On Rarotonga, I spent the day in downtown Avarua, which is less a city than a handful of shops where tourists and locals can load up on food, clothes and the Internet. It is quaint and charming enough. It also overlooks some wonderful beaches and could not be more relaxed if it tried.

While changing money, I discovered something fun. The Cook Islands use New Zealand Dollars as the principle money for the islands. However, the Cooks have there own currency too. As a collector of international currency, I jumped. $1, $2, and $5 coins. My favorite is the triangular $2 coin and then there are two varieties of $3 bills. One for the Cooks Islands and the other is printed just for Aitutaki but can be used anywhere in the Cook Islands.

After the discovery of my new collectors items, I walked back to my hotel on the other side of the island. As it turns out, flip flops are a terrible long-walk foot apparel. My feet are torn up but a great walk non the less.