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Published: June 25th 2008
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This is the last entry, as we're back home now. Some of you may have noticed this. There's just a few tales of South Sea adventures and some pictures left to post before my well of traveling inspiration runneth dry. It's actually been quite difficult to get back into the frame of mind I was in while we were away, and so I've been putting this bit of writing off for weeks!
But anyway, as I was saying in the last entry, we high tailed it out of LA to Rarotonga on the Sunday the 1st at about 11:30pm. The plane was less than half full and so this meant having the relative luxury of being able to stretch out on the 3 seats in the centre and have an almost useful sleep with my knees nearly straight. Stepping off the plane we were greeted by warm humid air and ukelele powered serenading from a guy in a floral shirt. If you consider that it was 5:30 am, I reckon he still hadn't gone to bed from the night before, how else could he do it? Mo, our very generous host, was also at the airport to meet us, however
he wasn't looking quite as happy to be there as the fella singing the songs.
The first day there I felt somewhat frustrated, because apart from the balmy weather, to a homesick Kiwi, Rarotonga feels a lot like home. They even use the NZ currency (with the addition of their own $3 bill!?). This all gave me the distinct notion, in my slightly jet-lagged state, that we were at the beginning of some sort of 5 day quarantine.
This all changed for the better later in the day though, once we got ourselves out onto the white sands and into the warm, clear, waters of the lagoon. We spent the next couple of hours, and did so again the next day, swimming through schools of Parrotfish, dodging sharp coral heads and keeping an eye out for things that might or might not be threatening. Like 2 giant turtles. Wow! I hadn't expected to see such things, but I looked over to where Lindo was furiously gesturing and there they were. We got quite close, and then the big one saw us, scowled it's displeasure (maybe I'm imagining that) and decided that the best escape route was at me. Needless
to say I attempted to get out of the way in a hurry. On the way back I grabbed a coconut from the side of the road with the intention of attacking it with a machete and drinking it's milk.
Well, that's about it really! What else is there to do on a small desert island with a circumference of only 32 kilometers? Maybe have a few drinks, do some more snorkeling, throw things at the numerous, perpetually crowing roosters, try not to buy cheese as it's about $32 a block....Oh yeah, do a gig.
Mo had Lindo all hooked up for a show at the cafe/bar in "town" called Salsa. This was not going to be an open mic night where the performers are rudely interrupted by a patron having a heart attack! No, this was quite a big deal. They were playing his songs on the radio, Mo had made posters, they made a TV ad, Lindo did a live radio interview and there was a story on the front page of the newspaper. We had no idea that things were going to be this serious at all! The pressure was on, Lindo was feeling a
little nervous, and for me, as the sound engineer, this was going to be my first night's work in 11 weeks.
It ended up being a great show, Lindo, now an internationally traveled performer, deftly wooing the Salsa audience, as only one who has been to 11 countries and 33 cities in under 3 months can. I, for my part, had my work cut out for me. Manning 4 channels of the dodgy little sound desk, I also had to change a broken string, take pictures, and halfway through the set, Mo joined Lindo onstage to play percussion and snare drum. I tell you, I'm still wiping the sweat off my brow even thinking about it. I came through alright though. The owners were rapt with the whole evening, which was good, because they'd organised a big game boat charter for us first thing the next morning before our flight.
It would have been great to say that we had an amazing adventure out there on the open ocean, waiting for a Blue Marlin or a big Mai Mai to put up a fight, but the reality was that we didn't get a single bite, the seas were enormous
and we spent the majority of the time trying not to throw up! I took a couple of pictures and saw some small flying fish though, and we can add a tick to "big game fishing experience" on the life list.
Then, without further ado, we were on a little Air New Zealand A320 flying over the Pacific, in the air for just over 4 hours, but in theory taking 28, as we crossed the dateline and chased the sunset back to our homeland.
And winter.
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Aaron C
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Thank you
Thanks Olza, for your wonderful blogging. It's been a pleasure following your adverntures. Now get Puffin do do a new album, and maybe learning some Gene Pitney songs!