments and types of dance. They pulled people from the audience. One of the girls was the Indy girl we had met the night before. The dancers were pretty amazing. Both the men and women…boy they can move their hips quickly!

Craig wanted the take-away place that we went to the night before so he took Rachael back and I walked to the place and ordered. It was dark on the streets but I felt pretty comfortable walking alone. I’m surprised Craig let me do it though because it was about a 20 minute or so walk. I waited a couple minutes once I got to the place and then put in the order. The food came out about a minute before Craig pulled up and we went back. It rained a bit but not too bad…I was just worried that he’d be able to see. I did feel more comfortable than with Rachael or by myself—but its still not my favorite thing. I couldn’t help but thinking that one of the three of us is going to die on it before we leave this place.

We came back and ate. I boiled some water to drink the next day. Hopefully it will be warm and sunny and I will need it on the beach. All of us are having money issues. I guess the girls across the island are having their cards declined and Rachael is having problems with hers, along with my stupid move about the BSU account, and everyone simply going broke.

We night go to steak night and pub crawling tomorrow evening with people from the hostel, but I don’t know. Money is tight!

Rachael and I stayed up talking until about 5am. I don’t even know how we did it, but we had both taken naps during the day. We talked about relationships—the good and the bad, about problems we had and just about a ton of stuff... She’s lived through some really hard things and it just amazes me how strong she is. It definitely made me thankful for the relatively easy life that I’ve lived thus far.

The Take-Away Place

Motorbike Crash

4/18

So today makes for a fairly interesting journal…where to start? We set the alarm for 7:30 because we were supposed to go on the cross island hike at 8. Well Rachael, Craig, nor I had the ambition to go…we were all pretty tired and jetlagged still. So Darcy (a guy from Africa staying here) came around to wake us up but we just stayed in bed.

Around 9:30 I got up and had some cereal for breakfast…which leads me another point. The food is quite pricey here. A regular half gallon of milk was like 14 bucks. The other girls that are staying across the island bought it. Luckily I had discovered my shelf milk which was only about 5 bucks. But my regular size box of cereal cost 10.

Anyway, I had my cereal and then went to lie in bed for a while. Spent a bit of time online—way too much money sending people messages and stuff…but maybe I won’t get back on for a while?

After that I came back to just relax in the room for a bit but Rachael couldn’t handle that. She needs to be doing something all the time. I am quite the contrary while I am on vacation. I like to do as I like, on my own time. There is no rush. No schedule. So why not just enjoy it and take it slow? Anyhow, we all three ended up walking to a car rental place. Rachael wanted a motorbike, Craig wanted a car, and I wanted a regular pedal bike. We ended up with a motorbike because I guess it was the best compromise.

Back to the walk though—we went to a cheap car rental place. However, we couldn’t make up our minds so we went to a dive shop to see about their prices. Then we went to Budget and were going to get a scooter there, but Craig and I couldn’t be on the insurance so we didn’t.

So we walked back to the first place we went to, but the guy was gone. (They often just leave their shops for periods of time in the middle of the day.) So Rachael and I put on our suits because the sun had started to come out.

We were laying there for a while then Craig came and said that they were going to take he and Rachael to the other shop. This was perfectly fine with me considering I wasn’t crazy about the idea to begin with, and I was being driven insane by having no time to myself. I went out on the beach for about 4 hours while they got the bike. Craig took the test for his license (for insurance), checked out dive shops, and went to the other BSU girls’ hostel. I sat and read Bill Bryson’s book. It was overcast most of the day but I could still feel the sun and I was getting some personal time.

They came back and I decided that I would try to drive the bike to see if I liked it and would like to get my license. Well, Rachael gave it to me in our gravel driveway and I could barely get it turned around because it was so big. Then I finally got it facing the road so Rachael gave me a 10 second rundown of how to use it. Well obviously this wasn’t good enough, because I got on the bike and had to almost immediately turn onto the road. Those bikes aren’t that easy to turn, and I really didn’t know what I was doing so I didn’t turn enough and went right through a neighbor’s “fence.” This consisted of some tall bushes and a barbwire fence. I went straight through them and was headed for a palm tree but got the bike to turn just in time. I turned it enough to get to their driveway and out onto the side street.

I had a heart attack but still hadn’t really figured out to hit the damn brake. Partly because I had forgotten how to do so after my “tutorial.” I went straight on the road until I had to turn around. There was this man working out in his vegetable patch or something and I could tell he thought I was going to fall off of the road while I turned. Luckily I got it turned back around and back to the hostel. Rachael was standing there laughing at me. She was one of about 4 people who had witnessed my fence massacre. I was scared to death and felt horrible for the woman whose lawn I had run into. It seemed I had knocked down a small bush, as well as busted the barbed wire fence. Rachael said she had come out and Rachael apologized but she said it was fine she was just worried about me. I couldn’t find her to say anything.

The bike was a bit scratched up and I think I busted the light cover. I’m pretty sure that was all from the barbed wire. I had also taken a good chunk of skin from the front of my big toe and it was bleeding pretty decently. I was flipping out, worrying about how much money they will charge us for the damage—basically all day.

We made dinner. I had a salad and pears and the other two had quesadillas again. Then we came back and sat in the room for a bit. I read a couple pages of the book, stressed out and decided to take a shower in preparation for the evening.

We went to the Banana Court for the evening. We paid 6 bucks and got transportation and 4 mixed drinks. Pretty sweet deal. Darcy asked me to dance. So I did…not thinking anything of it. I like to dance...but he creeped me out…tried to kiss me to be exact. So I ran away and the three of us went on a hike to get food. We all got hot chips and I got a hotdog…which is breaded sausage on a stick. Hot, cheap and good. Then we went back and hung out at the bar for a while before it was time to go. We met a group of American study abroad students and talked to them a bit. Even a girl from Indy that went to IU- Katie Townly

Eventually the bus came and we waited 30 minutes for Ireland, America and New Zealand to come out. The 11 of us from the hostel then rode back with the owner and went to bed.

Rachael and I on the bike

At the Banana Court

Yep. Living This Day Again.

4/17

I woke up around 1:30pm. So I got Rachael up and we showered at went to get Craig out of bed. We waited around for the owner again and eventually he drove up and took us into town. It’s about a 20 minute car ride.

We looked at some car rental places, little tourist shops, and ate. I had a tasty little chicken and asparagus toasted sandwich. The beach is beautiful here.

The three of us went in on groceries and then we found out the buses weren’t running any longer so we had to have the grocery store manager call us a taxi. Luckily there were two women that were headed in our direction as well, so after much confusion we split the taxi fare.

When we got home we checked our email. There is a computer set up so you can feed a machine for internet access on the porch. Pretty steep prices and it runs pretty slow. 6 minutes for a dollar and that will barely give you enough time to open up your email.

We walked down to the beach and discovered it really is spectacular. The water is so much warmer than in Aussie and its Crystal clear. About a block away from the hostel there is a lagoon so it is very calm but you can see huge waves breaking out on the reef further in the water.

We met pretty much everyone else that lives in our hostel…about 7 other people. They all seem pretty nice. We played in the ocean with a girl from England-Claire and guy from Ireland-Colin. We threw sea slugs at each other.

We made turkey quesadillas for dinner and then sat around chatting. We are thinking about renting motorbikes but its just more money. I think we are going to wake up and do the cross island hike at 8am with people from our hostel.

Currently we are all sitting in the kitchen; I’m typing this and charging the camera battery because there are no outlets in our room. Which brings me to another point, this is definitely not the best hostel that we have lived in. Rachael and I are in a two bedroom room and the window is pretty much a wall wide and completely open. So it seems like you are sleeping outside.

The roosters crow like crazy here. We couldn’t really get to sleep yesterday. There are lots of random chickens walking around everywhere—lots of mosquitoes and other bugs. Rachael was flipping out last night because there were so many huge centipedes. This place reminds me a lot of Cozumel, MX.

The Island

Clear Water

Our Beach

Sleeping in Auckland International

4/17

I woke up several times during the night. The loudspeaker announcing the new changes in regulation about liquids in plastic bags haunted my dreams. Around noon we were all awaken for good by airport staff. We were told the airport was not a Backpackers and if we were looking for such a place we could surely find one close by. I explained to the man that airport staff had told us it would be no problem for us to stay there and sleep or shower during our layover. He responded that “It was midday and we could no longer sleep.” Who cares about time changes and living in the airport for a day?? Anyhow, we all angrily woke up.

We sat around for a while and made jokes about the man in his funny hat and then used the wireless that Craig had purchased. He was gone for the majority of the day with a friend from camp.

The day didn’t consist of much. Rachael and I watched “In Her Shoes” and walked around the airport looking in the stores and such.

Eventually we went and got our bags out of storage and checked in. We weaseled our way out of paying the 25$ departure fee which made us pretty happy. (You’re supposed to pay it if you’re there longer than 24 hrs) After all, we had already paid the airport 15 to hold our bags.

Customs presented no problems and after we went through security we sat in the same place in the terminal that we had on January 22 on our way in. Rachael and I took a little nap and then boarded the plane.

We got dinner—chicken, and watched “Music and Lyrics.” Oh no…what about the 1 movie a day quota!?

I wasn’t in the greatest mood simply because I had been around the same people all day—really without an escape. Not that I had a problem with anyone—that’s just me. I’ve got to have a little time on my own or I go insane.

When we got off the plane in Rarotonga the airport hosted a huge neon sign that said “Welcome to The Cook Islands.” It was about 4AM local time when we arrived and there was a native playing ukulele at the door. It was very easy to get through customs, but we waited a while for our hostel van that never came.

A nice woman who was working at the airport and getting off- offered to take us by so we hitched a ride with her. When we got to Backpackers International there was seemingly no one there, so we sat on the porch. I fell asleep until about 7am when the owner finally woke up and let us into our rooms. He apologized as he had “set his alarm wrong” or something.

Getting off the Airplane

I have to stay in the Auckland Airport How Long?!

4/16

I woke up at around 5 when Craig was leaving, but couldn’t get myself out of bed so I stayed there for a while. I had to take all of my letters and pictures down from my wall, and put a few last minute things away.

After I got everything packed I took one last trip down to the beach to just soak in The Point, and the Seven Mile beach—my home, Lennox Head. It really is an amazing place. All the lodgers got their stuff together and boarded the bus to go down to the cabins. Sitting there watching my friends wait to get on the bus was a bit sad…but I didn’t bawl like my roommates were.

We stopped at the famous...and apparently only… rest stop between Lennox and Brisbane one last time. At the airport we walked around looking at overpriced souvenirs for a while and then boarded the plane after much confusion about who needed new boarding passes and what not.

All of the Cook Islanders were seated together at the front of the plane. However, we got JD and Craig to switch spots so that I could sit by not only Rachael—but JD as well. That way Angie and Craig could sit together too. We all three watched “Freedom Writers” but sadly the entertainment was cut off before we got to see the end. I guess I will just have to remember it for 10 days when I will be back on the plane.

When we got off the plane it was weird. We had to claim our luggage since our layover was more than a day (27 fun hours) and so we had to break off from the rest of the group earlier than expected. I did get pretty sad, thinking about how Tracy won’t be with us at school, and sort of contemplating the idea that although we said we would hang out at school and over the summer—it possibly could happen that none of us did—as is usually the case when people say those kinds of things. Its weird. I wasn’t sad to be leaving them then, it was just thinking about the fact that we were never going to live with each other (across the field …it would never be as amazing (and complicated fun ;0) …) as these last three months in this amazing place. The past few days I’ve had a really good time with JD too. He even gave me his camera to use while I’m in the Cook Islands!! (since mine is apparently somewhere in Lennox to stay) I also stole his blanket and Colts shirt that he “didn’t have room for.”

We all picked up our luggage. Surprisingly I didn’t have my bags searched, despite all of the yeses that I checked- for food and such. It was pretty crazy being with 8 other people who all wanted to do different things about the ridiculously long layover. Eventually we decided that we would not waste money on a hotel and would just sleep in the airport. I, being the smart person I am, forgot to withdraw the rest of my money from my Ball state account (our BSFCU accounts wont work in New Zealand) so now I only have access to my Union Federal account for the Cook Islands. I’m hoping I will have enough money…I’m thinking I should. Just not room for a lot of extras.

PS- we heard that its supposed to rain the entire time we’re on the Island. Please pray that isn’t true—because we’ve heard that all there is to do is lay on the beach!

In the airport we ate dinner and then found a place away from most commotion on the second floor. I watched “Step Up,” typed journals, played with pictures, and talked to Rachael and Leslie. Around 2am or so… I decided I might try to fall asleep.

Alex, Leslie and Rachael chillin in the Auckland Airport

Final Farewell

4/15

We woke up at 6am and watched the sun rise. Rachael and Angie went in to go to sleep in the cabin but I decided to stay on the beach. I just watched the waves crash in and then decided that I’d better pack and clean so I could spend the middle of the day in the sun.

I packed up most of my stuff, did laundry and talked to my parents on SKYPE. Angie was supposed to meet me at the lodge about 9:30…so around then I headed down to the cabin and woke her up by banging on their bedroom window.

We went to Ocean View Café and had the scrumptious white chocolate chip, ice cream pancakes. We went and to lay out afterwards and all took a lot of fun ocean/beach pictures. We all laughed a lot, making pyramids and launching each other into the waves.

I came back and did my lodge duty—the dishes. Everyone had decided that they would leave all of their dinner dishes from the previous night out so that didn’t make me a very happy camper. Anyway, I did the dishes and then showered to get ready for our farewell dinner. I wasn’t really pleased with my 22 dollar steak but it was nice for everyone to get dressed up and take pictures and spend some time in the same place. Lyn gave us our Life and Culture grades…lets just say I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Not horrible—but not at all what I was expecting. I was in a bad mood about that, and just leaving overall, but I snapped out of it while Rachael, JD, Mike and I walked back and stopped in town to get snacks and stuff for the evening.

We all just hung out in the cabin for the night. Mary, Angie and Courtney came down in addition to the regular crew and random people stopped by throughout the night. We looked at the stars and talked about what we’d taken away from the trip. After that, I cut JD’s hair. It was the first cut I’ve done alone and I think I did an alright job. Could have been better if he were more patient though… We all had a good nights sleep.

Before the Farewell Dinner

My Aussie Family: Craig, Angie, Tracy, Mike, Awal, JD, and Rachael

Appreciation

4/14

Saturday was a pretty perfect day. I didn’t start out in the best mood. I had a dream that I came home and no one was really that excited to see me. :0( I checked my email and got ready and went down to the beach.

We took some pictures, including the infamous beach bum pictures. Tracy was all upset and stayed by herself the entire day because she was tired of hearing us fight.

Rachael and I decided we would go to The Point. We ended up picking up Angie, and Ashley and while I stopped by the lodge to get shoes and money we discovered that Mary, Tristan Angie G and Courtney were all going. So we made it a group effort.

It was a gorgeous day and everything was just awesome. The view, the company, the experience. Looking out at Lennox from the top of The Point- it just hit me how lucky I am. I mean, of course, I’ve known that I’m very lucky for being able to study abroad at this point in my life—but this place, is just spectacular.

I keep talking about how grades aren’t the most important thing here, and you adults probably don’t want to hear that…but hear me out. I’ve come so far on this trip—little things and big things. I used to be such a tomboy. I loved to be outside, to play with bugs, to climb mountains, and make a million friends. Then I started to get older, and not like the bugs biting me outside, to be afraid of heights and to build a little wall between people. The career counselor told me that I didn’t trust anyone and I hated him for saying it, but I think it was probably pretty accurate.

Here...I’ve climbed a mountain in the freezing wind, I’ve jumped out of a plane, I’ve found a new group with people that I never knew before. I saw an opera at the Sydney Opera House, went SCUBA diving at the Great Barrier Reef, swam in a waterfall for class, and sang the traditional Australian “True Blue” on the bus to the airport. To make a very long winded speech short—I’ve had the pleasure of living in Australia for over three months.

After our hike to the point we stopped and ate at Fishy, Fishy… well I sat with Rachael, Angie and Awal while they ate it. We went for a swim in the lake and the pool on the way back. And also decided that we no longer wanted to go on the Mt. Warning hike.

Instead everyone hung out in the cabins…basically laughing at Mike… and then went to the beach. Angie, Tracy, Rachael, JD and I all went high up on the beach and put comforters and sheets down and dressed in our warmest attire for a beach slumber. The sky was incredible—we saw lots of shooting stars—of course I made wishes. Mike didn’t want to shut up, but lying there all cuddled up, listening to the ocean under that huge blanket of stars—everything seemed good.

The Group that walked to the point:

Tristan, Courtney, Angie K, Mary, Angie G, Me, Rachael