Getting there and getting organised

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London to Rarotonga in one go is a long flight. We stopped for a few hours in LA, what a hassle! We had to go through customs and passport control just to get to the transit lounge. Mind you, it wasn’t really a transit lounge, we did kind of enter the US and then leave again, we could have taken off into the night if we’d wanted to. Next stop was Papeete; we always seem to stop in Tahiti to change planes, never to visit.

Finally we made it to Rarotonga, landing early Sunday morning. We were met in a van and were out at the hostel (Backpackers International Hostel, West Coast, reasonable discount for staying longer than a week, basic but friendly) by 8am. Even at that time it was hot and humid.

We went to a small grocery to get some food; the main supermarket in Avarua doesn’t open on Sundays. Then had a much needed snooze, lying down properly instead of being stuck in an airplane seat.

After lunch we borrowed some snorkelling gear from the hostel and went for a wander along the beach. The water was warm, and there were enough fish to make it worthwhile, but it wasn’t as good as we’d expected. And the masks were scratched and leaked!!

Today we walked into Avarua, part way along the beach and then ending up on the old inland road. We checked out a few dive shops, trying to decide whether to just book some dives, or whether to do our advanced divers cert. It wasn’t that much more to do the course, so we booked up with Dive Rarotonga for the advanced divers course, plus a few more dives to fill up our time.

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