Rarotonga Day 220

Rarotonga is a tiny but beautiful island completely catering to the whims and fancies of tourists. Most of the hotels are fantastic and the beaches just long stretches of clean white sand, the sea is clear and warm with heaps of fish and giant clams which I find fascinating. Life is spent wandering on beaches, leisurely searching for delicious food in new and interesting restaurants, snorkelling and swimming and generally cruising arond. Sounds like heaven...

There is a down side, All of us are a little travel weary; all the kids want to do is stay in the hotel room and laze around with their toys and the TV. Trying to tempt them with exotic beaches, colourful fish, coconut palms and all things tropical is greeted with a weary response - oh but we have done that, or we don't want to keep going out, we want to bod around and not "go out". Sigh. The other down side (yes there are two) is that the hotel is cruddy and we have signed up and paid for the full 8 days. The pool is tiny (and cold - how is that possible?) the room small and stark, the hotel cramped and gloomy, the food dreadful and the beach is rocky with waves (unlike the rest of the island where the beaches are fab and the sea calm and tranquil. Towards the end of our stay I realise that there are also no views to speak of and I can not see the sky from my window and this jaundices my view about the place. Fortunately the staff are lovely which helps a little, and happy hour exists each evening, so cocktails at sunset become a favourite ritual whilst the kids swim in the pool (again).

Another night flight to Fiji awaits us and soon we set off at midnight for the airport and our penultimate destination...

Tahiti Day 212

That's it. I've died and gone to heaven for three whole days. This place is exquisite - calm, clear, warm water teeming with fish from tiny electric blue minnows, 3 foot long blue pipe fish and angel fish the size of dinner plates. Our rooms open onto a beautiful garden surrounded on three sides by the sea, the children rush out each morning to feed the fish and the many crabs that creep around. Our days are spent floating in the pool - which we have mostly to ourselves - or bobbing around in the sea - Zac goggling (i.e. snorkelling without a snorkel) for hours on end, Martin kayaking around the bay and me toasting myself in the sunshine.

Our hotel is well equipped for self catering, which makes a welcome relief after so much time having to eat out continually (I may have to remind myself of this thought when I am home and having to cook every night!) and also because it is quite expensive here (about double what you could expect to pay in most expensive places around the world).

We rented a car for a day and did a trip around the island (about a three hour non-stop trip) but the kids were not really into a car trip and it was too hot with little to see so we went back to the luxury of our hotel and chilled out some more. I could definitely get used to this.

Disneyland Day 209

Arrive 8.30ish in the evening of the 20th January. The boys travel remarkably well now, making friends easily - this time with a man and his puppy dog, and cope amazingly with the general boredom and tedium of air travel.

This part of Los Angeles is completely dominated by Disneyland it seems. The streets on the way to the entrance are lined with hotels (one of which is ours) and restaurants. I was told later by an American (in Tahiti actually) that she had dubbed these chain restaurants as "fat restaurants" as the servings are enormously humoungously gigantic - a meal for one is enough to feed our entire family quite easily (they do however frown on this kind of practice so we didn't do it - much). This American woman assured me that there are normal restaurants in America - obviously just not around here!

Disneyland - the Mecca of children's entertainment - is actually one extended lesson in queueing interspersed with momentary rushes of adrenaline so extreme you need the next queue to steady your heart beat and recover some dignity after screaming so protractedly on the last ride. Zac was completely in his element and demanded a repeat of each ride as soon as it was over. I had wondered how Maxi would take the whole thing but after the first ride he too screamed for more so he is obviously fits the family mold. When not on rides Maxi pretended he was a roller coaster so we could never quite get away it all! Martin and I secretly (well not so secretly now) love the whole experience - I like the rides that go upsidedown or very fast and Martin likes the scary ones so we are well suited for accompanying Zac on everything - can't wait for the day when Maxi reaches full height of 102 cm and we can all go on everything!

In between rushing to the next ride the kids were under the influence of full on child-targetted advertising, so we had to put up with constant "I want...I want..." from both of them which was quite wearing on the nerves. Many Americans obviously cannot say no and their weight is testiment to that. We were amazed at the levels of obesity that was so prevalent - frightening indeed. On the plus side we did not meet one American who admitted to voting for Bush (so who were they?) and many freely acknowledged that the world hates America (is this progress?)

Three days however was more than sufficient for all of us - the third morning was spent frantically rushing to the big rides for one last whirl and Maxi reached a peak of three consecutive laps on Heilmichs Chew Chew Train ( A ride on an overgrown caterpillar with a strong German accent and a trip through a giant garden complete with watermelon spray!) and Zac totalled 7 rides on Thunder Mountain over the whole time.

With a sigh of relief we packed (again) and left in the dead of night for tropical Tahiti paradise...

Mexico Day 206

Bustling, grimy and slightly threatening - I love it here in Mexico City. The effects of the altitude has taken us all by surprise, the first two days were spent cautiously, not going out much and resting a lot with me coping with a permanent headache. By the third day we were off on our adventures. A trip to the pyramids was a highlight of the entire visit - so old, imposing and incredibly steep - all of us got out of breath with heart palpitations being 2000 and something metres above sea level. We were taken to the pyramids by a taxi driver aptly named Marco Polo.

Marco Polo who took us on another road trip the following day to celebrate Martin's birthday (complete with homemade cards and cakes from the bakery round the corner but few actual presents) Firstly we visited the Freda Kahlo museum (exquisitely blue and yellow even though her painting are somewhat disturbing) and the Trotsky museum which was sadly lacking in socio political commentary and consisted mainly of photos of Trotsky feeding his chickens and writing about the virtues of having such an absorbing hobby! Following a delicious meal of corn and bean soup, potato tortillas, fried cheese (a delicacy which Martin claims to have eaten in 5 countries during this trip) and guacomole, we headed to Xochimlico to catch a gondola to float - or be punted - through the flowering gardens where we were serenaded by Maharachi bands whilst nibbling on barbecued corn on sticks. Maybe not such a bad birthday after all!

The next day was spent at the zoo (a kids day after all the grown up activities). Surprisingly the zoo was free to enter and was a huge and well stocked, full of huge beasts - lots of camels, bisons, big cats and all manner of monkeys. The most thrilling part was the reptile exhibit which of course went down a treat with Zac.

Mexico City is fabulous, rich in architecture, culture and all manner of goings-on. We were concerned about safety initially but after a few days we felt fine. I saw one guy obviously eyeing up my bag (that was in the bottom of Maxi's stroller so it was a bit of a target I guess) but he was easily deterred and good naturedly moved on to look for other tourist mugs. The last day of our 6 day trip was market day and the streets were impossibly full of people selling all manner of items for next to nothing. The number of people who live here is inconcievable and over a cooling beer, from the roof top garden of the Holiday Inn (what tourists we are) we could see over the Zocalo the main square (about as big as Tiannamen Square ie huge) and down the surrounding streets all teeming with people - a scene that has obviously been played out for years and years and years. Feeling a touch philosophical we hit the streets to sample the local delicacies, we finally fell on a street vendor cooking blue corn tortillas stuffed either with refried beans or white cheese on the road side that were then spread with green lime salsa, a sprinkle of cheese and some hot peppers - totally delicious. Martin, Maxi and I ate our fill while Zac looked around for "safer" food ie chips or milk shake (he really doesn't eat much at all at the moment but still seems to be full of energy and growing like a small weed!)

And so we left mexico to set off on the next leg of the journey. Maxis has started asking how long we are going to stay somewhere - usually asking "Is this our hotel room Mummy? Are we staying here for a minute/ five hours/ten weeks (depending on his mood!) And so off to parent hell - I mean Disneyland...