Day 123 to 131 Time travelling to a touch of paradise.

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A four-hour flight from Auckland took us to the tiny island of Raratonga one of the 15 Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It had been suggested that we could stopover in Tahiti, which was exciting enough, but on researching, the Cook Islands seem to have better reviews.



We landed in pouring rain, not very tropical, but we had a warm welcome, first a singer with ukulele (we later found out he had been welcoming, and seeing off people for 30 years!) then a flower necklace put around our necks.



For the first time since we left, we will in the staying in the same place for a whole week, 8 days to be precise. Although we left New Zealand on Saturday, because we travelled across the international dateline, we arrived on Friday - how cool is that!



There is only one main road around Rarotonga island, which takes approx. 50 minutes. There are 2 bus routes one clockwise one anti-clockwise. We could have hired a car, but after seeing all the bikes in south east Asia we thought we would try one here. I had only ever ridden a friends moped up the street and back, Alison had ridden one for day in Majorca, but I got the job. With a few wobbles we were off, the pace is slow on the island and the top speed is 50 kilometres per hour but most go less. We are great believers in crash helmets but it seems the greatest danger is from falling coconuts - 2 missed Alison by a matter of a few feet. They were rounded up and having been shown how to get the husks off we had them with breakfast.



Most of the islands are small, Rarotonga has a population of about 10,000. The next biggest island about 1700, some are not very high, a rise in sea level would swamp them. Many of the islands have a reef that surrounds them. It really is strange to see the waves crashing offshore, when the blue waters off the beach are really calm. It makes it ideal for snorkelling, being very clear, not that deep and stocked with interesting fish and corals.



Most of the Islands speak Mauri and English. On our travels there are some languages such as Vietnamese or Chinese where the same word spoken in a different tone, has different meanings. We were told that the word Ika is the same for a Tuna curry recipe as a women’s genitals !, just make sure you pick the right tone as you say it or you could get yourself into trouble. Apparently on one of the islands Palmerston, English is it’s main language, this is due to a Gloucester man William Marster’s who arrived in the mid- 1800’s and took not one but 3 wives and had 27 children. Most of Palmerston’s phonebook is made up of Marsters and the English spoken has a English west country twang about it, the old rogue!



There not a great deal to do in Rarotonga which makes it perfect. In our apartment we have one radio station, one tv station showing local stuff, and internet that is expensive. Religion plays a big part here and the church singing is some of the best so we popped along, with emotive music and the warm sunshine life seems perfect. We also attended an island show and dinner with local dancing, the tradition being much less scary than the New Zealand Mauri show we’d seen.



One of our travel books is called ’50 places to see before you die’ one place mentioned is Atutaki, one of the other Cook Islands. We took a day trip via a small plane to this little idyllic island, which has a huge azure blue lagoon . We were met by our guide who took us on the bus (really the back of a truck) around the town. We were in and out before we knew it to the main part of the day - a boat trip, with lunch and snorkelling. He told us about our lunch to come, and said that if we had been visiting a 150 years ago WE might have been lunch, as cannibalism was practiced then! He and the crew were also the band, with two them playing Ukelele but also the Captain playing bongos (whilst driving the boat). But it was the snorkelling we came for. Our guide had told us of the GT’s, which were in fact Giant Trevally’s, massive fish which although intimidating were actually were quite tame. There were giant clams to see amongst a load of other coral fishes.



We finished up at One Foot island, a real sense of the remote pacific islands, gorgeous sunshine, palm trees, and sand – oh, and the world’s smallest Post Office! Although I think it was more of a tourist trap ploy, the ‘post master/ barman’ preceded to stamp our passports. We hoped it didn’t invalidate them!



During the seven Pacific island days the scootered riding improved, and we circumnavigated Rarotonga a couple of times, (although I never got the starting and stopping very precise). We had a real rest, settling into this simple unhurried lifestyle. We move on to the USA now, and although I don’t like long plane flights I might make an exception to return one day for these beautiful islands, after all there are 13 more to explore…

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Photos

Beach Palm
Rarotonga

Swimming with the GTs!
These fish are huge, known as Giant Trevallys

Time to play
we've taken this ukulele everywhere and this the first time we've had some decent time to play it.

One of the many churches on the islands
we were treated to some great singing

Hermit Crab Atutaki
one of many we saw about

Comments

[Lesley Mcmahon]

Paradise
The islands look like paradise what a fantastic destination take care xx

[alikim]

Cook Islands
It is and amazing place and the only place we've been able to relax. .x