New Zealand 1 nighter and the Cook Islands

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NEW ZEALAND 1 NIGHTER
We had a lovely one night two day stop in Pukekoke, South Auckland, staying with my godmother Jenny, her husband Terry and their son Craig before flying onto Rarotonga. Terry picked us up from our flight from Buenos Aires and we were immediately taken with the lovely scenery even though we were a bit dazed and confused from our flight. Terry took us back to Craig's house and we spent the day washing, sleeping and eating nice food!! Jenny came home after she'd finished at school and it was so great to see her, my main memories of her are of a visit she made with Craig, Scott and Sarah to England years and years ago when she taught my Mum how to make Lasagne for which I will be forever grateful as it is my favourite!! (They actually stayed in Drew's house when it was a B & B!). We had been so looking forward to normal healthy fod that we didn't have to worry about eating and Jenny didn't disappoint! Caryl had roast beef and I had the nicest vegetable curry, with roast veg for dinner. Yum yum! We then chilled out and watched New Zealand TV, they have similar TV to us, just a bit behind. Caryl and Terry were very disappointed that Coronation St didn't end up being on!

The next day Terry took is out for some local sightseeing. We went to a local beach first which was really pretty. It had black sand with metal bits in it so it sparkled. The sea looked really nice and was quite warm, there were a few surfers although the waves didn't seem big enough to me, not that I'm an expert on surfing. We then went to Patamahoe where Jenny and Terry used to live to a really nice bakery and to their old house, it was nice to see that and where Maff had been a few years earlier. We then went on a lovely drive to a lighthouse that had wonderful views, we could see all the way over to Auckland and the Sky Tower. On the way back we had fresh fruit ice cream which confused Caz & I at first (not hard I know). There were tubs of ice cream and tubs of fruit (Strawberry, Raspberry etc) and we couldn't figure out how we were going to eat the frozen fruit. It all became clear when the chap put the frozen fruit in a blender with the vanilla ice cream. It was some of the nicest ice cream I have ever tasted. We then went to the Warehouse which is now Caryl & I's favourite shop, we get excited every time we see it! It sells EVERYTHING (but like Asda), except for handwash which is something we really REALLY REALLY REALLY need (we still need it and it's over a week later and we're in New Zealand again after the Cook Islands as I'm writing this). We then went back for another lovely dinner of salad and chippies (I really can't say enough how nice it was to have lovely homecooked food) and got ready for our journey to Rarotonga that night. We were sad to leave and say bye to Jenny and Terry when they dropped it as the airport, it really was a home from home, I can't wait to go back.

RAROTONGA (the COOK ISLANDS)
So, we then had a 10pm flight to the Cook Islands (leaving on the 4 February, takes 4 hours - very important pieces of information, will see why in a minute) with Air New Zealand who are now my favourite airline. For a 4 hour flight they had loads of films (which we were able to start watching before take off), lovely food (I had to have a Vegan one and it was still great!) and one of the most amusing safety videos we've seen, made us chuckle all the way through (we also commented on how tight the clothing was, we later found out that it was body paint!!). We arrived into Rarotonga at 3am to this little airport and there was a man singing traditional songs on the guitar on a stage, welcoming us all to the Cook Islands. We were very impressed (apparently he meets every flight, he was singing when we left too). We were also quite taken with the duty free that looked like a bar and had the coolest dudes ever chilling out behind it. We got our transfer to Vara's on Muri Beach and slept after getting used to the sound of the waves crashing on the reef. We woke up bright and early (!!!) on the 4th February (notice anything, look at the date we left New Zealand, 10pm at night on the 4th). It was like groundhog day, as we've flown back over the date line we'd gone back in time 23 hours and woken up on the 4th February again. We had two 4th Februarys and for that second one we just chilled out. We got our first set of travelling supplies and had beans on toast for breakfast/lunch (think we'll be getting used to that) and had some wine in the big kitchen. We met some people and ended up playing Shithead, which I wasn't too great at. Especially after Paul (a Canadian Mounty, which we were to be very grateful of the next day) had given us Feijoa Vodka (which I was not recommend to anyway, it was disgusting, tasted like medicine).

The next day we did the Cross-Island Trek which was suppoed to have a nice waterfall at the end of it with Paul, Dermy and Varena. Paul, Dermy and Verena took us to the start of the trek on their scooters which was an experience in itself. I found the trek so hard, it was all uphill for the first hour and I had horrible flashbacks of the Inca Trail. I didn't think I would make it as could hardly breathe. We were all very glad we had Paul with us as being the Canadian Mounty he was very organised and had packed supplies for all of us and was very good at helping Caryl & I. I did eventually make it and the view was worth it. We could see all the way from one side of the Island to another, and we were even accompanied by a friendly cockrell! The way down was quite scary, I could breathe which was a bonus but it was very steep and slippy so quite dangerous (a couple of days after we heard that a girl from our hostel hurt herself in a landslide). We eventually made it down to the bottom (after doing a 4 hour trek in 3 hours, we were quite proud of ourselves) and found an EMPTY waterfall. We could not believe it, it'd had been the only thing keeping us going! We made up for us though by going for a swim at the beach just along the road, it was really cool as it wasn't planned and we had no towels so we just got in and had to dry off in the wind when we got out. If you ever go to Rarotonga and do the Cross-Island Trek be careful. You need to wear good shoes, allow plenty of time, take supplies (loads of water) and always go from North to South (it's less dangerous and harder to get lost). That night we went out with the hostel on a bar crawl. It was quite good as we went into town on the back of a pick up (only in somewhere like the Cook Islands) and they played loads of cool music so we just danced the night away.

Caz & I spent the next day making ourselves feel better by sleeping and chilling on the beach with diet coke and salt & vinegar crisps (the best cure for a bit of a hangover). We also had to sort out a few problems with our room, one of which was the fading lightbulb. Lily, the driver/cleaner was a bit shy of hard work (she was always complaining about the "hard, hard work she had to do", would ask us every day whether we wanted her to do our room and if we said no we made her so happy!) and wasn't keen to change it. In the end she bought the lightbulbs and I had to get up on a very wobbly bed to change it. We had a night in that night but I did not get a good nights sleep. I'm not good with the sea and the sound of the waves crashing on the reef really scared me and I had loads of very random nightmares, which continued every night after that. We spent the next day on the beach, again. It's hard to resist because it really is so beautiful. The water is a lovely blue and pretty much crystal clear although it's a bit wavey as it's cyclone season. Although the waves crashing into the reef are quite big and powerful the reef creates a really nice barrier so the lagoon itself if really nice. I had a nice (I say nice but it was quite hard as the current is so strong) swim to a little motu (an island in the lagoon) so got to see the waves up close and they didn't seem so big, wish I could have remembered that every night when I was freaking out though! On the way back to the main island I felt something bite me. My first thought was SHARK and I screamed and then I realised that was a big ridiculous as the water was so shallow so I thought maybe I just kicked back at a rock. When I got back my ankle was bleeding but hadn't swelled or anything so not too worried. I later found that I'd been bitten by a trigger fish, apparently it's mating season so they're a bit teritorial.

That night we were REALLY looking forward to our beans on toast. We started cooking and then when Caryl got the bread out we saw that it had been half eaten. When Kara and her Mum Cathy (some Canadians we met, Laura is Kara's sister) had a look on top of the cupboards they saw a rat trap and droppings. We were not happy and decided we were not eating there again. We thought we would go for one of the nice burgers just up the track and were really miffed to find that it was closed. So we started walking up the street to go to one of the (more expensive restuarants), grumbling to ourselves as we went. But then we had the nicest stroke of luck. A chap (later found out his name was Gordon) and younger chap (aka James) were walking behind us and asked us where we were eating. We told them the rat story and Gordon invited us into the Pacific Resort (very very nice hotel). We thought at first he was a guest and could get non guests in and we were a bit worried about the price but it turned out that he ran the place. He said he'd get us a couple of drinks on the house so we had a couple of glasses of wine and had a look at the snack menu. It seemed quite reasonable so we both ordered something and it was so nice. Then Gordon brought us an unexpected selection of puddings which included Bailey's cheesecake and then he told us it was happy hour on the cocktails so we thought we could push to one of those each. We had a really nice evening, sat on a beautiful terrace looking out of the lagoon watching the sun go down. It was the sort of place you'd want to get married if you were into that sort of wedding. We also learnt a lot that night about things like trigger fish and cyclones which would come in useful in the next couple of days as it was also the first we'd heard of Pat, aka Cyclone Pat. At the end of the meal we asked for the bill to settle up and Gordon wouldn't let us pay. We were not expecting that and thought it was very nice.

The next day I was supposed to go to Aitutaki which was due to be one of the highlights of my trip, it was the main reason for me going to the Cook Islands. But, Cyclone Pat was on it's way and had other ideas. I was given the option whether to go or not (it involved a 50 minute flight in a little plane) and I decided not to as I didn't want to get stuck there, I could try again the next day
(I was glad the next day that I hadn't gone when I was told that the people who had gone had to turn back 30 minutes into their lagoon cruise because the waves were too big, and I was even gladder when I heard later the next day about how much damage Cyclone Pat had caused to Aitutaki). So, we slept, ate, went on the internet and chilled (it wasn't the right weather for the beach, the wind was getting up). That night we went to the Edgewater Resort for Island Night with Cathy, Kara and Laura all squashed into their rented convertible. We could watch without paying which I don't think you'd ever get away with in England, it was pretty cool. Those women could really shake their asses!!! I was a bit freaked by the whole thing though as the resort was being boarded up for the cylcone, apparently it was due to hit the next morning at 5am. We arrived back at Vara's to a scribbled sign giving us the option to evacuate. We were not really sure what it was all about and didn't fancy the walk to the evacuation place in the dark (the directions were not great) so stayed at the hostel and played Ring of Fire (now my favourite card drinking game ever!) with some new arrivals. We actually saw the rat that night and our lovely new friend Fraser (19 and from a farm in Scotland) manned up to try and get it but was unsuccessful.

The next day, our last on the island, was very humid which is not a great sign when a cyclone is on the way (it means it's more likely to hit). I got up early again to go to Aitutaki but as I expected it was cancelled, no Air Rarotonga flights were going anywhere. It wasn't a great day for the beach (even windier) so we went to the internet cafe and overheard the lady who works there on the phone saying she was closing because the area had now been classed as a disaster zone. We asked her what was going on and she explained that because Aitutaki was hit so bad and we are in the same 'zone' as them we were now in a disaster zone. Cylcone Pat had sped up (was not a category 3) and they were now expecting it to hit Rarotonga in 2 hours, which probably explained why it was getting more and more humid and we felt a bit like we were in a pressure cooker. We stacked up on supplies and got ready to sit it out, luckily it was daytime so would be easy to keep an eye on things. We were told that there could be 18ft waves and that trees could bend horizontal. So, we started playing Ring of Fire again. We also learnt Little Piggy and a card racing game, may show you one day. It gradually got windier and then started raining but was only really bad for an hour. Pat didn't hit Rarotonga so we were very lucky and pleased to hear that nobody on Aitutaki had been seriously hurt.

We had to wait until 2am for our flight back to New Zealand but it all went OK except Caz was a bit poorly. Air New Zealand didn't disappoint (we really want to fly with them in the daytime, so we're not so tired and can actually enjoy it!) and we arrived in New Zealand at 7am after losing a day and going forward 23 hours because we'd crossed back over the date line. We were very tired when we arrived at the City YHA in Auckland, had a little sleep then a little wander around Auckland. We were ready to start the next stage of our adventure!

All in all we had a lovely time in Rarotonga, I have to go back because it's so beautiful and because I really have to go to Aitutaki.

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