Our Travel Blog

Again this morning the wind was pretty strong so we put off snorkeling until the afternoon. In the morning we headed out on the scooter in search of more back roads that we missed yesterday, as well as a waterfall inland a little way. We found some of the back roads and Lyn was quite excited by the number of different flowers we saw, especially the yellow hibiscus trees, which at home are indoor plants and here they are full grown trees. We managed to find the waterfall, but it seems someone had turned it off; there was only a small trickle of water to be seen. Evidently it only “works” after a good rainfall.

The Water-less Waterfall

Back to the cottage for lunch, and then we headed it up to a place call Blackrock, across the other side of the island which is meant to be one of the better snorkeling spots. Unfortunately it was not as good as the other two places we had been to, the water again was a little murky and there were less fish around, however we did see a few bright purple starfish. After the snorkeling we headed back to the cottage and got cleaned up so that we could take the scooter back into town. Renting the scooter was an excellent move as it freed us from the constraints of the bus timetable, and also allowed us to explore further into the island. Plus it was fun!  In one of the local newspapers there was an airport departure schedule; we noticed it listed our flight as leaving 30 minutes earlier than we had been told. When we got back we checked with the taxi company and sure enough they were going to pick us up at 5:30AM and not the 6:00AM that we had expected. Thanks Aeroplan for keeping us updated NOT.

Well our plan to go snorkelling in the morning fell through due to high winds whipping up the water, so we jumped (gently) on the scooter and set off to explore the island. I said a couple of days ago that there was only one road running around the island, in fact in places there are 2. The second road was the islands original main road and was constructed of crushed coral some time around 1100AD. Thankfully the road is now paved so we took it. This road has a lot more islander homes, rather than tourist accommodation on it. Many of these houses were also home to small businesses; it seems many people would prefer to run their business out of their homes rather than a store. Again, with very few exceptions, all the houses and properties were well kept, many had goats in the gardens, as well as the occasional cow or pig; and chickens were everywhere.

Back Road

After lunch, the wind had died down a bit, so we headed back to the Fruits of Rarotonga for some more snorkeling  Again the water wasn’t crystal cleat due to the sand being stirred up at times, but we were still able to a number fish. There was a very strong current today, so we had to be careful not to be pushed onto the coral while swimming.

Once we got back and cleaned up we headed out to an “Island Evening”. There are many places that run these events that feature local food and dancing. We signed up for one that had a cultural tour beforehand.  The tour took us through a typical native settlement, with stops in various huts explaining the history of the Cook Islanders and showcasing a number of areas such as boats, fishing, medicine, the history of the Islands and when they were populated  and the use of coconuts. The coconut is used for just about everything from food and drink, to string and rope making, plate and basket making, torches for night fishing and clothing. We were also shown the six stages of coconut development and what uses were made of each stage. There were also demonstrations of how to husk a coconut split a coconut and scrape out the meat. All the narrators had a great sense of humour and put over their subjects very well. The tour was well worth it.

Drummers at Island Night

After the tour we headed over to the restaurant which was located around a small man made lagoon. The food was a little disappointing as we were expecting a lot more local dishes rather than the more “touristy” food that was served.  We mentioned this later, and we were told that originally the local dishes were served but a lot of people would not eat them so there was a lot of waste. However the disappointment of the food was made up by the quality of the show. How the girls moved their hips the way they did still remains a mystery. All in all an excellent night.

Again we were awake around sunrise, but again it was a little too cloudy to see anything spectacular. After breakfast we decided to hop on the bus and go into the big city, this time with a mission. We wanted to hire a motor scooter, unlike the Caribbean where you just turn up pay your money and ride away, t he Cook Islands require you obtain a local driving licence, and a driving licence requires a driving test! First stop the police station to pay for the driving test (NZ$5). Now you need a scooter to take the test. Off to the scooter rental place with driving test application in hand and rent the scooter. Now drive the scooter back to the police station for the test! Is it just me or is this a somewhat backward process? Now for the driving test, I had read in a couple of places that the test consisted of driving out the Police station to the roundabout (traffic circle) about 200 yards away, go around the roundabout and back to the police station. If there was no blood spilled (yours, someone else’s or any animals then you passed). Evidently this was taking its toll on the local emergency services so the test was reduced to 12 traffic cones, 1 give way sign and one stop sign located in an alleyway by the side of the police station. The test requires that your feet remain in the scooters floorboards from the starting point back to the stop sign. All you now had to do was to zig-zag through the cones, go around the give way sign, return going through the cones again and stop at the stop sign. No problem, got that hacked first time, however the constable said that they still average 1 serious injury and many cuts and bruises per week from people taking the test.

Why do the Cook Islands require you get their driving licence? It turns out that NZ won’t recognize a Cook Islands driving licence (wonder why) so the Islanders attitude was, well we won’t blxxdy well recognise theirs, and while we’re at it we won’t recognise anybody else’s either. With the signed pass slip in hand it’s back to the licence counter to pay over $20 for a nice photo-id driving licence.

There are 3 speed limits on the Island, 30K in town, 50K elsewhere except if you’re on a motorbike and not wearing a helmet, then it’s 40k. The 40k came about a couple of years ago when parliament brought in a law requiring the wearing of crash helmets. There was such an outcry from the populace that two days before the law was to become effective it was amended to requiring a crash helmet for travel over 40k. There were quite a few sea containers of crash helmets at the dock and some very unhappy store owners.

Hells Angel?

I was surprised at the rental car of choice at many outlets, a BMW Z3. Business opportunity Kevin?

While I was doing all this Lyn decided to sneak away and do some shopping, she found a fabric store (thank-you Marie) which also sold kiddies clothes (you have a present Noah)  and a craft store with lots of black pearl jewellery (an Island speciality). We then topped up on groceries and tonic water and then it was time to try two of us on the scooter, amazingly we’re both here to tell the tale.

Back at the cottage it was lunch time, and after that we headed out to the Fruits of Rarotonga, discovered on our walk yesterday, for an hour or so of snorkelling. Again it was a little murky, but there were more varieties of fish here, so tomorrow we will try to go in the morning before the tide turns.

After a good nights rest we were up early (for us). We had woken up around 5:30 in anticipation of seeing the sun-rise, but it was too cloudy.  We had a leisurely breakfast then took a stroll in the opposite from yesterday direction to a small beach area called the Fruits of Rarotonga. We sat on the beach for a while watching life go by, then went across the road for a “World Famous Smoothie” made from banana and papaya.

We wandered slowly back to the cottage, the weather was cloudy but warm, probably in the mid to high 20’s but always windy during daylight hours. Along the beach we discovered the Cook Islands Weather office

Cook Islands Weather Office

When back to the cottage we took our snorkelling gear down to the beach and headed off into the lagoon. The water was a little murky, but I think the tide was turning and this stirred up the sand a little. Even so there were a number of brightly coloured fish to be seen. The water was a nice temperature, probably around 25C.

After an hour or so of snorkelling it was back to the cottage for lunch on the balcony. Each day there are glass bottomed boat cruises in the lagoon with a stop for snorkelling. After the snorkelling is finished all the boats head over to the island for a beach party. We can just about see the party from here, but we can certainly hear the drums playing!

After lunch we walked into Muri to look for a restaurant for our evening meal, having found a restaurant we dropped into the local bakery for a loaf of bread, unfortunately they had sold out but there plenty of other freshly baked goodies there. We just HAD to try some! After this it was back to the cottage for the obligatory afternoon snooze.

About 6:30 we headed out to the restaurant for a great meal right on the beach. Red meat is difficult (and expensive) to find on the island, the local food is fish and if you want meat chicken seems to be the choice. We had a starter plate featuring some of the local food; Curried Octopus, Smoked Marlin, Papaya in Coconut Milk, Pawpaw, a pureed Spinach thingy and Island Fries which were like “normal” fries but using potatoes and other island vegetables. Lyn then had a main dish of three different types of fish and I had curried chicken Cook Island style, both were very good and filling.

After the meal we wandered back to the cottage, luckily we brought a flashlight with us as it got very dark once we left the street lights behind. The almost complete darkness made for wonderful views of the stars though.