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Cook Islands
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Arriving in Raratonga (The main Cook island) the day before you took off was a new experience ( e.g. crossing the date line) but to have two Friday nights can't be bad !
No hassle really, just a nice chilled out airport with a few locals sorting out accommodation and tours for those who had not made any plans yet.
Anyway we arrived in the early evening so the flight in was impressive but by the time we had got our bags and sorted transport to our accommodation and eaten, the sun had set, so our first impression of the island was when we opened the curtains in the morning.
Well we weren't disappointed, we woke early ( the chickens saw to that ! )
to a beautiful view of a small lagoon in a bay. Our accommodation at Vara's was a nice surprise to, a lounge, kitchen, bathroom, and a large balcony over looking the bay. And all for under £10 pounds a day as this was a hostel ! We are already very happy with this island.
The next plan was to get a local driving licence ( $10 ) so we could hire a motorbike or car, so we hopped in the back of the owners pick-up and off into town to find the police station and explore.
Well town was a quiet little place with a supermarket, post office, police station, a few other little clothes/souvenir shops and an ice cream parlour.
We found out that there was a bus that did a circuit on the coast road of the island
( clockwise ) about every hour ish from 9am until 6. With a lunch break between 12 and 1.
We got our photo driving licence in 3 minutes, our guide book said it was required but nobody ever asked to see it, or even if we had one ! So we concluded it was a little money maker for the local economy, a nice souvenir anyway.
All but two of the restaurants are spread around the island (many are little places in peoples own gardens/converted houses, so transport ( or taxi ) is required after 6pm if you like to eat out.
The town was wrapped around a small harbour used mainly for small fishing boats and the occasional cruse ship, but we were looking for the famous bays/beaches so we hopped on the bus for a circuit around the island.
We made a mental note of the some places we would have a better look at when we have our own transport, and we got off near our hotel at a dive shop to make some inquires ( we find local dive shops usually give good advice on many things other than diving if you are possibly going to dive with them)
The following day we booked a couple of dives and hired a motor bike and went off to explore some of the things we had seen earlier ( I should explain that Rarotonga has two roads, the coast ring road and the inner almost ring road, with a few link roads/tracks between them ) The inner road turned out to be far more rural with fields and plantations of a mixture of fruit and vegetables, it also turned out to be a lot slower as much of the road was still made up of the crushed coral that has been used here since the early Polynesian settlers. The back drop for the sloping fields was the imposing volcano landscape covered in lush green tropical forest, a great place to explore during the heat of the day as most of the time you are shaded. The only hazard out guide book warned about was packs of dogs following walkers ! These turned out to be various breeds mixed with daschunds (sausage dogs to me ) well you can imagine what a pack of sausage looks like ! When we finished laughing and working out what other breed they were mixed with (Labrador, German shepherd collie, poodle etc ) they proved good company, and when you had enough of them a short brisk walk would leave them far behind ! Barking and furiously wagging their wrong size tails ! An hilarious sight.
We arrived at a very large and long deserted resort complex and asked a local why it was empty and left to rot away ? Apparently there had been a dispute about moving the coast road inland behind the resort. It was never moved so all the balcony's now look over the road to the sea !! It must have cost millions but they just never opened it !! it's a strange world some times ?
There are many quiet stunning bays/beaches around the island with very nice snorkelling but you have to be a bit careful of one type of trigger fish (Picasso in this case) as it its very territorial in its breeding season and will nip you if you are to close to their nesting patch ! Its very hard/impossible to work out where that patch is until they start to defend it !! Its also a bit strange being sent out of the water by a 20cm (8 inch) fish, but I can assure you they mean business.
Diving also had a couple of surprises for us, we head off in this smallish speed boat and arrive at the dive site, but there is no buoy to tie up to !! ( Its not acceptable to drop a anchor over coral ) No problem says the dive master and we all jump in leaving the boat empty ( him holding onto a rope ) when we reached the bottom he tied the boat to a bolder, and we continued the dive wondering whether we would have a boat to come back to !
The ring reef around Rarotonga is very bleached, many things can cause this and we are a long way from being experts, however we did see many 'crown of thorn's' which looks like a spiky multi limbed star fish who diet is live coral, who seem to be a major problem. The only predator for this creature is the triton sea snail or conch
( the kind of large shell people blow as a horn ) and these as you can imagine are rare now.
Don't buy them !!
Ok enough preaching.
A few days later we flew to Aitutaki the most photographed of the Cook islands ( it's the island that most of the holiday brochures show, with the huge lagoon ) we landed on the brand new runway to another paradise island. ( the old coral runway was a second world war construction )
We got on the bus to our new home for a few days 'Josie's' this hostel is on the northern most part of the island next to a large resort.
All seemed very nice covered restaurant, pleasant room, lounge with TV and lots of DVD's for rainy days etc.
Dropped the bags and went off for a walk, as you would expect it was very warm, and we soon realised that is was a very long walk to town or to anywhere as it turned out !
So we had a look around the top of the island, the now empty airport ( a large shed ) and a bit of the lagoon until sunset, and arriving at a small bar asked if they had a menu. We were told it was island night in this bar tonight ( a kind of hog roast buffet ) which unfortunately was all booked.
So we returned to our guest house to look at their menu. As we arrived we noted the other new guests were all doing the same (6 of us in total ) and no one who worked there ! Well after an hour or two we had a look around for food. Frozen burgers and sausages was about all we found, so we all debated about cooking them but couldn't turn the gas on, so decided on making our own supplies go round instead. After an unusual meal of 2 minute chicken noodles (our contribution) crisps and various biscuits/crackers we explored our new lodgings. The kitchen was very well stocked with empty plastic containers with lids, they were everywhere, we suspected that it had been brought in bulk with the idea of holding a few Tupperware party's to sell it all? Just never got round to it we guessed ! We discovered that two very large cockroaches lived behind a toilet cistern, all you could see was two pairs of very large antennae sticking out the top. Luckily they never moved the three days we were there, we would look in to see their antennae twitch then use the other loo ! And speculate their size.
In the morning we woke to find the landlady and lord nursing bad hangovers (from the island night party obviously a piss up for the locals) but nice enough after finding out about our dinner last night.
Had some breakfast (eggs that we didn't find the night before, never did workout where they hid them !) and set off for the bar as the owner had some scooters for rent.
The next few days we explored the island on a tiny scooter, the town is half the size of the one in Rarotonga. I don't think the cruise ships stop here as the reef goes a long way out, so the atmosphere is a lot more friendly, also almost no cars we saw 3, a police car, a pick-up truck, and one of which had a new ply wood body made for it, ( what happened to the old one is anybodies guess )
The lagoon and reef here is in much better condition, the most notable things we saw here were the colourful giant clams, they are huge !! And a bright orange twenty tonne digger ! Yes you did read correctly a digger. Well the story we were told ( by one of the contractors) was, the mayor refused to pay $300 to put the council digger on a trailer owned by the contractors who had just completed the new runway. His plan was to just drive it back across the narrowest part of the lagoon. Well the old dead coral there couldn't take the weight, and half way over it sank ! Ooops.
So a machine costing around half a million pounds is finished, and the airport contractors were now constructing a 100m temporary road so they can drag it out ! You can guess how much all that will cost. Made a great photo though !
After another evening spent spotting mice and roaches run around the kitchen then deciding to go out for dinner, during that night an Australian couple we had got friendly with, were awoken to find mice eating their unopened packet of biscuits on the bedside table. We decided to relocate the following morning to Tom's.
We moved nearer to 'town' and the restaurants we have been using, as luck would have it, the Pacific Harbour Resort was just down the road ( the nicest and most expensive place on the island, the sort of place people book their honeymoon at) we had already gone over with another couple for happy hour, and found free sushi on the bar, (each night it was something different, tapas, mini pizza etc ) and believe me we made the most of it ! Including 'free to guests' swimming pool, pedelo's, sun beds, towels, power showers etc Caroline even started bringing shampoo with her !!
The next day we booked to go to one of the famous island nights, so just as our happy hour at the resort was finishing the tropical rain starts, and it poured down. we arrived at the resurant soaked and spent the next hour shivering whilst listening to what we would describe as a pub singer ( a drunk doing karaoke) then a group of local children came out dressed in grass skirts and coconut bra's and did some traditional Polynesian dancing. The buffet was the final part of the evening and as the 'show' was on, what seemed like the entire population of the island had arrived for dinner !
Well buy the time we got to the food table (and we weren't slow) there wasn't much left, so we ate what there was (there was a roomer the pub singer was coming back on, and he really was pissed by now.) we went home. Next time if there is a show on we will go to a good resort.
After a very nice/funny week here on this stunning island, it was time to go back to Rarotonga. We got our old room back and settled in.
We got talking to a French couple who were also staying at Vara's. They were doing a similar length trip to ours, and had been advised by their doctor to have a good first aid kit. (we have a small one) Well we had never scene anything like it ! Huge ! It would take up as much room as a third of our total luggage. Even they were laughing when they showed us what it contained. (and it had cost them serious money) there was enough bandages, needles, ointments, and various tablets to keep the local hospital going for a month !
On Sundays the islands are very quiet, most of the people you see are dressed in their Sunday best and on their way to one of the many churches ( almost all Christian of one denomination or another ) where the choirs vary from 'traditional' to 'rock band'
As you can imagine the sound carries, and the mixture is really quite something !
After a few more days diving, sunbathing etc it was time to move on.
Next stop Tahiti.
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