Day 22-24

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Day 22: Rarotonga

Market day in Avarua, the capital, is the best for shopping and after much mucking around trying to find the bike licence place, not knowing that you actually needed to have the bike with you at the time of a licence test, we decided to go with a car licence and hire one for two days. But not any car - we hired a small convertible, but the effect is somewhat lost when the speed limit is 60 kph. There are some 40 kph zones as well, but and most people just do 45 everywhere. Seat belt discipline seems largely non-existent. We wondered about the road toll - perhaps there is none?

Avarua is a very small place right on the sea (all of Rarotonga is!) with a single row of shops. From anywhere on the island people can catch a clockwise bus or an anti-clockwise bus. They just go around every hour in each direction. The entire island takes about 60 minutes to drive around, if you do it slowly.

We shopped till we dropped, and we nearly did, since it is unseasonably hot for this time of year and very humid - we were ready to hit the beach. The stalls in the market are very colourful and really do sell mostly products that people make. There were chooks, dogs, little kids and much island music, a real community day out. The people were without fail friendly, liked a chat are very non-pushy. One woman we met was the manager of the Cook Islands bowls team at the Commonwealth Games. Most people have a relative in various parts of Australia, just as in NZ.

Some observations: Cook Islands way of life is very laid-back - time is in ‘island time’. Everyone is unrushed, rarely shoes are worn, preferred transport is a motor bike. Nothing is too much trouble for people; several have gone out of their way to show us where we should be. Sundays are observed in church first (several different types) and then a quiet family day. Houses are small with louvre windows and extremely neat grounds; people take much pride in the grounds generally. I am pleased to note there are no snakes, mozzies or flies - maybe the latter two come in summer. There is but one major road, very bumpy with no lines marked. No traffic lights exist, and you can just ask to be let off the buses anywhere. On the road are signs which say ¼, ½, and ¾ around the island. From all the island people I’ve heard from, big is beautiful, so nice to see sizing in shops for properly proportioned people.

The performance of ‘Island Culture’ was entertaining, with a terrific dance troupe and fantastic hula girls. The explanations of the dances included one performed by a village in the interior of the island that commemorated one occasion when a rival tribe attacked, only to be killed by the village’s warriors and then for good measure eaten, by cooking in an underground oven or umu. We had food from such an oven for dinner that night - absolutely delicious!


Day 23: Rarotonga

After a great breakfast overlooking the lagoon, we hopped in our car and drove with the wind in our hair to several beaches up the coast. To ‘Fruits of Raro’ (location is a shop), to Muri and another beach for snorkelling. The fish are beautiful - similar to those on the Great Barrier Reef, but in very shallow water. Many are very tame and come right up to you. There were few people on the beaches and we went out into the lagoon with no current and clear, very blue water. Each beach was fringed by coconut palms and fragrant hibiscus and frangipani - all very postcardish.

Off to the ‘Windjammer’ restaurant for a meal, which was absolutely yummy - truly memorable and the best fish I’ve ever had - but the place was an absolute pain to find. It had one small sign, off the road, invisible from the direction we were travelling in. We drove past at least twice. In the end, we were close, still without seeing it, and then found a very nice guy who walked us to it.

Helen


Day 24: Rarotonga

After a late start this morning and a little more catch-up shopping, we went for a rambling drive around the island, mostly following the ‘inner’ ring road, a single-lane sealed track along which most of the residential areas are based. Most homes are simple-looking affairs of fibro or concrete in various states of repair, usually with immaculately kept surrounds, a dog and a few chooks. It appears that if you let the vegetation get out of hand it will swallow you up. There are quite a few abandoned buildings, and only a small handful of really flash dwellings. Cemeteries are an interesting feature. As you would expect, there are substantial ones attached to churches, but there are also dozens of what appear to be family or clan plots scattered around, often in front gardens of homes or on land alongside. These have anything from two or three to fifty or more graves, usually above-ground, of cement or concrete. Most are very well tended, with fresh flowers everywhere.

We were pleased by the sight of a class of children in a primary school (school uniform: anything red, and thongs) in a dance class under the trees, being taught a style that was at one with what we had seen on Saturday night. It was confirmation that the dances are not just for tourist consumption. The island music is ubiquitous - there is a little derivative from US and NZ cultures and ska/reggae, but for the most part what is played on radio and in shops is, or certainly sounds, indigenous.

The motor scooter is the most prevalent vehicle here, although standing-up-in-the-back-of-a-tray-truck-driven-by-your-mate is also popular.

Snorkelling again in the afternoon, a pastime of which we never tire. We returned to a favoured location from yesterday and it seemed that we saw half-a-dozen new species of fish. On a nearby beach we spotted what appeared to be a pet pig enjoying a wade in the shallows.

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Photos

Small roadside cemetery, Rarotonga
There are dozens or hundreds of these around the island

Dinner, Saturday night
Umu - similar to a NZ hangi, with meats, fruits and vegetables baked underground

Island song and dancing, Saturday night
Something for everyone...

Cool car
Wind in your hair...

...and yet another beach
In which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water

Scrap metal yard, roadside, Rarotonga
Leave anything alone for a minute and the vines and creepers will get it

Inner road, Rarotonga
Typical sample of livestock around the minor roads (and often the major one)