Round the World

Hello yall! Nadine and I finally arrived to Rarotonga and the Cook Islands last Monday and we are happy to be in a rainy paradise. Quite a bit has happened since we arrived to the tiny island, so we will let you know what has been happening.

First of all, if you are not familiar with our locale, here is the 411. The Cook Islands are located in the South Pacific west of Tahiti, east of Fiji, and very far due south of Hawaii. It's a tropical climate. There are two groups of islands, the northern group, hardly inhabited, and the southern group which contains Rarotonga and Aitutaki, the two islands we are visiting. We picked these set of islands over Fiji and Tahiti due to A) the fact that we wouldn't expect there to be many visitors, which there aren't, B) a little cheaper, which it isn't, compared to American prices, and C) it would be beautiful, no doubt about that.

June 22nd we flew to L.A. to meet up with some old college friends before going to our first international destination. Upon arriving to L.A. our goal was simple, relax. Previously we had been packing, moving, and making sure our apartment was empty before our first flight. Chrissie was Nadine's roommate at TU and we stayed with her and her roommate Vola. It was great riding down to Venice Beach where I could lift weights and constantly ask where the gym was in front of a big crowd. I also met up with Van Schaick, one of my college roommates. He is a big lawyer in Hollywood now, so if you ever watch COPS, he is responsible for making sure the show is not breaking the law themselves. Quite ironic! It was a great time of laying around, watching World Cup soocer, and repacking our bags.

Our flight from L.A. to Rarotonga left at 11:45 in the evening. The entire way, Nadine had the middle row to herself where she remarkably slept a solid 5 hours on the plane before our arrival into our layover spot of Papeete, Tahiti. Myself, I had two seats to myself where I curled up like a baby and slept like an old man. The actual arrival into Rarotonga was pretty nice. Instead of just landing onto the single runway, we flew by the island at a low altitude to land from the opposite direction because of the wind blowing off of the Pacific. The view of the entire island was amazing.

The first four days of our time on the island consisted of reading, writing, staring out the window praying for the rain to stop. Yes, our first days in paradise were restricted because of the rain.

After several days of non-stop rain, Nadine was content staying in the hostel reading her book, myself, I had to get out of the hostel, so I jumped on the bus and headed to Muri Beach to just see another part of the island. When I got there, I found a nice little place to rent a kayak and the rain let up and the sun had actually peeked its head out along with Sabrina, our German friend from our hostel, so we rented two kayaks. As soon as we put it in the water, the clouds clouded over, wind picked up, and the rain began to fall again. Since I paid for the kayak, I was determined to use it. Kayaking in the rain across the blue lagoon was refreshing in the choppy Pacific Ocean water. After we landed and searched the first motu, Sabrina decided to head back to the beach, because she was cold. I on the other hand figured I might as well visit the other motu born of volcanic rock. As I paddled over, the waves and wind were blowing me and my kayak around like Matthew Pepper in high school, so at that moment I decided it might be wise to go back to shore. I did live to see another day.

Once the rain really stopped on Friday, Nadine and I traveled back over to Muri Beach to try our hand at kayaking. From the beach, we manuevered our bright, plastic kayaks around motus, the name for the little islands, as waves crashed in the far distance against the reef that surrounds the island. When it came time to return our kayaks, we paddled against a powerful headwind. As a result of our kayaking, the next morning, Nadine had some sore shoulders and back.

Saturday started off as a sunny day and we had high hopes. Snorkeling was our goal. We rented some snorkeling gear and walked south down the island road. We found a secluded spot on the beach and dropped our stuff there. As we headed out towards the reef, the water wasn't that deep, so we had to avoid running into it. After a few trips around the reef among parrot fish, several of the fish that you saw in "Finding Nemo," we decided to try another spot further down the beach noted for great snorkeling. This next spot was the perfect spot for snorkeling. In front of the Rarotongan Resort, there was deep water with 10 times as many fish as the previous spot. The entire sensation felt like we were swimming among all types of fish one would find in an aquarium. It was awesome!

Sunday, July 2nd, a very important day in American history, my 29th birthday, we attended mass at a church close to our hostel. In the Cook Islands, people are known for two things, their dansing and their singing. The singing at mass was lively, unique, and in Maori. After mass, we were invited to join in the monthly tea. Basically, everyone brought some type of food to go along with either tea, coffee, and juice after mass. It was a good time as we talked with folks from the island.

To celebrate my birthday, we went to eat at an Indian restaurant for a buffet the night before as well as a day of renting bikes and circling the 20 mile road circling around the island. It was a great way to see the island.

So there has been a few interesting things that have happened here, just some quick notes. At the Indian restaurant, I walked into the restroom, and instead of seeing a trash can for your paper towels, there was a very large crab eating the paper in its place. I jumped back when I saw it. You would hate to have him bite your butt while you were going to the loo.

Another item of interest, we have learned that you have to wash your clothes everyday or two, not three or four, because, as is the case with our clothes, they begin to stink quite a bit in the humid weather.

We actually went to an "Island Night." Different Cook Islanders perform their native danse. It was great to see the folks in their native attire. At the end when it came time for people in the crowd to danse with the dansers, Nadine hurriedly hid behind me. Unfortunately, they didn't pick her.

It has been fun here on Rarotonga. We are now heading to Aitutaki where they are currently filming Survivor. I am going to sneek onto the island. Hope all is well.

Peace from the Cooks - John and Nadine

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk besides me and be my friend.
- Albert Camus

After much preparation, planning, and packing, we have finally left San Antonio for Los Angeles to begin our much anticipated around the world trip. We didn't have enough time to get excited since we were trying to figure out how to properly fit all of our stuff from the apartment into a closet that is 5 feet by 9 feet. With lots of help from Nate, Randy, and Tim, we were finally able to carefully balance our bed, dresser, and armoire in such a position that it fits in our little closet-sized storage, as long as a couple of spiders don't jump on it simultaneously.

In prep for our trip, we were lucky enough to have several opportunities to see friends and family. One of the first get-togethers was having friends come across and down to San Antonio for our "International Beer Party." Everyone brought their own beers from several continents, and they all were quite tasty. We had friends from TU (University of Tulsa) and friends from TU (Trinity University) who came over. The day after the party, we went up to New Braunfels to float the Comal river for a day and tried not to scrap our butts on the bottom. Great weekend!

Now that we are here in L.A., where the smog begins 30 minutes before you land at LAX, we have been able to take an entire day to do nothing, relax, and just "be" for awhile. Today, we walked to the beach and rode a bike from Santa Monica's beach down to Venice beach. As I walked around Venice Beach with our TU friend Chrissy and her roommate Vola, I asked everyone at the beach where the gym was as I grunted and flexed with my chest puffed up. What has been most surprising to me about L.A. is that the weather here is quite cool and the people aren't as odd as I thought they would be. They're actually quite normal in their fancy clothes.

Tomorrow evening we fly from LAX to Rarotonga, Cook Islands, our first stop in our trip around the world. I hope to update our blog at least every two weeks along with photos. If you need to email me, drop me a note at jwhit003@gmail.com.

Peace, JW

Life is an adventure: risk it.
Life is a challeng: face it.
Life is a hymn: sing it.
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Roughly 2 and a half weeks ago, during warmups of a student vs. faculty basketball game, I jumped to shoot and a ball rolled under my left foot from behind me from the other side of the court. I hit the floor, looked at my rapidly swelling ankle and immediately asked myself, "Why hadn't I bought my traveller's insurance yet?" Nadine looked perplexed and asked, "what is it this time?" I was worried that I wouldn't be healthy for the beginning of our trip in Mid-June, and we wouldn't be able to leave on our scheduled date.

The result of this little ordeal was a severly sprained ankle, bruised ego, fractured ankle, and a walking cast to "boot" for 3 weeks. Fortunately, we will not have to postpone our date of departure. Nadine will begin her trip with a partner with two different sized legs, but who will definitely be leaving with her in June to the Cook Islands.

4 weeks from departure, we do not yet have everything in order. I am pretty sure we will be running around like chickens with our heads cut off a week before we leave. Which insurance do we finally want to go with? Who is taking the car? Storage, oh yeah, we need that too! All the joys of planning a trip of this magnitude. If our planning was all on Nadine's shoulders, everything would already be carefully planned out and secured. If our planning was all on my shoulders, we would dream for a year of the places that we are going to go, and the day before we leave, take care of the necessities. Good thing both of us are planning, Nadine the realistic and practical one, while I remain dreaming of our stay on the beach.

Nevertheless, it is an exciting time for us. We are going to have a solid 10 months to "be" and to travel without time constraints, other than catching the next flight. That's what is great about traveling, freedom to explore, seeing new places, people, customs, and languages on a daily basis, challenging one's self with directions, dialects, hand signals. As always, we require us to practice our ability to be patient, laugh at ourselves, and be flexible. It will be an interesting 10 months.

So we are about to leave a great situation where we have great jobs surrounded with great family, friends, students, and comfort. It will be tough to leave these people for the unknown, yet in order to have this great adventure and challenge ourselves, we have to remove ourselves from our comfort and hit the road.

After much deliberation, thought, comparing various companies, making changes to dates, and anticipation, those around the world plane tickets have been purchased and we have to go now. Shucks, someone has to do it. Since you are reading this, we would gladly accept any donations to the John and Nadine travel the world fund. Any denominations would be accepted. Honestly, this is the largest single purchase I have ever made personally. I mean as long as you don't take into account the student loans that I incurred as a young 20 something and I didn't truly understand what the loans meant. Sure, I would be able to pay that off in a couple of months.

Our route and dates have been set.
June - Los Angeles to Rarotonga, Cook Islands;
July - Rarotonga, Cook Islands - Auckland, New Zealand;
August - Christchurch, New Zealand - Cairns, Australia;
September - Adelaide, Australia - Singapore;
February - Hong Kong, China - Joburg, South Africa;
March - Joburg, South Africa - Rome, Italia.
March/April - Europe - San Antonio, Texas

Anyone wanting to meet up with us anywhere on the trip is more than welcome. The more the merrier.

As we sit here 4 months from our departure to the great blue wander, Nadine and I have been planning this 9 month trip for a good 16 months. Whew, we could have completed the trip twice given the time we been planning it. I know I have done it a couple of times in my dreams during all of research we've done between Borders and Barnes & Noble.

We definitely sit here excited, anxious, nervous, should I got that immunization, really? what are the chances dogs are going to bite me, do we really want to go there, but we could fit a week in there, mosquitoes won't be that bad, but among all of the feelings that we experience, we are definitely anticipating the beginning of our journey.

We've had several dream itineraries - San Antonio - Guatemala (language school) - L.A. - Tahiti - Fiji - Cook Islands - 2 months in New Zealand - 2 months in Australia - Bali all the way to Hong Kong - India - Africa from tip to the north - all of Europe - back to the States. The itinerary has changed dramastically (drastically + dramactically) for several reasons. Nadine doesn't want to be a grandma by the time we actually complete the trip, or funds have dictated that I will be selling a kidney in Thailand to continue traveling.

Our current travel itinerary consists of a departure in June of 2006 which includes: Cook Islands, New Zealand, Australia, overland from Singapore to Hong Kong (South East Asia), South Africa for a month, up to Portugal and wherever the wind blows and money allows us to be blown in Europe, before we make the return trip home to begin another adventure involving little bambinos.

First entry is down, hope all enjoy our travels as much as we do!

Peace!

jpw