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'Kia Orana' (Hello!) ......Our last week on Rarotonga was very much like the first few weeks... laid back and totally relaxed. We had walked around the Island at least 5 times in total and spent time at all the decent hotel and resorts using their pool and facilities .... and we'd definitely visited all the of bars offering happy hours!
If there is ever an opportunity to appear on 'Mastermind' then my chosen subject will be Happy Hours on Rarotonga...For example....which bars start at 3pm and which start at 4pm? Half price or 25% off? Cocktails or all drinks??? Quite complicated stuff to remember.
Mind you Madam let herself down on one occasion towards the end of our stay... there we were at the Crown Beach Hotel Resort (lovely place!) and she casually ordered two Steinlager pure instead of the Steinlager classic!
Well, anybody who has travelled on a budget will know that the pure comes in a 300ml bottle and the classic comes in a 330ml bottle for the same price...She was gutted! She could hardly sleep that night... beating herself up at the loss of 30ml of alcohol!!
Don had previously mentioned that we could use
the bikes in his garden so towards the end of our stay, and sick of walking in a circle around the Island along the same roads, we took the bikes out.
Looking at them it was apparant that it was the first time they had been used for some considerable time. 'Rust bucket' fails to describe their physical condition, but it made a nice change from walking
We'd met a lovely couple at the fishing club called Dave and Liz from Hawkes Bay, NZ and during the last week we'd usually arrange to meet them at a bar somewhere on the Island at ... Happy Hour believe it or not!
Great company but a strange accent! Their last night on Rarotonga was celebrated in style at the Game Fishing Club.... and then back on our decking with a few G & T's.
We really feel like we have explored Rarotonga and we've got to know it much better than most visitors. The scenery is spectacular - lush rainforests and towering mountain peaks in the centre of the island and beautiful coral lagoons around the outside.
The Polynesian culture and people are lovely, they all go about their day
with a smile and they will wave and say hello at every opportunity. On numerous occasions whilst we have been walking around the Island drivers have stopped to offer us a lift. They really make visitors feel welcome.
It is still a very Church going Christian country and they all take immense care and pride in their houses and gardens..... It is lovely to see the locals going to Church on a Saturday or Sunday wearing their best clothes, straw hats, flower garlands and flowers behind their ears.... And to listen to them singing is almost overwhelming.
One afternoon we saw a group of kids in school uniform cutting the grass and tidying the school grounds after school... can you imagine asking school kids in the UK to look after their school gardens? ...."you can't make me, its against my human rights innit"!
You cannot buy land or property here. Many years ago each family claimed a portion of the Island stretching from the mountains to the sea and they have since sub divided their land for their relatives who will then build their own house on it. And when they die they are buried on their piece of land.
There are graves in the garden of every house.
Visitors, foreign ex-pats and non-locals can only ever lease property here and this is one of the reasons that it remains such a special place. Tourism has bought jobs and opportunities without spoiling the place and it co-exists nicely with the local way of life. There are none of the pressures to buy stuff here.. in fact it's sometimes more difficult to buy stuff in shops when you can't find the owner or you need to wake them up!
They have had to work hard for what they have got .... and subsequently they care about it. There is still some poverty here though and many people still live a basic lifestyle off the land and from the sea but they still have a happy family life ...there are worse places to be poor.
Our small bungalow was a real home from home and only 2 minutes from the best beach on the Island.
The owner of our bungalow, 'Don' continued to give us fresh fish throughout our stay... including Tuna & a local fish delicacy called 'Mahi Mahi' ... absolutely beautiful.... we will never again eat tuna out of
a tin!
On our last day we treated ourselves to a day at The Little Polynesian Resort... lunch, bottle of wine and then a few beers at the Fishing Club happy hour where we said our goodbyes to some of the lovely people that we have met on Rarotonga.... Don & May, Mary & Rob, Dave from Air Raro, Tony the pool Doctor, Malcolm (the ex-Royal Marine) and many others.
So, we are ready for a complete change of pace as we prepare to leave paradise and to fly to Los Angeles. Our initial plan to spend 3 months in California has been shelved but the ticket is already paid for and so we're going anyway but for just 6 days ....... of clothes shopping ... I'm panicking already just writing about it!
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