sun is shining the weather is sweet

and at last having the island experience we were hoping for...so far i have snorkeled...made an umu kai feast from scratch with the help of an old crazy islander called Piri Purito III - boxing champ and coconut climber extrodinaire - basically kids dig a big hole in your back yard fill it with volcanic stones...light a fire and heat them up...then soak chicken (or meat of your choice) in sea water, and wait for the stones to heat up....then flatten them out - stuff the chicken with leaves, and wrap them in banana leaves softened on the fire...cover the fire with banan bark...put the chickens round the outside then use salted lamb necks and spinachin a big pile on a few banana leaves wrap them up as well and stick them in the middle throw on root vegetables of your choice and a pumpkin cover with umbrella leaves and go snorkelling for a few hours - come back get some coconuts from trees hack open and use grated coconut as a nice side...if you find any spprouted ones use them as desert and an afterdinner chewing gum!...good stuff...(by the way Piri also makes the best BBQed tuna ever!) anyway finally having a good laugh in the sun met lots of lovely peeps and having a thoroughly good crack getting drunk on rarotongan lager (at 6% it does the trick)!