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Published: June 27th 2009
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Feeling very much like we were on a flight to Benidorm we survived the 3 hours over to the Cook Islands. Families galore on the flight spent the time thoroughly over-excited and cheered once we'd landed...very bizarre but then again i suppose it is sort of their spain-being only 3 hours accross - i know i'd prefer to come here for sure!!
Queuing to go through arrivals there was a little man playing the ukelele ina straw hat and flowery shirt-very tropical!!
Going through arrivals we were a little stuck as we couldn't remember which hostel Matt had booked for us..there were heaps of people trying to get us to stay with them but eventually our man Bill found us and loaded us in the mini-bus reminiscent of the bus in Cambodia with all the bags piled behind us!
The backpackers is a lovely little place right on the beach (like most places on the island!!) it is run by a family who are really friendly and helpful. Our first afternoon we just spent it wandering around and sleeping and getting to know everyone else staying there.
Our first day we wandered down to the beach to get a
glimpse of the beautiful blue skies, white sand and clear blue sea. We decided to get a moped for a couple of days and so spent a good portion of our day riding around the island on that. We first had to go to the police station to get Matt's official Cook Islands driving license after he completed a 'skills test' (drive up the road indicate and turn around and come back!!) Then we drove the whole perimeter of the island in the sunshine which was rather enjoyable.
Our second day we drove down to a deserted spot about halfway around the island and had a go at topping up the suntan reading and generally doing very little of interest! We did pop into town and have a look around some of the shops and i had a yummy ice cream. exciting stuff! That evening the hostel put on a BBQ for us with lots of tradiitonal dishes which were very yummy and we cooked ourselves some steaks and stuff on the BBQ to go with it-a nice break from noodles and cup-a-soup!
Day number three another sunny one so once again drove down to another beach near
a resort so a bit busier and matt made friends with the resident poochs before they went chasing fish in the sea. We took a dip and were suprised at
how many fish you can see-even in the shallows! Later that night we had a bonfire on the beach with a few beers and this resulted in matt trying to leap over the fire and ending up instead,in it with a burnt foot. Clever!
Day four had planned to be a walk across the island but we woke up to extreme rain so had to postpone and instead spent the day relaxing around the hostel watching films and playing card-nothing amazing but limited by the weather!
We finally got the chance to walk accross the island on day 5- it was more like a climb than a walk with having to clamber up steep inclines holding onto tree roots and foliage to get up. 30 mins in and we were suffering slightly along with 2 of the others in our group of 6 but 2 of the lads (one named GI JOE) pracitcally ran it so we left them to it.
Lot's of bruises and amusing stumbles and
bum slides up and down the hills which made it kind of entertaining among the tiredness.. the route itself merely marked by bits of green plastic nailed to trees was difficult to naviagte as these 'markers' were few and far between! But we got there in the end and had a well-earned rest on the beach at the end.
We celebrated/comiserated our final night out by hitting the town with a great gang from the hostel, Bill drove us all in 19 people in a 9 seater bus was rather interesting as you can imagine-plus the fact that most of the passengers were drunk and half had to jump out and be collected after bill dropped the first half in due to a police roadblock-close call! but we eventually made it in and had a great time kicking it with the locals and boogying on down..meeting an air stewardess for our flight the folowing evening whom promised us special treatment ....before heading back and laughing at those who were severely drunker than everyone else!!
Final day was started at the local market where we wandered around and watched some hula dancing and singing and sampled some local food and
crafts etc. One last afternoon on the beach before checking out and killing time around the rabble before saying a fond farewell and heading to the airport. We met our air hostess on the flight and had great fun in embarrassing her but true to her word we were presented with some swanky business-class headsets and she was pretty much at our beck and call whenever we wanted her -can't be a bad thing really!!
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