Azure Coconut

Where dreams learn to fly Ready to fly “There is my new school, Papa!” says my son excitedly over the BOSE aviation head phones that we are all wearing. I can feel the smile reaching from his ear to ear, it transports in his voice. There are those moments in life when you know exactly that you are in the right place at the right time. An esoteric may say: when you are one with the universe. Or when you feel like a deity is touching you or god watching over you. These beautiful islands are very spiritual places and full of stories and wonder. I remember rolling off the boat outside Papua Passage – the boat is called the Moerangi – the one who walks with the stars – the moment the blue warm ocean water swaddled me like a warm blanket I felt at peace with the world for the first time in a long time, maybe ever. I was a bit apprehensive gifting my 5-year-old son a flight on a 3-seater Cessna. Thirty minutes circulating the skies over our little adventure island in the mid...

Picnic on Motu Atimoono - Fresh fish Tunupaka Tunupaka, BBQ, microwave. All are ways of cooking that developed in different eras. Yet, all of them are still used daily, it just depends where one is from.  Yann feeding the fire with Puru Peace in Tukao Bay While joining a Cultural Tour around Rarotonga as an interpreter for French passengers of the cruise ship Costa Luminosa, I learnt quite a lot of new information about the Cook Islands. One of the facts, told in this cheeky island way by our knowledgeable local guide James, was about the traditional way of cooking. "In the Cook Islands, we used to cook in an underground oven called Umu. Volcanic rocks heated in a fire are put in the ground with meat, fish, local spinach dishes wrapped in banana leaves. The lot is covered and left to cook for several hours. We also like to cook on an open fire building flames with coconut husks and drift wood. In Australia, they call that... a BBQ ! In the States, it...