More days, more races...

But first, the celebration of our twin Round Raro victories ended up being a very big night.  It started with Verve champaigne in our gallant leaders room along with many many more drinks.  We did end up making to the resteraunt, and did enjoy a very decent meal, with many drinks, and a great stage show of traditional dancing.  Needless to say, the drinking didn't stop there, with a couple of singers keeping us entertained (and us entertaining them as well) with such classics as the Agadoo, Living on a prayer and many more.  There was some not-breakdancing, and we even managed to have a wedding party crash our little soire (or was it the other way around?).  Some very good photos and stories to not leave the island.

The next day, most of our party were off to church to enjoy it Cook islander styles.  I had no intentions of going, so I enjoyed the sleep in, as did my roomie.  I didn't leave the resort, as I had been warned everything was pretty much closed on Sunday.  I am a little hazy on what I did that day, but I am pretty sure there was a bit of snorkelling out the front, some reading, a little sunbathing, perhaps a nap, but definately plenty of hanging around.  Before too long, it was time for the Round Raro prize giving Gala dinner, which luckily was being held at the Edgewater.  The night started with the prize giving.  Matt and Renae both collected their trophies.  Barry also got the call up to take the 10k walkers prize, but had to refuse as there had been some alleged jogging.  I enjoyed a couple of cocktails, quite a number of bourbon and cokes and a pretty good spread.

Monday was Hash day.  We started early, trying to get in before the rush to hire scooters and a car.  After jumping through all the hoops to get the scooter and Cook Island licence we were free to enjoy the island as best we could.  Well, most of us could.  Matt was about 2mins into his scootering before dropping it with Liss on the back.  No serious injures, with Matt receiving some grazes, and Liss a suspected broken toe.  The scooter left a little mark on the road, but was otherwise un-harmed also.  I tagged along with Matt, Liss, Renae, Michelle, Wendy and Steve round the island to go snorkeling on the other side of the island.  After hiring some gear for 24hrs, we found a likely spot across the road from "Fruits of Rarotonga" and walked straight in.  I thought the coral and fish life was pretty good here.   Perhaps not as plentiful as the area directly infront of our resort, but the depth of water allowed for larger, and live, coral and generally just more stuff going on.  I could have stayed longer but it was time for lunch.  We ran into Simone and Natalie, and the eight of us enjoyed a pretty good lunch at a cafe.  We were waylaid a little with a squal coming across the island holding us up for about 30mins.  On the way back to the resort we went via some of the back roads and saw something of the regular life on the island.  We got back to the resort in plenty of time to get ready for the Hash.  Being a birthday run for the local hash club, the run had a theme of "Louder the better".  We had some pretty serious 80s garb ready to go, and were truly a sight to be seen.  The run itself was very fun, taking in the beach, some back roads (past the prison farm) before heading back to the start.  It took me a little while to remember the ways of the hash, but came back pretty quick.  I didn't take to many wrong turns and before I knew it was back and holding a nice cold beer.  The spread the club put on was pretty impressive.  The team took full advantage of the cheap beers on offer.  I had about six more than I needed, being convinced by the organised that I should definately take some roadies.  We made our way back to the resort bar to finish our beers, and take in the last of the USA - Italy Rugby World Cup game, before calling it a night.

Yesterday was the round the rock relay.  I managed to get out of bed a little hazy at 6:45 to go for a morning jog with Matt, Liss, Renae and Steve.  I think we covered about 5.5-6ks before enjoying a post run dip in the lagoon.  We had a lazy breakfast where we discussed relay strategy with the whole team.  Those of us who had hired snorkeling gear the day before jumped on our transport and made our way round the island to Muri lagoon.  This beach was spectacular.  The snorkeling wasn't that great where we went (within the passage) but the scenery more than made up for that.  The five of us had lunch at the Salt Water cafe before heading back to the resort to prepare for the relay.  This race was the same course as the Round Raro, however was split into a relay.  We had decided to split into two teams of six, with Barry our support car driver.  I would take the second 5km stretch.  Everyone somehow managed to get where they needed to be (and back, with the right number of scooters and everything!).  The race started with a massive convoy of cars, scooters, trucks carrying entire teams.  The conditions were extreme.  I don't think I have run 5ks that slowly, or inconsitantly.  I am pretty sure when I had a stretch of shade, I picked my pace up by 1-1.5mins per km.  Needless to say, I was very glad to hand the baton off to Matt.  I located my scooter, and started heading off to catch the current runners to get some photos.  Unfortunately, we were beaten on strategy by the cunning Kiwi team containig the runners Matt displaced from the top step of the Round Raro podium (although we were catching quick!).  When both teams crossed the finish line, we refreshed and made our way to Tamarind house, a very nice resteraunt set in the old British Consuls house where I enjoyed a very nice Steak and Tui beer (which I had to have to toast the team, only slightly breaking my AFD promise...)

Today I will be taking it easy.  The excessive drinking has taken its toll and have come down with a cold.  We have the nutters cross island run, which I will be walking with my camera as I hear the veiws are pretty good.  Tonight has been declared Fish Bowl Wednesday in honour of it being the last night on the island, so it could get messy...