In 1991 I stopped in Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands, for a few days.  Rarotonga must be the moped metropolis of the South Pacific; on Sunday mornings devout Maori ladies create mini traffic jams as they buzz off to attend morning service, dressed to the nines in long white dresses and white gloves while clutching white straw hats to their chests as they zoom along to their respective churches.  Hospitality is a winning feature of these Polynesian islands.

Towards the end of an extended RTW in 1994, I spent a week in Port Vila, Efate Island. The climate in Port Vila is milder than Solomon Islands, malaria is not so rife, there were real supermarkets where one could buy fancy food - culture shock time. But I didn't know until I got home that my little camera had all but had a nervous breakdown, so the only snaps I managed to salvage are these ones. All of West Papua and PNG were blurred beyond redemption.