Aitutaki

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It has been a long day but I really want to write it up now before I forget any of the details as it was one of the best days ever.

We’d booked to go on an Aitutuki Adventures lagoon trip today.

The trip was run by Puna and Tutu, a married couple who had been running the tours for a number of years. Puna took the boat out onto the lagoon before explaining to us where our first stops were going to be. On the way Matt spotted a turtle coming up for air, unfortunately by the time I looked it had gone, but we were told that there were lots of tutles in the lagoon in the areas we were travelling so it made us all look out a bit harder in the hope that we could see some more.

The colour of the lagoon was awesome. It didn’t look real at all; in some places it was a deep turquoise, and in others it was a bright fake looking blue (these were the deeper parts). There was lots of coral dotted around and it looked like a challenge for Puna to negotiate his way around it all.

The first stop was Honeymoon Island. We had an option of getting off here for an hour or going out to snorkel on the boat. It was a bit choppy and we both really wanted to see the island as it was meant to be one of the best beaches, so we chose to go to the island with about five others.

We were dropped off on a sandbar about 1/4 mile from the edge of the island and waked through ankle deep water for five minutes before getting on to the dry part of the sand bar. It was beautiful. Most of the island was white sand and the lagoon was so spectacular around it that none of us could quite believe it. In the centre there were some low coconut palms but most of the island was taken up by a wide sweeping beach - to walk right around the island took less than ten minutes. Initially our group was the only one on the island but it wasn’t long before another boat pulled up with some kite surfers on board.

We paddled around the island for a while - you couldn’t swim as it was just too shallow even when you walked right out. The sun started getting a bit too powerful so then we headed into the tiny bit of shade and watched the kite surfers.

Our boat pulled in and we joined it for a snack and drink. We expected just a bit of fruit but instead we had a feast of home baked banana cake, doughnuts, and loads of fresh fruit like passion fruit, bananas and papaya all from Tutu's garden. It was all delicious, especially the banana cake which had been baked that morning. Tutu’s aim was to get everyone to eat as much as possible so Matt and I did our best to help.

The boat then went past one of the Shipwrecked islands, the one that was called Tiger Island in the last show. We pulled into the one used as Shark Island which was opposite - this one has also been for Survivor which we think is a big OZ show on the same premise as Shipwrecked.

Puna told us that when Survivor is being filmed the production company take over the whole of Aitutaki for three months. Last time it was summer 2006 - which is usually the busiest time for tourism on the island - so the production company had to compensate the businesses for their loss. Apparently they gave the island $4million and also employed a lot of young local people to work on the project. We got the impression that the locals were happy with the arrangement as they got a lot out of it although it seems none of them ever watch the tv shows (tv was only brought to Aitutaki four years ago anyway so it’s still relatively new here!)

During Shipwrecked filming it sounded like a smaller affair but they still take over the smaller islands meaning no boat trips can visit. The crew were in town about to start planning the next show so we were lucky that we could still go to these islands as if we’d arrived in two weeks from now we probably wouldn’t have been able to.

The island used as Shark Island was smaller than we expected and also a lot less remote - from it you could see a string of other islands. They still had the shark island sign there and the camp was still set out as the group built it on the show. There were lots of chickens on the island that were brought there by the first crew for the contenstants to eat and they seemed happy having the run of the island. Shipwrecked has used these islands for a number of years now and plan to keep coming back.

Tutu told us a story about why there are no dogs on Aitutaki. We’d thought this was strange as there are a lot on Raro, but Aitutaki is just overrun by chickens instead. Apparently years ago the only daughter of a chief was bitten on the finger by a dog. It became infected and she died. From then onwards the chief banned dogs and to this day there are still none on the island. I'm not sure if this is true or just a myth as Matt read something about them being banned when a leper colony was created on one of the islands.

The next stop was a long sand bar. It felt endless and we got dropped off at one end and walked right along it and the boat picked us up at the other end. The only word for it was paradise.

By this point we’d got our appetites back so we went to One Foot Island, our last stop of the tour. Here we got our passport stamped at a tiny post office for the cost of $2.50 and then bought a beer in the same shed that housed the post office desk.

While lunch was being cooked we swam and lay on the beach. One Foot is a bigger island than most of the ones we’d visited and it was full of tourists. When I say full, I mean there were about three other boats, so maybe thirty other people. By our usual standards the beaches were empty, but by Cook Islands standards they were reasonably full!

Lunch was salads and fresh tuna. Again Tutu kept trying to encourage everyone to go back for third and forth helpings. After her spectacular banana cake earlier both Matt and I only managed two helpings.

Feeling very full we lay on the beach before deciding that a paddle in the shallow lagoon would help. After a few minutes we decided to sidestep a bit into a deeper part of the lagoon for a swim. You could see a massive colour difference between the shallows and the slightly deeper water so we knew exactly where to go. We edged down the slope into the deeper water until we were just over waist deep and then jumped in for a proper swim, or rather to float on our backs and enjoy the view.

Aitutaki’s lagoon is far more beautiful than Raro’s. There are more depths to the blues and the sand on the floor of the lagoon is cleaner (Raro’s has lots of sea cucumbers in places which don’t look nice to step on). Also, the sand is whiter and the beaches are even quieter if you can believe that.

After a good amount of time in the water we headed back feeling like we’d really had a good day. It wasn’t long before we were at the wharf and it was time to pay. I tried to give them $10 as a tip as it had been such a good day, but they really didn’t want to take it as tipping isn’t always done in the Cook Islands (only for exceptional service which we felt we’d had).

Tutu was driving Matt and I back in a truck separate to the rest of the group. We got into the back and sat on a plank of wood nailed across the back. It’s not too safety conscious here but I think as there is so little traffic there aren’t many accidents. We were just debating about whether we could face the walk into town later to go to the cash point and supermarket when Tutu pulled the truck in and asked if we needed anything from the shops. It was the perfect end to a perfect day - we were able to get everything we needed without facing a long walk home.

None of the shops where we stopped had any bread left (due to the flour shortage) so Tutu insisted on driving us to another shop - again no bread. We tried a third with no luck and said not to worry but she insisted on making some phonecalls and came back saying that there was one bakery on the island still baking today and they’d be delivering some more tonight at 6pm to one particular shop. Unfortunately that shop was a bit far for us to walk later so we accepted defeat and went back to our villa.

As the sun was still shining we decided to make the most of the swimming pool by jumping in. It was still cold but you quickly warmed up when you swam around for a bit. When we realised it was time for the whales to come by we stopped and went up onto the deck to see what was happening today. There was one whale today but it didn’t do too much this time so we quickly gave up.

Paul came by for a chat and invited us to a bar in town for a drink, but we were exhausted so turned him down in favour of a quiet night in with a take away.

We decided to head out to the slightly further away take away this time as the one at the bottom of our driveway wasn’t great the previous night. We set off around 6pm because the sun goes down before 7pm and we wanted to be back before it got dark as it wasn’t fun walking up the dark drive last time we tried it. The take away was also the place we’d managed to buy some bread last time but unfortunately there was none today. However, there were bags of warm freshly baked doughnuts so we bought those instead - these are like ours only they don’t have sugar on them.

We ordered fish and chips again (as it was either that or Chicken and chips again!). This place seemed popular with the locals so we had high hopes. We walked back with it and set out our dinner on the deck to watch the sun set. The food was good - not quite as good as the Blue Nun but definitely better than the previous night.

Then we settled into a night drinking beer and watching another of Paul’s DVDs.

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Photos

This is how a coconut palm grows
A coconut falls or is planted and it grows from the nut.