Almost there

Less than one week to go before I set off to the South Pacific. While the excitement is building I've been thinking about getting there, you see, from Los Angeles there is only one flight a week to Rarotonga and if I miss that... well you see my point! Also in order to make sure I get to LA I have to go through Cleveland then catch my connecting flight to LA taking into account delays, bad weather, etc, that seem to be prevalent lately. It will be a race against time connecting to these flights, but, that will make for an interesting trip or no trip at all! LOL.

In the mean time I thought I would share with you a couple of things I will see/experience while on the island. Firstly, the extensive bus timetable broken down to day time and night time. Coming from the land of the automobile taking the bus seems far from my idea of getting around.... but wait! The Daytime timetable has a bus going clockwise and a bus going counter-clockwise (meaning only 2 routes) and the night time timetable has only clockwise with no night buses on Sunday. But I'm saving the best for last. "Bus will pick up and put down anywhere on route when signaled". Now is that customer service or what?
I have included an image from the front of the bus time table... as you can see this is the counter-clockwise timetable as seen by the direction of travel of the fish around his island!


It seems my sister Jayne is somewhat of a culinary celebrity becoming well known in the tourist industry not only for her duty free store at the airport but also for her "Ika Mata" (raw fish). She and her husband Danny are part of a "Dine in local homes" program where tourist have a chance to visit and dine at local homes. I will report on this further, but what a great idea.... anyhow here is her recipe for all you sushi fans.

Lastly, let me tell you about an experience I intend to do. "Jetblasters" If you have ever seen the movie "Pushing Tin" then you will know about this. Because you can get up close to the the end of the airport runway you can get jetblasted as the plane lands. To quote a dedicated jetblaster... "As the plane gets closer fear, panic and excitement start to set in. As it goes over your head it almost feels like you can touch the wheels and you can scream and yell as loud as you you like, but the roar of the engines drowns out everything. Then there's an almighty gust of wind that can blow you off your feet... a real jetblast! Stay tuned for this one!!!!! If I survive maybe my sister will give me the tee shirt she sells.

Until next time,
e noho ra