On the aircraft we had the old style seating, not the pods, but the seats were comfortable with plenty of leg room. The crew were very friendly, helpful and efficient. Once airborne we were offered drinks and a meal, the service was fast, but not rushed, to allow the maximum amount of sleep. We managed to get about 6 hours sleep and then the lights came on and the breakfast service began. Shortly after that we began our descent into Rarotonga.
Big Plane Little Airport
I was very surprised how green everything was, I was expecting a dried out brown landscape. We were picked up by a minivan, and with 4 others we were taken to our destinations. First impressions reminded me of a lush Caribbean Island, but as we drove around it was noticeable that the place was a lot cleaner, and there were no ramshackle old buildings. All the properties were well kept.
We got to our cottage around 7:30AM. It is a great cottage in a magnificent setting on the beach with a balcony overlooking the lagoon and across to a couple of small islands and then the reef. With the sun shining the water is a vivid turquoise colour.
View from our balcony
After we had unpacked we decided to do a little exploring so we walked into the village of Muri about 10 minutes down the road. We did some shopping for food and drinks and got our first introduction to the cost of living on the island. Everything seemed to be 1½ – 2 times more expensive than at home.
With the shopping out of the way, we headed back to the cottage and started a battle with tiredness. Tiredness won, even though we had some sleep on the flight, we still had problems staying awake so we slept for about 3 hours to noon.
After lunch we braved a trip into the main town of Avarua. The island has one main road running around its circumference and two bus routes, clockwise and anticlockwise! Finding a bus stop is not an issue, you just wave the bus down anywhere along the road and it will stop for you. Getting off is the same, just point out to the driver where you want to get off and he will stop the bus for you. It was about a 15-20 minute ride into town. It became obvious on the trip how friendly the locals were, the bus driver seemed to know everyone and most the passengers knew each other. We read later that it is considered rude when entering a store or meeting someone not to exchange a few pleasantries before commencing business.
While in town we decided the best way to see the island was to hire a motor scooter for a few days. More on that later. We wandered around the town to do a little more shopping and just to see the place. It is not overly big and there are no big box stores there, in fact there are only two “supermarkets”. One good point is that all prices are tax included. What you see is what you pay!
As the afternoon progressed, the clouds came in and the rain started, it was more of a drizzle and it was warm, so it wasn’t too devastating. We took the bus back to the cottage and resisted the urge to grab a quick snooze and went for a walk along the beach. The beach is white sand, but strewn with large black boulders that seem to have been swept in with the storms. The water is crystal clear so snorkelling should be good.
Once back from the beach we headed up to the balcony for sunset drinks. After sunset we made up some dinner, and following that spent about an hour trying to keep awake before hitting the sack.