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Published: February 13th 2008
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I am currently sitting in intense heat, directly opposite a fan with Alex spread-eagled on the bed in front of me in an attempt to cool down!
As you may have gathered, we have reached the tropical paradise of the Cook Islands. And this is one place that truly does live up to that title. Rather like Fiji, it has beautiful beaches, stunning azure seas, and lush green vegetation. But what makes this place even more relaxing is how western culture and our creature comforts has combined with the laid back Pacific lifestyle. We have electricity, hot showers, flushing toilets, and real (albeit expensive) food that we can use to cook our own meals. Ok, so it is more expensive than a usual backpacker hangout, but it’s totally worth it.
Arriving at 4.30am on Friday, we stayed on the west side of the island at Rarotonga Backpackers for the first few days. Here we had a private room, use of a kitchen and the pool with deck for lazing just outside. The only real downside was that Alex’s bag never showed up with our flight (it apparently thought LA was more attractive!). The airline gave us NZ$100 to spend
so we managed to scrape some shorts and t-shirt together the next day before alex melted to nothing in his jeans and jumper! And before you get too worried we got his bag back on sunday so he now has all he needs- his bag flew from LA to Auckland then back to Rarotonga as cabin baggage- talk about a large carbon footprint! 6 other bags were missing on our flight, and 13 from the next flight from LA so be warned if you ever do the same flight!
We have spent a lot of time doing nothing- how good it feels, and exploring the island. We have taken the bus around all 32km of road to make sure we see everywhere! The ‘capital’ is tiny- 2 supermarkets, 1 clothes store, and 1 surf shop as well as a few places to eat and a bank. The west coast is the sunset side (obviously) so we spent a few evenings on the beach watching the sunset, the moonrise, and the stars come out. A pool was fantastic in the heat as the beaches this side are nice but the lagoon is punctuated by sharp rocks in very shallow water.
Yesterday we moved to the south-east of the island, to the famous Muri. Here the lagoon is at its widest, with 2 sand cays and a volcanic island in easy wading/kayaking distance. The water is crystal clear and amazingly blue, backed by waves breaking on the outer reef. Outside the lagoon, the water drops away to depths of 4000m, and so looks a lot darker than the water in the lagoon, creating a beautiful view from the beach. We are now staying at a place called Aremango Guesthouse, a simple place but beautifully clean. We share the bathrooms, but have an amazing kitchen to use, as well as free bicycles and snorkel gear. Alex is like a little child after finding a smoothie maker and espresso machine in the kitchen.
Today we took a kayak along the south coast of the island and out to the edge of the lagoon. We could look back at the whole island spread in front of us, all green with great topography due to the old volcanic peaks. We moored up to various buoys, pontoons and ourselves to go snorkelling (mainly taking it in turns as my snorkel is rather better than
the old tired one alex borrowed from here!). We saw more coral than previously here, although a lot is very damaged, and a great variety of fish. Alex couldn’t be drawn away from a particularly cute black and white anemone fish, and saw a huge trumpet fish. We saw some great urchins, sweetlips, parrotfish and blue starfish, as well as getting chased away by two trigger fish. At times we were surrounded by fish, especially some very inquisitive black/brown ones who swam right up to our masks and peered in. At one point I turned around to find I had a little fish entourage- all stripy but in differing colours! Our kayaking adventure only came to a close after a heavy dose of monsoon rain. We saw it blow in, but couldn’t make it back to our hostel without getting drenched... our dry bags worth every penny today! At one point we were sat in the dry, with rain dimpling the water surface only two feet in front of us- how weird to be sat right on the edge of a rain storm!
And so continues our too brief time in tropical relaxation. All too soon it will be
over but we are certainly enjoying it while it lasts!
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rachel
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sounds fab
but i'm rather jealous. London was sunny for a few days but we are back to proper English weather now. I could do with a few days of tropical relaxation I think. So we are planning a trip to Italy in June which is the nearest we can afford! missing you both. e-mail me some pictures. xxxx