Flashback to Hawai'i '06?

Remember when I lived in Hawai'i and one day it started raining? . . . and the sun didn't come out for another 44 days? This is the fear we have about our duration in the Cook Islands. I received an email from Air New Zealand this morning with the standard, "Get ready for your upcoming trip!" info such as flight times and a weather outlook. As you can see, things don't look great. My only hope is that, like many places in Hawai'i, it rains everyday, BUT it is also sunny every day. Weather on pacific islands is difficult to predict, so I'm really hoping we don't find ourselves stranded in our hut the whole trip whilst fighting off mosquitoes and malaria.

What's cookin'?

Has it really been almost two years since my last post? Traveling has been difficult the last year due to work schedules and availability. This does not mean that we have been completely grounded. In fact, last year we went to both Sacramento AND Omaha. That's right. Things got crazy!

Back in late November, while most people were in a frenzy at Best Buy or breaking into fights in Wal*Mart parking lots, Nicole was on the hunt for cheap airfare. She called me to let me know there was a crazy deal to the Cook Islands. At that time, I didn't know much about this place, or actually where it was. See map...

That being said, all I did was google image search "Cook Islands," and said, "Ok, let's book it." This was maybe the least amount of research I've ever done before booking a trip. These islands could be full of ebola . . . or ISIS . . . or headhunters! (See below)



You have to admit, those google image searches and the clip from 20,000 Leagues look awfully similar.

Of course, after doing just a little bit of research, we discovered that people do actually visit these islands as tourists. However, compared to nearby islands in the pacific such as Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, or Samoa, the Cook Islands receives the fewest visitors annually. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I guess we will find out soon enough. There are very few guidebooks or information online about the Cook Islands either. Unlike our previous trip to Europe, this is not one that received much planning. After all, there are no trains to catch, museums to visit, or vast distances to travel. The islands are small and we are both eager to explore them.

T-minus 13 days.