Cooking up a storm
Trip Start
Mar 26, 2006
1
3
12
Trip End
Dec 22, 2006
Where I stayed
Rarotonga and Aitutaki,
Cook Islands
Friday, May 26, 2006
One checking in at our backpackers, the 'Tiare Village', we discovered they had overbooked in their standard rooms and we had been upgraded to a self catering 'pool chalet'. Now, we're not talking Presidential Suite at the Four Seasons, but every little helps and, as a backpacker, this sort of thing feels like a big deal and immediately puts you in a positive frame of mind.
When we awoke after a fitful night's sleep (Rarotonga's huge population of cockerels and dogs all apparently having decided to descend on Tiare Village and engage in heated debate all night) we were confronted by what would become a regular feature of our stay
Adam and Jess on Honeymoon Island
. Rain, and plenty of it. It had, you might say, come over 'a bit tropical'. This was to be the story of the next few days. Lengthy downpours with brief windows of dry weather which we would use to nip into town to do some shopping. It was all rather frustrating as when it was time for us to move on after four days we both had the impression that Raro was a place that we would love, but that we had barely seen at all. The people were welcoming, the mountains in the centre of the island imposingly beautiful (when the cloud lifted enough for us to see them) and the whole atmosphere was upbeat, it seemed a very happy place. Just a shame about the weather really.Our next stop, Aitutaki, was one of the prospective highlights of our trip, so it felt as though it had an awful lot riding on it. It is reputedly one of the jewels of the South Pacific. As we flew the couple of hundred kilometers north it was hard not to monitor the cloud constantly. Would our week in paradise be a washout? Happily we touched down in late afternoon sunshine, and while the weather was far from perfect during our stay, this set the tone for a much better week and plenty of opportunities for the island to show off its natural charms.
Aitutaki certainly did not disappoint. She is absolutely, incredibly, mesmerisingly beautiful
Adam on honeymoon island
. A pretty low lying main island, small enough to cycle around in two or three hours, set in a large triangular lagoon of clearest most remarkable turquoise water imaginable. Around the lagoon are dotted a series of uninhabited islets (motus) and sand bars, just heavenly little spots for swimming and snorkeling. If you ever get the opportunity to visit this magical atoll you simply must take it. No argument, just do it. Consider yourselves told!Our home in paradise was a simple hut right on one of Aitutaki's beautiful beaches. The owner Matias, had just finished building it (the previous one had been destroyed by fire a couple of months before) the morning we arrived, so everything was brand new. We had our own kitchenette, a little verandah and a bed with a lagoon view. What more could we ask for? Most of our time was spent swimming and snorkeling off our beach, reading on our verandah and cycling around the island. Towards the end of the week we booked a couple of activities. The first was 'island night', a buffet meal of local dishes and a display of Polynesian dancing. These shows take place all over Polynesia, but those in the Cook Islands are reputedly the most impressive and certainly the rapid fire 'booty shaking' (Beyonce, forget it darling, you've nothing on these girls) and gyrating of both male and female dancers put some of the languid efforts seen elsewhere in the Pacific to shame
Aitutaki Lagoon
. Having narrowly avoided getting caught in the universally unwelcome 'audience participation' section we walked back home along the beach well fed and suitably impressed. We had also booked a lagoon cruise, the grand finale of our stay. We had chosen Sunday, two days before our departure as only a few cruises operate on Sunday, so we should have the lagoon more or less to ourselves. We awoke on Saturday to see a storm rolling in. Soon we were being lashed by torrential rain and high winds. Initially we were delighted we had booked the cruise for Sunday, as Saturday had been our other likely choice. As the day wore on into the afternoon and evening with no discernible change we started to get nervous about our own prospects. Waking at about three o'clock the following morning to hear the rain still coming down was rather depressing, but when we woke again a few hours later, remarkable the rain had stopped, the skies had cleared and we were greeted by a beautiful sunny morning. And so with beautiful weather we headed out to the motus, among them the beautiful sand bar of Honeymoon Island (our favourite) and the famous(ish) One Foot Island. It was at this point that we both decided that Aitutaki was probably the most beautiful place either of us had ever been. Fans of reality television in the UK will have glimpsed this paradise from the last series of Shipwrecked. We visited one of the motus where this had taken place, which was now long deserted but remnants of 'Shark Island' as it had become known remain, slightly bizarre
Our little house on Aitutaki
. 'Survivor' fans may also wish to know that the next series starts filming any day now here. This was the hot topic of gossip around the island. "The Americans are coming!" Unfortunately they are taking over most of the motus, so visitors in the next few months will miss out on this incredible experience.When it was time to leave Aitutaki we did so with heavy hearts, but nonetheless exhilarated at having enjoyed somewhere truly special.
Landing back in Rarotonga we headed round to the southern side of the island (the main town and our previous hostel was on the north coast) to try somewhere new. Our guest house was pretty dingy and a bit of a let down after our previous experiences, but it was opposite a pretty beach so we headed straight into the lagoon and all seemed good again. Of course though it soon clouded over and we were back to more familiar Raro weather. This continued over the next couple of days, so we spent more time hanging around the guest house than we would have liked. The upside of this was that we got to know the other three guests (it was not exactly busy....) quite well, and had a good laugh with them. It ended up feeling a little as if it were 'our place' and somehow the grottiness (of the bathrooms mainly) didn't seem quite so oppressive
Sunset over Aitutaki Lagoon
.As if often the way on our last day the sun came out. We hired a little two seater convertible and cruised round the island checking out the ruggedly beautiful interior, or at least what little is accessible with out a four wheel drive vehicle.This was a great day, and confirmed our earlier feelings that Rarotonga is a lovely place. The beautiful colours, the deep greens of the hills, the turquoise lagoon, the ubiquitous scarlet hibiscus were more vivid than we had previously seen them. We may not have had the best weather during our stay but we had seen enough to know that Raro is definitely a place to which we would happily return.
From there we headed back to Fiji for a three day layover on the Coral Coast before catching our flight to Sultry Samoa which is treating us well so far, but more of that in due course. First we must go and experience it......
