Wow. So. We’re mission-less. This feels well strange. What do we do with ourselves now? Some thumb twiddling? Well, in a way yes! …
What’s next I hear you say? Well. Something awesome! We’ve got one more island in mind. But this one is significantly smaller in size. We’re off to the Cook Islands! Woohoooo! Mega exciting. We are quite literally casting ourselves away on an uninhabited motu in the South Pacific’s Aitutaki. Three weeks playing Tom Hanks and Wilson. ( You decide which is which ). White coral sand, palm trees – it looks SWEET as! More adventures to come… Don’t you worry!
So we’re 6 months into our 8 month holiday, what’s next? Well as you may of guessed, walking across a country is my kind of holiday, so it’s only fair that Nicky has her turn now. Unsurprisingly for someone who grew up by the seaside, drawing treasure maps and playing at being pirate, Nicky’s dream holiday is to be stranded on a desert island!
Finding an uninhabited desert island to hire for a few weeks was harder than I thought, I was genuinely surprised at the lack of options.. Resort islands a-plenty, private islands with luxury accommodation and an army of staff to wait on you, no problem. But an island with nothing on and nobody else there was pretty hard to come by? Anyhow to cut a long story short, we only found two options:
Option One was in the remote Marshall Group, perfect island, but it was going to cost a small fortune to get out there. Option Two (the one we went for) was in the Cook Islands, which is a damn sight cheaper to get to from New Zealand. It wasn’t quite as desert island stylee as we’d like, there’s actually a (basic) beach bach to stay in and it’s within a busy and popular lagoon – Aitutiki. But on the plus side, it got voted the best beach in the whole of Australasia in 2008. We have to live with tour boats stopping by each day at lunchtime, but other than that it’s all ours! One Foot Island here we come! Don’t be fooled by the the name, it must be at least a hundred foot long ;)
WELL DONE Nicky and Cookie! Fantastic trip, totally awesome blog… Thanks for your good comments about TA. I wish we had had a chance to meet up with you in Auckland.
Anyway, enjoy One Foot Island. There are birds there that nest in the crooks of branches, no nest or anything. And turtles in the lagoon, and those giant clams that you read about in boys’ own adventure stories. Have a wonderful time together, you’ve earned a holiday. All the best – Miriam Beatson, TA Trust.
Dear Nicky…. Welcome back… Amazing trip.. Very attractive and very nice blog. Hope we can expect your posts here in this blog!!! All the best Nicky… Thanks for sharing dear!!! Very happy to see you again..LOL
Well done to both of you. I’ve been following your adventure from the start. What an amazing achievement!!
Get those weary bodies off to your deserted island for a well deserved rest!
I hear you can walk the Great Wall of China…….