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Published: November 5th 2011
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Cook Island
snorkeling in Rarotongga was great. Lots of fishes and blue starfish, which i've never seen before. Its been very fortunate for us to have the time and savings to take vacations, and yes very grateful we are able to travel and love it. This latest trip to Rarotongga was very different for some reason. Maybe because many events was going on in my life, but not to go into details about me, lets start with the journey shall we !!
We flew from PDX to LAX late July of 2009, then 9 hours of airtime to Rarotongga via Air New Zealand. Not a bad seat nor food for economy, or so we thought. It was also a smooth flight to our surprise.
Rarotongga is the capital of The Cook Island, which nestle in the Polynesian triangle and consists of 15 tiny islands, you can barely see it on the world map. The Islands are divided into 2 regions, the northern part and the southern part. Rarotongga is in the northern part and its the largest island of the group. It is the most relaxing little island i have ever visited. The island itself only has one main road, which goes around Rarotongga. The speed limit is 50km/h equivalent to 35mp/h and it took only about
cook island
the farmers market at downtown Rarotongga an hour to go around the island. Things are still very family thigh and not so commercialize, which create more serene and tight community. Most everybody knows everybody kind of place.
First thing we noticed when de-boarding the plane was the smell of burning leaves and debris. I thought to myself, wow the smell of tropical. Airport was really small and a bit unorganized, yet people were patiently worked their way around the obstacle, and yah its a bit of an obstacle to get the right immigration papers to fill out. Oh... and there was a greeter who sang and played ukulele for us tourists or locals whose back from wherever they were. Plus some national Rugby player from who knows where, was on the same flight and I thought that was so neat. All I care about was they were on the same flight.. LOL
We got through the immigration without any problems and pretty quick too. The hotel's transport driver, his name was Na and he greet us and took us to the place, along with one kiwi lady ( its what new Zealander call themselves ). That was the first time I've heard the term
cook island
the local rugby game we went to, it was so much fun to watched them tackled and grunting hahahh Kiwi and its not a bad terms either. We asked just to be sure and not to caused any insults. It was 6am when we got to the hotel and first thing I did when i got out of the van was look up into the sky, and oh... my so many stars. And not to be missed, was the sounds of the rooster calling out for the sun to rise.
The room was to our liking, it was oceanfront with large patio and the million dollars view and yahhh...we was happy 😊) oh, but there was no TV in the room. At first we were a bit stunt, but after a while it was kind of nice not having it. That too was the first for me, not having in room TV on vacation. We managed, and in fact we enjoyed just listening to the ocean, but fortunately my cell phone has media player and speaker, thank goodness cause the radio station was very limited to only two stations and I did not bring any CD's with me LOL.
Don't worry I wont take you day by day, cause it could be a short book and can
cook island
the ice cream girl who wasn't so thrill having her picture taken, oh snap be boring :P I'll just tell u bits of the important stuffs that impressed me most.
We took a little nap and got up around noon and hired a motorbike and took our time toured the whole island. It was a pleasant outing and thank goodness the weather was permissive for us to be on a bike, or else we would be soaking wet if rain were to come. The bikes there are no different than the bikes back in Indo, oh...and we saw many Subies on the island yayyyy.... hehe... I'm a bit obsessed with Subaru. Its practically a good car for the many rugged roads around the island. Anyway, by the third day we made friends with a couple of Kiwis and Aussies. But come to find out those two have a bit of frictions and don't like each other. We found that a bit strange, because as far as we know they have the same ancestor ( British descend is what i mean ). Maybe we're wrong too I don't know, but anyway we made better friend with the kiwis as they are more relax and not too prep.
This kiwi couple we made friends were Suzanna and Jim, we went to dinner together at the Tamarind House. From then on we spent most of the night at the hotel's restaurant and chit chat. We were the only Americans in the facilities. To our surprise though, the hotel's owner is Americans as well and we were pleased and surprised just the same and also wonder how and why. Haha..we are a bit nosy at times. I love their in house Friday Happy Hour where u get free drinks from 4.30- 6.30 pm and being small island, apparently its an attraction for tourist from elsewhere also. They have music and local dancer who showed us the traditional Kia Orana dance ( meaning 'welcome' ).
OK I LIED, I THINK THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG NOTES :D ITS NOT EVEN HALF OF WHAT THE WHOLE STORY IS.
p.s. since Rarotongga is not on the list as location, so i use my current location of Portland, OR instead 😊
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