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Now that I’ve finished blogging about the Cooks, it’s time to wrap-up the story of my South Pacific trip with a few posts on Australia. The story left off with Scone, after which Tristan, Chris, Brent, and I headed back to Newcastle. Here I spent a week reminiscing with old friends and revisiting the old haunts, which was one of the main reasons for my trip to the South Pacific. After spending almost two months on the road at this point of my trip, it was great to be “home,” or at least back in a place I called home for half a year.

Here’re some additional photos from Aitutaki and its lagoon.

When I booked my flight to Aitutaki in June, I knew that I was saving the best for last, but I had no idea just how good it would be.

As the last major stop on my South Pacific trip, I spent a total of 9 days on the small island of Aitutaki based at Paradise Cove, and although the island is plenty beautiful and tropical in and of itself, the real attraction here is the Aitutaki Lagoon. The lagoon is filled with 15 small, uninhabited islands that are the spitting image of the perfect desert islands. The only real way to see the lagoon is to take day trips on small boats, and since the lagoon is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the South Pacific, I took three of these trips – two with Aitutaki Adventures (the Yellow Boat) and one with Teking. In addition to stops on the islands, the lagoon tours also included snorkeling and all-you-can-eat buffets featuring yellowfin tuna, wahoo, fruits, and salads. The yellowfin tuna prepared by Aitutaki Adventures was quite literally the best fish I’ve ever had, and I’m already planning a return trip just to taste that fish again someday.

Below are some pictures from a lagoon cruise with Aitutaki Adventures and around Aitutaki itself.

My next hops after Samoa brought me to Auckland for a night, then to Rarotonga, which is the capital island of the Cook Islands. While on Rarotonga, I spent about a week scuba diving, hiking, driving my hired scooter around, and enjoying the relatively cooler “winter” sun on the island’s beaches.

Following Ofu and American Samoa, I spent a night CouchSurfing in Apia with Paul. Paul was a fantastic host, and our Friday night program included the Zodiac Bar (where I quite coincidentally bumped into an Australian friend) and Paddles Night Club. On Saturday we toured the island in Paul’s 4WD with Dave (another CouchSurfer) and Henrik. Indeed, it was another extremely positive CouchSurfing experience!