Sunday - Time to leave

We woke early for our last breakfast of cereal with pawpaw and banana. Then it was packing for our trip home. We don't fly out until 5pm today so plenty of time to explore the island one last time. 

We collected the car key from Dylan and he said we might as well just pay $60 since we won't have it for a full day.  Even better, he suggested we just leave it at the airport for him to collect later. This was a great idea since we can load our luggage in the car instead of leaving it with him. It saves him having to take us to the airport.

Unfortunately,  it being Sunday, we couldn't find anything open for morning coffee. The only option was the Koru Café so we did a slow drive around the island taking a few photos and arrived back where we started at 10am.

Here's a rare picture of me looking a bit like Doc from Back To The Future. If I can get the car up to 88mph along the causeway we might manage a bit of time travel.

Here are a few of the sights we saw on our drive:

These crabs are everwhere
Bougainvillea 

A goat!

As a final celebration meal we decided to head to the Pacific Resort for lunch. This is one of the upmarket options on Aitutaki and it didn't disappoint. We had Ika Mata and a Sushi/Sashimi platter washed down with an Aperol Spritz cocktail for Miriam and a spicy Bloody Mary for me. We would love to stay here but it's $1,500 per night for their standard room (breakfast included).






With the ambience, attentive staff and great food it was well worth the $144.

We spent the rest of the day at the airport waiting for the flight to Rarotonga. On arrival, still too early to check in for our flight to Auckland, we put our big suitcases in the padlocked lockers. When Miriam went to pay for the locker and get the padlock combination, the chap she talked to simply let her photograph the combinations for all the lockers so we could take our pick. Including those that were already locked! we could have taken anyone's luggage. Such is life in The Cooks!

We then headed across the road to The Islander and met up with Christina, Ned , Zion, Mele, Selena and Khaleesi for dinner.


We are now waiting for our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. It is delayed by 30 minutes but at least that means less time waiting at Auckland for our flight to Christchurch in the early hours of tomorrow morning. Christina looks a lot like cousin Clenda!

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