Advertisement
Published: February 11th 2009
To start with we nearly didn’t quite make it to the Cook Islands. Nobody tells you in advance that you need to be able to demonstrate that you have a flight out from NZ on your return BEFORE they let you on the plane to Rarotonga. We only discover this as we are checking in. As we are travelling light our RTW flight tickets are back in the hostel. Options rush back & return or get a copy of the tickets from the Qantas desk as we are flying with them. C rushes off, the desk is just closing - 5 minutes later & it would be panic stations. The very helpful guy opens up his system again to print off the RTW tickets. So phew …. We will be flying to the Cooks after all.
The flight from Auckland to Rarotonga - the largest of the Cook Islands with it’s capital Avarua takes about 4 hours, however as we are crossing the Date Line, we leave at 9.45pm on the 4th Feb & arrive on the 4th Feb at 2.45am! So we gain nearly a day and instead of being 13 hours ahead of the UK we are now
10 hours behind - it’s enough to give anyone a headache - it’s even better on the return flight but more of that later.
We fly Air New Zealand who do regular flights here - not bad - £250 ish each for a South Pacific Paradise?! The plane is pretty comfortable, the light meal with wine etc quite good. C has Thai Chicken rissole & M a steak pie washed down with some nice red wine (NZ Syrah & Merlot Cabernet). The in flight entertainment was good - personal screens and games - M saw the latest Coen brothers offering - very good actually with Brad Pitt & George Clooney called Burn after Reading & C saw Righteous Kill with Al Pacino & Robert Di Nero then tried to win a million on Who Wants to be a Millionaire - blew it on the final Q!. The thing that let down their customer service was the over zealous chief flight steward who in the interest of keep us informed interrupted the programmes too often which pissed you off, also one miserable stewardess serving our section. Boy was she on an off day. They should get customers to vote for
the most miserable service attendant & then fire them! Good management practise we‘d say.
Arriving on time we get a nice Polynesian welcome (Kia Orana - which literally means “may you live long”) with a guy singing & playing the guitar at 2.45 am in Hawaii 5 O shirt for those who can remember that far back!!!! Nuts or what but a great welcome non the less.
The trip from the airport to the Rarotonga Backpackers by the Arorangi beach gives us a free pick up as part of the deal. We had booked via email thanks to our LP guide. We hadn’t intended to have a room that night but as we are somewhat bushed we take the room - just as well, C doesn’t awake till near 10 am.
The hostel room is quite nice with en suite which we hadn’t expected for $48 per night. The place is by the beach with some cabanas/cabins & a swimming pool. They have a slight problem with the booking having booked us in for 4 rather than 5 nights - thanks to the communication by e mail. Hey but 5 mins later it’s sorted .
Raro
as it’s affectionately known reminds us of Belize a bit - especially the Cayes. It’s quite small - only 30km around - & surrounded by a reef creating a lagoon of aqua blue water which is full of tropical fish. The hinterland though is quite spectacular with an amazing range of mountains with quite pointed peaks lush green with rainforest vegetation.
Buses going both clockwise & anticlockwise go around the island every ½ hour & each journey costs $4 each so we decide it’s more cost effective to hire a scooter from Budget at $13 per day. (It’s all NZ dollars here even though they have their own currency - you only see the odd coin or note as change). We can only do this after getting a licence from the police for $20 if you have a motorbike licence- or for $5 they give you a quick test escorted by cop on bike - everyone seems to pass! Anyway, as C has her pass certificate she gets the licence. M of course drives illegally. C demonstrates her bike driving skills by a supreme skid from standing start which leaves her in a heap on the ground - not
a lot of people can do that! She has also been renamed Skippy (rather than her old schoolteachers nickname of Rabbit) given her inability to deal with only one thing at a time for more than a nanosecond! We’ve also discovered she has developed CRAFTs disease - Can’t Remember a F***ing Thing!!
We checkout the main drag - 200 metres & call in for a beer at Trader Jacks where we sample the local (Samoan) beer - Vailima. Not bad & is locally reputed to be much better than the island beer - Matutu. We then get peckish & have a seafood chowder - lovely fish but cooked with a bit too much salt & a snack pizza (thick & too doughy).
After calling in on the local supermarket - we get some chicken to BBQ at the hostel to go with some duty free wine (NZ Pinot Noir & Merlot Cab Sav - gold star winner - but cheap). Good choice. However, it seems that if you find the right places to eat it’s cheaper to eat out! Thanks to Sol & Krissy - 2 Aussies we meet on the dive who are emigrating to Vancouver in
Canada - we discover the Maori Café at Kavera central which does fab fish, Warrior burgers with egg and pineapple, and best of all Ika Mata - raw fish in coconut cream - the local speciality. All for about $7 each. We also go to Salsa in town for a treat - definitely recommended. We have a lovely octopus stew (in coconut cream), perfect fish pizza and mai mai fish with a couple of glasses of Pinot for $69 - a bit of a treat. We also find Hokey Pokey Ice cream at Wigmore’s supermarket - better than in NZ and only $2 for a huge one. Delish!
This is the place to snorkel, dive & sunbathe - which is why we are here in the first place. The snorkelling is literally off the beach. 3 sites are famous for this: Aro’a Beach which is by the Dive centre and our favourite; the beach by The Fruits of Rarotonga (name of the shop opposite the entry point); & Muri Beach on the east of the island which is better for swimming & sunbathing. It’s more flash & touristy with the Yacht club based here. At low tide the sea
is crystal clear & the water so shallow we feel like we have put our heads - with masks - into someone’s large aquarium at home. The fish are juveniles (baby ones for the uninitiated) and are beautiful and so friendly we have to keep shooing them off - some even come & take a nibble of various parts of you. The variety is fantastic & the colours amazing. Louise & Sarah would love it. We take loads of underwater pics. We even see a baby moray eel. Other highlights were starfish, angel fish, sergeant fish, parrot fish, tuna etc etc.
We decide to go diving as we are not sure when we’ll get the chance again. It’s with the Pacfic Divers Rarotonga at 8.30 am. We have two dives just off the capital’s shore - one over a ship wreck which has now disintegrated because of the 2005 cyclone & a nearby site called Edna‘s Anchor. The wreck dive was good for various reasons - it was our first wreck dive and the visibility was the best we have experienced anywhere. However, the marine life was not as good as the snorkelling stuff. The second dive was a
total disappointment - it’s as if they were filling in to give us two dives - the instructor April, is a Canadian who has just moved here after 6 months in Fiji. She raved about the Cayman islands - so one more destination to the list of places to see.
On Saturday morning we go to the highlight for the islanders - the Punanga Nui Cultural market which is very colourful and traditional with some great Polynesian music (sort of reggae beat). The woman folk were all dressed in their sarongs with head bands made with flowers or Frangipani flowers behind their ears - very Polynesian. Black Pearls are the thing that the islands are famous for. They are cultivated by artificial insemination using culture from different coloured parts of the oyster shell - ranging from black to green, pink & white. They are set out in farms in the sea at a depth of 3 metres & harvested after a year or two. The quality of each type is graded from A to D. The A’s are perfection and jewellery with them cost from $350 to $3000 NZ. Whilst they are impressive - they didn’t quite float our
boat enough to buy any.
There are 15 islands in the Cooks group & the population of the islands are small. Most folk live on Rarotonga. There are essentially 2 groups of islands - the northern & southern. They are a NZ protectorate & given the quirky British relationship NZ has with the Motherland/Queen, there is a Queen’s representative based on the island with fancy house by the sea.
Polynesians & Maoris have a similar history and cultural traditions - and their history lives in songs & stories - only when the Europeans arrive was there some written records. The Polynesians in the Cooks are descended from tribes that came across by boat from French Polynesia. Christianity is very big here - 7th Day Adventist and Jehovah Witnesses churches in particular - and all are packed to overflowing when there are services. The island also has many cemeteries along the coast, mostly white with flowers so look quite impressive. At night one of the big ones has small lights like candles that come on over some of the graves (we assume they are solar powered), making them look quite special against the ocean horizon. Many families have graves
in the family garden of loved ones passed on.
One thing we notice is that there are signs of obesity among the young & older generations. Whether like Mexico this has to do with diet or DNA we aren’t sure. However, despite the fresh fish/seafood available & affordable & some local fruit & vegetables, the islanders seem to be largely dependent on NZ for a lot of it’s food stuff which makes it cost a lot more. For example courgettes in the supermarket in Raro were $21.95 per kg, in NZ only $2.95. Amazing. So the daily diet is largely pies, Toasties (toasted sandwiches), and burgers in many varieties with of course chips. They also do have a love of Coke & any fizzy drink. All in all not a very healthy diet. The other interesting feature of the people was the difference in look between some of the women which ranged from quite big build & manly to being very beautiful. We’re not sure of the genetic & tribal differences that bring this about. The men folk while still tattooed with some exquisite designs don’t quite look like the painted warriors they are normally depicted.
We have
an early start (5.30 am) to the airport for the return flight. The departure lounge is a colourful garden overlooking the hinterland & air strip. And this time we leave on the morning of the 9th and get to NZ on the morning of the 10th after only 4hrs in the air! Quite disorientating.
And so, it’s back to Auckland for our last couple of days in NZ …………….see you there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.06s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0365s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
pookie
non-member comment
these are gorgeous pictures i hope that is what it is like when i am over there