louiseinlimbo

  Nauru is apparently the least-visited country in the world; according to their tourist office (who are involved in processing the visas) most years see around 100 visitors.  Although it would surely be a useful source of income, they don’t do much to help this situation – the only island country in the Pacific for which a visa is required, and this the state of the swimming pool at our hotel (the best hotel on the island). We did though get given a tour of the parliament building, including into the debating chamber itself, where we sat down in the MPs' seats and idly flicked through the draft bills in front of us.  Until someone came into the chamber in a panic, telling us that we shouldn't have been allowed access to those seats ... very unprofessional but quite interesting! The country was first sighted by a European in 1798, and was named Pleasant Island.  It has a total land area of just 21.2 square km, with a circumference of some 19km – a few of us walked all around th

Finding myself in a very comfortable resort in the Cook Islands, watching Man Utd beat Wigan on the bar TV – sound down, but they are playing an Afrobeats playlist, with four Burna Boy tracks during the last 45 minutes, so I’m not complaining!  & then a Wigan player named Aasgaard gets booked which seems so appropriate given the very camp male staff serving me After the match I go for a swim, followed by a walk in the sand alongside the turquoise sea.  What am I doing here??! Well, I’m in the last week of a month-long group tour around the islands of the Pacific.  Changes to flight schedules meant that Vanuatu was dropped (although many of us fly there after this tour ends) with the Cook Islands slotted in as the replacement, en route from Tonga to the Solomon Islands.  A flight cancellation meant that we missed Micronesia (but had extra days in Palau), and weight restrictions meant that five of us had an extra day in Samoa but one less in Tonga … it’s a crazy trip.  Not to mention