Honeymoon Recap 3

Before I start this honeymoon recap, I just wanted to announce that tomorrow I will officially be starting my residency!!! I'm super excited and equally nervous! Please cross your fingers and pray for me.

Ok so Nat and I finally reached the second island, Rarotonga, where we stayed at a wonderful Villa called the Sea Change. We had a whole kitchen, huge bathroom and our own pool, where Nat decided to try out his inner Maori poolside.

On Rarotonga, Nat and I rented a little convertible and we drove around the island many many times.

On our drives around the island, we noticed that the Cook Islanders have a very unique way to drive. Scooters are very popular and for many families this is their only mode of transportation so we they drive the kids to school, you can only guess how they do it.

We went out to dinner many nights on the island but we also got to make romantic dinners in our own villa. The food was good but it always seemed that Nat always got the better meal, hehe, guess he's just a better meal picker! On the big island, Nat also got to do some surfing, even though he said it was a bit sketchy because of the how shallow the water was all over the island. Nat also got to go scuba diving and he said it was absolutely amazing. He got to see a lion fish, a black tip shark, giant clams, etc. During Nat's adventure times, I got to explore the island on my own and do some much needed sunbathing.

On one of our nights on the island, we went to an island night, which is like the Cook Island version of the Hawaiian Luau. It was so much fun and great music. Nat was lucky enough to be called onto the stage to dance with the very pretty but very young dancers, hehe.

Nat was a natural!! I'm really starting to question the Spencer men dancing disease! hehehe. One really crazy thing that happened to us on our honeymoon was while we were in Aitutaki, the resort photographer came up to us and asked us if we would stand for some pictures he needed to take of honeymooners at the resort. It was actually a lot of fun and the pictures came out phenomenally. The photographer gave us copies and a CD with the pictures and we also got free drinks and a dinner at the sister resort on Rarotonga. Later on, we found out that our pictures were so amazing that the resort manager is going to use some of them in their new brochures, in their TV commercials and in a US magazine called Destination Weddings and Honeymoons. Nat and I were floored and really flattered.

I know the pictures are a little cheesy but they are so beautiful and how many people can say that they had a professional photog taking pictures of them on their honeymoon.

One last thing I wanted to share was some local culture of the island. The Cook Islanders are very serious about their many and different gods. But only one was seen everywhere even in their local money, the god of fertility. These statues were everywhere.

Overall, this was the trip of a lifetime and I am so excited with the location and everything that Nat planned. I will always remember our time there, but if I do forget I always have the 700 pictures we took to refresh my memory.