Lazy Sunday!!!

Kia Orana!

I slept in today until 9:00 and leisurely strolled to the lounge for a quick breakfast. Everyone was done there including the motel proprietors, Pauline and Harry, such a nice couple they really take care of us.

I'll have to take a picture of them and post it later.

We had a "ei" making class (said like saying the letter "a") which is the Cook Islands version of the lei on Thursday night after dinner and Debi encouraged us to go and pick some flowers. so off Megan and I went and we asked Pauline where the best places to go. She said that a lot of the flowers were in people's yards, so we had to be careful of that. She sent us off walking to the "SuperBrown", a gas station nearby and to take a right after that and walk along the "backroads"

So, here is what we saw as we walked for about 20 minutes, then suddenly we started to feel some sprinkling, then rain and so we ran back to the SuperBrown, whick by the way sells:

and we waited the rain out on their picnic benches.

Soon, we saw Pauline zoom by in her van, obviously looking for us, but we couldn't catch her. So, as the rain let up, we started back to the motel and found pauline ready to make a second round to find us. She also said that she didn't realize until she went on the bsckroads that there were more houses than she remembered and we would have been picking flowers out of people's yards. So, she directed us to a house across the way where she knew the owners and we picked some wonderful flowers. Frangipani, Gardenias, etc. they all smell so good.

So here is my ei:

Too bad I can't keep it, but it was fun to make. Any one for a ei lesson when I get back?

Yesterday we said goodbye to 2 members of our group who were only staying 2 weeks and the remaining 4 are finishing up our 3 weeks.

The plane doesn't leave until midnight on Saturday, so we had the whole day to spend with them. We opted for a tour of the sacred grounds and some history of the Cook Islands. It was really interesting. Here are some shots of our tour guide that actually is a descendent of one of the original settlers.

Beautiful landscapes and the organization that was founded by the owner is now run by the daughter and she is keeping up with the tradition and the passing on of the historical information to us tourists.

And if anyone knows what kind of plant this is, let me know. They use it here in the Cook Islands like Ben-Gay for injuries and a cure-all for other ailments.

So, onto a language lesson:

Here are some words they use here in the Cook Islands:

pikelet=pancake

tic=checkmark/a second

rubber=eraser

heaps=lots

pushbike=bicycle

Make Way=Yield

motorbike=scooter

Learning more every day and will add to the list later. We watch the "superbowl" of rugby yesterday and the poor team from Melbourne was shut out 40 to 0.

It was interesting to watch. If anyone knows anything about rugby, please pass it on. It is nothing like American football, I'll tell you that.

Ta ta for now,

Sharon