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Published: March 29th 2007
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Rarotonga Beach
Cook Islands, South Pacific South Pacific
Brigette Dempsey
Biggest afro ever!!
Irish jig..kind ok in LA The Cook Islands
RAROTONGA 32 sq miles Population - approx - 9,600
15 Cook Islands in all - 15,000 pop
Languages - Maori & English
Currency - NZ$
Rarotonga a lush, beautiful place, fringed with white sandy beaches and crowned with mountains right in the centre, tropical trees and exotic flowers are in abundance, the only place in the world where you can get the black pearl, it has a
lagoon that seems to circle the whole Island which is great for
snorkelling and even better for
diving... Met up with Kittie a girl from Fountainstown...would you believe it and decided to do my
PADI Open Water Dive course with her,
neerve wrecking at times I can tell you but completed it nevertheless, thanks to Phil and Kristen my dive masters and instructor and a lot more confident than when I started so I am looking forward to my next
dives in Thailand. Missed out on the
Blacktip reef shark as I wasn't too comfortable on my first dive so opted to bail out early but seen loads more,
Trevor the trigger fish who has huge
Rarotonga Beach Sunset
Cook Islands, South Pacific cute lips and human like teeth..really weird to have interaction with a fish, we were able to rub him and feed him,
blow fish,
sea urchants, Moray eels and loads more
tropical fish, I ended up having to do my next 2nd dive for an extra 20 minutes...there was no way Kristen was letting me get away with not doing it, the worst part of the skills test is being 12meters under water and having to take off your mask while remember to breath through the regulator and put it back on...giving my reg to my dive buddy (roleplay of her being out of air) so much you have to think about but all good fun, you can't just decide that you've had enough and race 12 meters to the top as it can be dangerous to have too much nitrogen in your blood but that's what the course is all about, how not to freak out...on the 4th dive though I was amazed at how confident I was and actually enjoyed the dive and seen alot more.
Stayed here in
Varas Hostel right on the beach which was nice, weather for the first few days were
torrential Rarotonga Beach Sunset
Phil (UK) & Me - Cook Islands, South Pacific rain as it's coming into their winter now but still very warm and you could still go swimming as the water was 25 C. The night life is quiet, bars open until 12 and Fridays till 2am which is the main night, found a bar called "Whatever" and it's one of the best ones there, great music and great people, The Islanders are very friendly and some
fiine infrastructure on the Island that's for sure!!.
I was staying for a week but extended my ticket to stay longer as I was having such a good time, met some
pretty great people aswell, the general
attitude with all the hostels there is
"if there's a dollar to be made...you'll pay it” which was sooo frustrating at times, the Island is very expensive aswell,
everything costs double than here in New Zealand, fruit, veg, milk, anything dairy...soo expensive, must be so hard for the people of the Island as there aren’t any job opportunities so they pay the same as everyone else.
Hitched around the Island every day, getting lifts on the back of some truck or what ever, Kittie left after a week and I met another
girl, Francie from Germany and we lived it up for the remainder of my stay. I also managed to get myself a Rarotongan Tattoo....from a moped!!! and the funny thing about it was that I didn't even fall off the bike... I fell getting on it..... after too many rum & cokes!!!
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Kelly
non-member comment
Livin it up in Paradise!!
Hey B!! Great photos. Sounds like you had a blast in Rarotonga. I knew you would. Your pics make me want to go back! Can't wait to catch up with you again in July...watch out Bali and SE Asia!!!! =)