Relaxing in Raratonga

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We arrived in Raratonga in a similar fashion to Fiji - 3 in the morning, when it was still hot and muggy. How do people sleep?

Our first night we booked in to the local hostel. Ben had managed to charm one of the flight attendants on our flight from Fiji, and as we landed, she came up to him with a huge bottle of Verve Cliquot and told him it was a gift to help us celebrate our trip! Not bad! We sat on the lounge chairs by the pool, drinking champagne straight from the bottle (very classy) and looking up at the stars. A great introduction to the Cook Islands!

The next day we moved into our beach house. My mum was also planning to visit us in the Cook islands, and she had arranged for us to stay at the beach house. It was a great little place, with our own kitchen and the beach right on our doorstep. Before mum turned up, we organised a couple of diving trips (of course!) and also looked into hiring a car so we could explore the island. Cars were kind of expensive, and then we found something even better....scooters!! We got 3, with the intention of doubling mum once she arrived. Now mum has a morbid fear of motorcycles (which we overlooked when renting the scooters). You can just imagine her reaction when she saw her transportation for the next 3 days! But she was a trooper, and once she got used to it, she had a great time.

The scooters also provided us with the unique experience of getting our Cook Island Driver's Licence. We were a bit nervous, but the test turned out to be a piece of cake - more of a revenue earner for the local police than an actual test. We paid our fee to the police and signed up for our road test. In groups of 4, we were given our instructions - to hop on our scooters, ride down the road, turn left at the first turn , ride down that road, turn left at the next turn, ride down that road and turn left at the next and turn and finally (you guessed it!) turn left and ride back to the station. One big circle - it took 10 minutes and we had passed! There weren't even any stop signs! There was one scary moment where Ben thought he had failed (he missed a left turn), but the policeman was happy to look the other way and still issued him his licence. Success!

We spent the next few days zipping around the island on our scooters, exploring the different lagoons and beaches.

One day we decided to do the Cross-Island hike. It's supposedly the most popular hike in Raratonga, and crosses from the north to the south costs, via the 413m Te Rua Manga. The hike itself was hard work - so hot and muggy, but the views were spectacular and made it totally worth the effort. The hike starts in the north, and ends up at Wigmore's Waterfall. In the LP, it was described as 'beautiful', but maybe we went at the right time of year - there were no waterfalls, and only a pitiful (smelly) puddle. Luckily though, it was not the purpose of our trip, and we had seen so much already that we really didn't mind.

After relaxing in the Cook Islands, we were ready for the ultimate adventure....New Zealand!

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