After a few hard days of training and early mornings, we were granted a sleep in.

All of us were pleased at the chance after not getting much sleep in the past few days due to trying to get our body clocks to Cook Islands time.

As per usually our Sunday started with pee samples in for hydration to Steve and Bianca, who thrive on doing the task...haha - NOT, and off for a buffet breakfast.

But as we were making our way to the restaurant an unlucky, heavy shower of rain caught us all, making us look like drowned rats.

Especially for Shae, who had one of her ditsy moments, discovering her pee was still in her pocket and had to run back so her pee didn`t share breakfast with us all.

Today’s schedule was a lighter load then the previous ones, so in the bus we got to head to a court for training.

While the shooters (the precious ones) practiced their goals, the centre court and defenders were in charge of playing some minor games to do some light activity.

Childhood games like line tag, clap before you catch, bang bang and even 40-40 were all a laugh and gave us much fun before completing a team partner stretch.

Once arriving back at the resort, it was time for lunch, and time for us to swap our Mystery Op-Shop gifts with one another.

The idea of the task was for each person to bring over with them one item/accessory from an op-shop. This item had to be one size fits all, weather appropriate and as tacky as possible.

Each person (staff and players) would then select a name out of a hat, and the name you selected would be that person’s item you had to wear to our Villa Progressive Dinner night.

So to lunch we came with big, small and odd shaped bags, with giggles and smiles being shared by all as our items were passed around the table.

The afternoon was relax and chill time. Time to do a bit of uni work, reading, grab a little bit of sunshine and then into the kitchen with your Villa housemates to start cooking your Progressive Dinner meal.

We (Villa two) were on entrées, so gourmet mini pizzas and bruchetta were on the menu for us.

Knock off was at 6.45pm in Villa one for nibbles, and what a hoot that was when everyone rocked up to reveal their item they were given.

Sorry for the men (as we had set them up in the drawing out of names) got the bad end of the bargain. Coconut bra for Steve and a grotesque, leopard skin, g-string leotard for Gammy. So unfortunate but so hilarious to us girls.

So from Villa to Villa we went, with nibbles, mini pizzas, bruchetta, pasta, salad and then the delicious peach cobbler to finish.

Filling but so delicious and entertaining as we ate together as a team in our ridiculous clothing. To work off some of our dinner, we had a quick dance off in the Dance Zone of Villa one, before heading off to bed.

Monday 10 August

Today was the day of the Opening Ceremony. The day began with an early rise and breakfast, which was followed by a short training session at 8:00am.

After returning from training and having a pool recovery session, Steve informed us that today was probably the last day we had to soak up any sun.

We pretty much all took up the opportunity, even if it was just for a little while.

After an early lunch it was time to get to put on our tracksuits (jacket and all) to head to the opening ceremony. Once we arrived at the stadium we took place under shade while we waited for the ceremony to begin.

While waiting, we had a chat with some of the school students who were suppose to be in class but their teacher was at the Opening Ceremony.

We also chattered to the Trinidad & Tabago netballers, hoping to get some tips on how to shake your booty.

The ceremony was about to begin so we made our way over to the entrance and lined up as we were the first country to enter. It was getting quiet warm in our tracksuits but we had to keep our jackets on.

Maddy led the way holding the flag as we were called into the stadium. While walking around the court we located our parents and then our host school St Josephs, who were wearing yellow T-shirts with Australia printed on them, cheering for us.

The ceremony began once all the countries had entered (we were then allowed to take off our jackets).

The ceremony was officially opened by the Youth and Sports Minister with the unfurling of the Cook Island Flag and the World Youth Cup Flag.

We were then escorted to our seats to experience some Cook Island culture.

There was a tradition band, singers and dancers. Their performance was amazing with the dancers wearing grass skirts and coconut bras.

At the conclusion of their performance it was time for Wales and Cook Islands to hit the court for the first match of the tournament.

Quarter time is was 10-12, with the Cook Islands in front and we decided it was time to make our way back to the resort to chill.

This evening we are heading to a formal welcome dinner with all the other countries. We are very excited that there is only one more sleep left before we play as we are all ready and waiting to begin.

Madi and Tegan