I won't bore you with details on how gorgeous and pristine this island is. I'll just bore you
with today's details. Simple things like razors and milk are at a premium, and hard to find.
Although there are little markets all over the island, the only things guaranteed to be
accessible would be canned meat, dry packaged goods that were probably container shipped in
four months ago, and some awful pure sugar drink in packets similar to Kool-Aid. There is
however, no shortage is fresh fruits and vegetables, and fish is also abundant. Anyway,
in searching for some razors (we forgot ours), we ended up doing a loop around the island today.

On the way, we stopped at a beach known as Fruits of Rarotonga. It's called this because of a little smoothie shop that is set up there. This is one of the best places to snorkel on
the island, so it was fairly crowded today with Kiwis on holiday. We all snorkeled together for awhile, checking out huge bright blue starfish and chasing big fat puffer fish. The only adrenaline moment was when a rockfish skitted in front of me and like a banshee I wailed ROCK FISH! I later would see Kiwis then tepidly wading through the shallow water; probably from my one warning scream of sheer terror.

After snorkeling, Breegan and I started to catch small hermit crabs in varying colorful shells. We decided to build a hermit crab habitat. (pictured above, Breegan receiving a nice bite to her finger by a crab) Actually, I called it crab jail, but Breegan corrected me, and said it was a habitat. Ok. A Kiwi woman walked by our massive barracaded creation, smiled and said, "Oh, how lovely." I love Kiwis. I felt like asking her to tea.

We ate our PB&J's on the beach, mindful to save some crusts to feed the wild dogs. Today
we fed "Cutie". We taught Cutie how to sit and wait for food. These dogs are brilliant. This
is the island where they have documented the wild dogs fishing together. They wade out into
the shallow water and hunt for fish at dusk. We've actually witnessed it twice now, and it's
like watching a movie trained pack of actor dogs.

Leaving Fruits of Rarotonga was a challenge, as Breegan begged, pleaded and attempted to
bargain her future in exchange for Cutie. I pried her sand caked hands off the dog, and
shoved her in the car.

Away we go. Did I mention that I've been driving? On the left side too. Yep, I got my
Cook Island driver's license yesterday, so I can drive legally. Of course there was no test.
I only had to pay $20 and show my California license. I haven't hit anyone or anything yet,
so all is good in the hood.

Finally, we stopped off the Esther Honey Cook Island Animal Shelter. Breegan's sand-caked hands quickly were transported to a pack of puppies. A woman (NZ) came out from the building to greet us. I told her we found them online, and that I had brought a gift. She asked,'A gift from America?' Wow..I felt cool, until I remembered 2 miliseconds later what I had actually brought. 'Well", I sheepishly added,"this is sort of a random donation, and may be totally useless."

With a puzzled look, she takes my bag and I tell her that I've brought her a bag full of  new dog hats. Yep. Dog hats. Totally useless, but OH SO CUTE. We had these leftover from a website years ago, and what better place for something totally irrelevant, than Rarotonga - where they actually need useful things.
Anyway - The woman flipped! She thought this was the best thing ever, and that they would use them to aid in adoptions at the market, and sell the rest to make money. Ok, cool. Stupid gift a hit!

We are then given a tour of the Ester Honey Animal Clinic. The Esther Honey Foundation provides the only veterinary care and veterinary hospital for companion animals in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. Vets from New Zealand, Australia and other countries fly in on organized trips to spay and neuter dogs and cats. They simply refer to it as desexing there. It's free to bring a dog in to have it fixed, and they encourage it. After recovery, the dogs are then given a collar and released to the area they were found in again. I asked how we would know if a dog, that has not be desexed, belonged to anyone and if we could bring it in. She said it didn't matter, bring it in. If the dogs are not desexed, and do not have a collar, then the local police just shoot them. This awesome organization runs entirely on donations, the bulk coming from tourists. The vets donate their time and skill. This is truly one of those rare organizations that is worth supporting, and advocating support from others. If you are an animal lover like I am, please consider making a donation here: Ester Honey Animal Clinic. In a country where even the most basic of supplies (like towels!) are hard or expensive to come by, every little bit helps. If you are planning a trip down here, please look at their list of needs. We plan on leaving our beach towels here, as I know they will be useful (unlike my first gift).

Ok, so back on the road, and on the left side.We stopped at a place called Perfumes of Rarotonga, where they handmade soaps and oils from the local flowers. I was selecting some soaps, and Breegan was munching on some coconut that the gift shop lady had put out, when I see the scariest thing ever. EVER! A black and white legged Aeges Aeides mosquito, was on my leg about to DENGUE FEVER me.

I yelled, 'Breegan! Brian! Run out to the sun! Save yourself'. Like jumping on a grenade, I
scooted my family away from me as I felt a slight prick on my leg. It was there so briefly, but was the evil Dengue mosquito chewing on me long enough to infect me? Well, I have 6 days to find out.

That was today's exciting adventure. Stay tuned for more Rarotongy Goodness.