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Published: December 18th 2006
Kia Orana (Cook Island greeting meaning may you live long) everybody from the Cook Islands. Well actually from New Zealand now, but now that I am in the land of cheaper and much more reliable internet I can post to the blog and get you caught up on what has been going on over the last month or so.
The journey got started on Nov. 10th with a nice 3 ½ hour long drive up from San Diego to LA (I don’t think I’ll miss California traffic for a while) and a visit to Jay and Susan in Venice before heading over to LAX and out on my flight to the Cook Islands at 10:15 at night. Outside of the lady at the check in counter charging my $160 for my board bag and a long line at security get to the flight wasn’t bad. It was a 12 hour flight to Rarotonga with a stop over in Tahiti on Air New Zealand.
Rarotonga is the main island of the Cook Islands, is part of the southern island chain, and one beautiful place. The people are all super friendly and seemed to always greet you with a smile and a big
hello. I got through customs and met the people from the hostel, Rarotonga Backpackers, and was soon off to the place. The hostel is broken up into two buildings about a 5 minute walk from each other. For the first four nights in the Cooks I stayed at the hillside portion of the hostel which had a great view over the surrounding beach areas and some great sunsets. The rest of the first day I spent looking around the beach area in front of the beach portion of the hostel and getting some pictures. Later I hitched a ride into town on the back of a moped which was rather interesting and walked around the main town area.
Most of Rarotonga is set up with a shallow lagoon area that spreads out from the beaches about 74-150m in most places. At the edge of the lagoon the reef meets the ocean and drops off considerably. On the second day there was big surf hitting the outer reef that was nice to watch, but completely un-surfable because of the lack of breaks in the reef. Any attempts to surf would have lead to a broken board and most likely a broken
me so I didn’t even attempt to go out during my stay. In place of surfing on the second day a large group of us went snorkeled around the inner lagoon in front of a nice hotel called the Rarotongan. We saw some ok coral, great reef fish, and tons of urchins and sea cucumbers. One of the guys that was with us got up close and personal with one of these urchins and ended up with 10-15 quills through the front of three of his toes out the back and into his foot. We helped him to a cab and off to the ER to have the quills removed. That night several people from the hostel walked down the beach to a great little restaurant and bar called the Waterline bar and hung out for a while.
On the third day I headed back into town to check out the shops some more get some lunch. After lunch at a great Indian place 5 of us from the hostel met up to walk the trail that goes across the island. The trek took 4-5 hours and was rather hot but the views were well worth it. We hiked up
and into hilly volcanic center of the island and up to the needle (one of the tallest rock formations in the center of the island). From there we could see the north and south shores of the island. We hiked down to the road that circles the island on the south side and then got the bus back to the hostel. That evening it was off to the RSA club to hang out with everybody from the hostel.
The fourth day I headed over to Muri beach, one of the nicest beaches on the island, with Korey the Canadian whom I had met at the hostel. We snorkeled in the larger lagoon there and saw more great reef fish. After our time in the water we hitched a ride into town and set up accommodations on the island of Aitutaki where we were heading the next day. We then got some food and then joined everybody that night for "Steak Night" at the Nu Bar.
On Nov. 15th I headed over to Aitutaki with Korey. Aitutaki is also in the southern islands group and the second biggest tourist destination. For those of you interested, this is also where they filmed
Survivor Cook Islands and where they are currently filming the British version called Shipwrecked. Kory and I flew over in the afternoon and got a ride in to our hostel called Tom’s cottage. It rained most of the day so we didn’t do too much during the day. That evening we walked into town (about 5 buildings) and went to the Blue Nun to watch the island night. They had the traditional island singing and dancing performed by one of the local groups.
The next day was a nice day with cloudy windy conditions and rain at times. Korey and I walked up to the highest section of the island (a whopping 124 meters high) and took some pictures of the island and its beautiful lagoon. Aitutaki small island that has several small motus (islands) stretching out below it that help to form a large lagoon area to the south of the island. The lagoon is surrounded by a reef which quickly drops off to deep waters. Within the lagoon there are 7 main motus that have white sandy beaches and are surrounded by the blue and turquoise water of the lagoon. From our vantage point at the top of
the island we were able to look out over this lagoon and see all of these motus. It was quite an amazing sight. Later that day we went out for a snorkel in the lagoon in front of out hostel, but the rains came and the visibility dropped so didn’t do much else that day.
The next day we booked a lagoon cruise with Aitutaki Adventures. We were picked up at our hostel in the morning and taken to the harbor where we joined several others. We boated out into the lagoon and over to the furthest motu called Honeymoon Island. Just off Honeymoon Island we snorkeled on some great coral colonies where we saw butterfly fish, wrasses, puffer fish, trigger fish, parrot fish, blennies, flounder, giant clams, sea cucumbers, urchins, and several types of corals. After the snorkeling we walked along the sand spit to Honeymoon Island where we saw the resident birds (a type of Turn) that only lives on that island. From there we boated past the island where the group from Shipwrecked were staying, waving as we went by, and on to One Foot Island. There we stopped for lunch and walked around a little. While
walking along the beach we saw this eel in the shallows. He was very curious and came within feet of us. For lunch the boat driver and his wife fixed us a feast for local fruits, fish, taro and potato dishes, and other great things. We were all stuffed afterwards and they were still trying to offer us more. We swam and snorkeled some more around One Foot Island and then headed back in the early afternoon. Korey got his flight back to Rarotonga when we got back while I stayed on.
Over the next four days I wandered around Aitutaki, did some snorkeling at Ootu beach, and relaxed a lot on the beach. One of those days I walked across the inlet near Ootu beach to two of the close motus with some others people that I had met on the island. The inlet is about 150-200m wide but only chest deep at most places so we were able to walk the whole way. Once over on the other motus we saw huge coconut crabs, several reef fish, coral, more eels, puffers, and cow fish. In my travels around the island I also met a local legend by the
name of Don Silk. He had lived in the Cooks for 48 years and, with a partner, had run one of the most successful shipping companies in the Cooks. Don had some great stories and I ended up getting buying his book that details all of the interesting times during his years shipping.
After six days on Aitutaki I headed back to Rarotonga and the beach side of Rarotonga Backpackers for my last four days in the Cooks. During those last four days I spent a lot of it just relaxing by the beach, but I did get a chance to do some diving and see some rugby. My first day back I got a chance to see New Zealand Mauri play Cook Islands in their second test of a 3 test match. It was quite a game and I think I’m actually beginning to understand the rules. I also had a chance to get in two dives with Dive Rarotonga. I went out on a morning trip with 5 others. On our first dive we did a 18m dive on an old wreck just outside the harbor. On that dive we saw some great coral, a lot of your
standard reef fish, and a large clear-fin Lionfish. On our second dive we did a 16m dive on a reef area called Paradise. Here we saw tons of fish including Butterflys, Dartfish, Groupers, Boxfish, Morrish Idols, Parrotfish, Triggers, Wrasses, a Crocodile Needlefish, a Tuna, several inverts, Sea fans, Giant Clams, and 3 huge Morey eels. I also went to a great food festival that fell on Thanksgiving and the outrigger races.
The two weeks I spent in the Cooks was a great way to start off my adventures and gave me a good chance to relax and get a little sun. I met some great people and had a great time at all the places I visited. But I had to move on so next it was on to Fiji, but only after one last time at the Waterline where we all had a chance to say our goodbyes and pass out our info. The last picture is the crew at the Waterline. Look for a posting of Fiji soon.
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Brad
non-member comment
what the fish?
Yes, I have a question. Have you spotted any Mollusks in the area? Or a diamond back sturgeon maybe? Kook Island looked pretty nice...