Another day, another park. Today was Universal Studios Hollywood.

Ben was sad to see that Back To The Future and ET rides had gone but
pleased that they have been replaced by equally good (if not better)
ones.

We started with The Simpsons which replaced Back To The Future and was
an excellent motion-master type ride. Quickly followed by The Mummy
which replaced ET and is a pitch black indoor rollercoaster which goes
forwards and then backwards – really good fun. So much so we rushed
around to go on again.

We got drenched on the Jurassic Park water ride, did the backlot tour
and had some lunch. Our afternoon was spent watching all the shows and
3D movies, after which we were ready to call it quits and head back to
our hotel.

Tomorrow we may go back as we were given a second day for free but we
will pick up some supplies before the road trip begins on Thursday and
see if we have time. Think we’ll also have a lie in as these theme
parks are tiring!

We arrived in LA yesterday (Sunday) and picked up our hire car – a
Chevrolet HHR which isn’t too bad actually. We went and bought a Tom
Tom GPS and treated ourselves to an In-N-Out Burger before heading to
our motel. An incredibly successful day.

Today we went to Six Flags roller coaster park and had a ball of a
time. The queues were nice and manageable so we both went on all 8
‘extreme’ coasters including Goliath (see pic) which is very high and
X2 which spins you around throughout the ride. Our favourite was the
Batman ride which is even better than Montu in Busch Gardens, Florida,
although similar so we went on it twice!!

We finished the day at Red Lobster – a great seafood chain restaurant
we have been to in Florida. The cheese biscuits were as good as usual!!

2nd week in Rarotonga now completed and we’re happy to report it was
much more relaxing.

We got some snorkeling done finally. The 1st attempt was good but not
much we haven’t seen before and it was a bit too cold to float around
too long. The 2nd attempt a couple of days later was much better.
Beautiful crystal clear sea, much warmer, huge fish all just off a
gorgeous golden beach as in the photo below. Ben even swam with a
school of tuna!! Pretty good huh?!

We spent some time with some nice interesting people: couple of Dutch
girls, a few Germans, Brits, Aussie surfers, Kiwi lads who tried to
catch fish with a spear most days (without success) and an American ex-
pastor who is fascinated by conspiracy theories whose Aussie partner
makes yummy lime cheesecake.

Our standard day in paradise: wake at about 10am, take it in turns to
make coffee, drink in bed, get dressed and have brekkie at just before
midday, sit and read in the sun till about 2.30pm, walk to the shop
for food supplies, make a cheese sarnie for lunch, sit in the sun a
bit more till 4.30pm ish and have a shower and lie down after a hard
day and then its beer o’clock followed by cooking tea and a chat. Not
bad. Much more relaxing than we thought it would be at first. Plus
between us we’ve read most of Bill Bryson’s books!!

We treated ourselves to a nice meal before heading to the airport for
our 9 hour flight to LA. On to our last country!

We have now been on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands for just over a
week. Unfortunately there is no wifi so this post will probably only
appear when we reach LA.

We’re staying at Rarotonga Backpackers which has no restaurants or
cafes anywhere nearby, people don’t wash up and tidy after themselves
and one group of people seem to think it appropriate to cook hugely
complex meals in a tiny communal kitchen. Oh and the weather’s not
been very good and shop/restaurant hours are short with public
transport times being inconvenient. Other than that it’s great.

No really, it is! The pic is of our lovely beachside hut which is
about 30ft from the sea. This was our home for half our time here and
now we’re in the main house and have been upgraded to a huge ensuite
room rather than the tiny double with shared facilities we had booked.

We’ve been to church both Sundays. Don’t panic parents we’ve not found
god but the gospel singing here is great. We watched 5 games of rugby
in one day – players were from tiny kids all the way up to huge scary
Rarotongan lads. Otherwise we are sunbathing, reading a lot, cooking
for ourselves and occassionally treating ourselves to meals out at the
restaurant and takeaway that are within walking distance. We are
especially getting very excited about our US part of the trip!!