The Starting Line

Our adventure is on its way.

On October 20th, we landed on the beautiful island of Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Our hotel for our stay was Etu Moana, an 8 villa resort on the western side of the island. We considered these 4 nights our official honeymoon, finally, and Etu Moana was the perfect choice. We kayaked and snorkled around the lagoon, seeing pink and purple corals, giant clams, and tons of tropical fish. Had lunch on an outer island sitting in the water. Our mode of transportation was a scooter, the locals choice of vehicle, and a jaunt around the entire island took a mere 30 minutes.





Ryan found a new favorite dish, ika mata, "rawfish" in lime juice, with coconut milk and some other things. We experienced an Island Night, where we enjoyed sea grapes (salty grape-bunch looking things), and Ryan was invited, no, pulled up to dance the hula with the lovely hula girls.



Then it was back to the main island of Rarotonga where we stayed at the Rarotonga Backpackers hostel. You could say our round-the-world trip started with this island. We rented another scooter and spent the next few days driving around the island, stopping at various beaches to swim. Saturday morning was the Cultural Marketplace, where our brunch consisted of waffles with ice cream and fruit, a steak roll, and a coconut for a drink. We picked up some ika mata, a paw paw (papaya), and a piece of pineapple cake for our dinner and breakfast.

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Windjammer Restaurant, our last on the Cook Islands. FYI, Air New Zealand is wonderful. Not only do you still get a full hot meal on most flights (our flight to the Cooks included dinner and breakfast), they come with beer, wine, or champagne, for free! Now we're in New Zealand for a month, and taking advantage of Danny and Jaime's internet. For those of you in the states, we are now a full day ahead of you. We get our campervan tomorrow morning and start the tour!

More pics here:

Aitutaki

Oh, and in case you're wondering how we packed for a year-long journey around the world, here is our list and a picture: (list is what each person is carrying)

Eagle Creek Voyage 60L travel pack (with detachable daypack)

Clothes
1 pair of trail-type shoes
1 pair of sandals
1 pair of flip flops
2 pairs pants - one convertible, one nicer
Marmot rain jacket
fleece jacket
1 button down sun shirt
2 short sleeve quick dry shirts
2 tank tops (Anna)
1 skirt (Anna)
1 pair boardshorts/swimsuit
bandana w/insect repellent
3-4 pairs socks
3 pairs undies
wetsuit & rashguard (Ryan)
sun hat
beanie

Electronics
Digital camera - Panasonic DMC-TZ5
Monkeypod tripod
Passport Elite hard drive
iPod + charger
watch

Other Stuff
Toiletries in bag
3 ditty bags
silk travel sleepsack (for hostels)
money belt
travel books (NZ, SE Asia)
first aid kit in tupperware with first aid guide
PacSafe pack locks
combination pack lock
quick dry towels - 2 big, 1 small
harmonica, cards, magnetic travel game
sink plug, clothesline, Dr. Bronner's all-in-one soap
earplugs, eye mask, inflatable neck pillow
headlamp
sunglasses + cleaner
sewing kit
waterproof pack covers


Our big bags are small enough to carry on, so we shouldn't have any problems with lost luggage.

P.S. HAPPY 29TH BIRTHDAY TO RYAN, which was the day after we arrived on Aituaki. Not a bad place to spend your last twenty-something birthday!

Post-Wedding, Pre-RTW Trip Update

Although we haven't left for our Round-The-World (RTW) trip quite yet, we've been fairly busy since our wedding on September 12th. So here's a review of what's been up in our now-married lives.

1. Our wedding! September 12, 2008. We had an amazing time! It was everything we could've asked for. If you want to see our photographer's photos, go to www.karikochar.com, and click on "Client Access" under "Info." Our wedding should be one of the first things on there. Password is AnnaRyanWedding. Here's a few of our faves (don't mind the copyright writing, sorry):

2. As soon as our wedding weekend was done, the process of prepping for upcoming RTW trip started. This included selling Ryan's truck, selling as much as our stuff as we could at a garage sale, and moving out of our apartment. Shocker: it's utterly amazing how much "stuff" people can accumulate. We had so much to get rid of, and in the end, it's a great feeling to rid of all that baggage. We ended up donating all the stuff we didn't sell. No photos, as we were much too busy to take pictures. It was two weeks before we got to #3 on our list, and a hellish two weeks at that.

3. A week after our wedding, we headed up to Paso Robles, CA for Zac and Anna's wedding at Meridian Vineyards. It was beautiful setting for a beautiful couple!

4. A pre-RTW trip trip. First it was off to Austin, Texas to visit Ryan's sister Jaime, who just moved out there from San Diego in January. Austin was awesome - lots of trees, nightlife, and a big rock! Here's Austin:

This photo is from Freddie's, a cool place that has live outdoor music, and that game washers, which is like horseshoes, but you try to toss a round washer into a golf-hole like hole.

Here is the top of the "big rock," otherwise known as Enchanted Rock, a few cities NW of Austin. It's a big dome-like granite rock, with a rise of 425 ft. in 0.6 miles. We're at the top.

A day after we got into Austin, we drove 3 hours north for Allan and Megan's wedding in Malakoff, TX. A gorgeous wedding right on the shores of a lake!

4. Presently we're in Boston, Massachusetts, to see Anna's brother Peter, who is in his junior year at Babson College just outside of Boston. The leaves are starting to change here, and we are going to drive to Vermont to go "leaf-peeping" as they call it. We haven't been to downtown Boston yet, but so far it's been gorgeous. Photos to follow!

So that's been our life basically since our last post. Wedding, moving out, Austin-Boston trip. It's been a crazy period in our lives, but a fantastic one nonetheless!