Caves and Bush Beer

Trip Start Jul 02, 2003

Trip End Jan 17, 2004

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Flag of Cook Islands Atiu, Cook Islands
Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Next Stop was Atiu - this is a much smaller island than Aitutaki and much less visited. There were 8 tourists on the island when I was there, I met them all! While Aitutaki is a coral atoll surrounding a central lagoon, Atiu is just one big lump of coral that formed above an ancien volcano then got uplifted out of the water. So there's no lagoon and the island is littered with caves. In one of these caves lives a very rare bird that looks a bit like a swift but apparently also uses echo location to navigate in the cave. So off we went on an island tour to visit the cave of the Kopeka - this is the only place in the world you can find these birds although I'm not sure what the fuss is about, it just looks like a swift to me!

The other thing Atiu is famous for is its bush beer, beer made from oranges. Apparently in olden times the locals used to drink Kava like most of the South Pacific but when the missionaries arrived they soon put a stop to that. The locals on Atiu however retreated to the bush and brewed up a lethal brew from oranges that's still made today. There's a ceremony involved in the drinking of bush beer that has it's roots in the Kava ceremony although this drink tastes very different to Kava! It tastes a bit like scrumpy cider to be honest and must be around 10 or 12 percent alcohol as it has a serious kick to it!

Finally, it wouldn't be a proper Cook Islands visit if it didn't involve an island night!