I gave myself plenty of time initially, sleeping in the
airport the night before my flight so I didn’t have to rush to the airport
really early in the morning. My first
layover was a short two hours in London.
Predictably, that flight was uncomplicated, unfortunately the transfer
was not. In Rome, they were unable to
print all of my tickets through to the Cook Islands. The woman wasn’t sure why, but assumed it had
something to do with Air New Zealand and that maybe they needed to print their
own tickets for some reason, but she instructed me on exactly what to do in
London. When I arrived in London, I immediately
made my way over to a different terminal and the Air New Zealand desk to print
my other boarding passes. Many countries,
including the Cook Islands, require a departure flight to be already purchased
prior to entry, which I had. Jared had
in fact purchased all of our tickets through to January, so I was set for the
next few destinations. The woman asked
for the proof that I was exiting the Cook Islands, so I showed her my ticket to
Samoa. Then for some reason she wanted
to see my subsequent tickets exiting each country I was visiting. Once I got to Indonesia without a ticket out,
she informed me that, because I did not have any ticket to a country where I
had a “right to abode”, that I could not board my flight to the Cook
Islands. She said I needed a ticket
home. I explained my traveling
situation, and my previous experiences with this type of requirement; many of
the countries we’ve visiting have this requirement, and according to those
experiences, as well as the US State Department website, each individual
country requires proof of exit, not proof of exit to a country where I have the
“right to adobe”. The Cook Islands
doesn’t give a S*#@ where I go, as long as I go. She called her supervisor who confirmed what
she said. Then she informed me that, they
were very sorry, but because we had been discussing this for so long, the
flight had actually closed and I wouldn’t make the connection. I freaked.
I got on the phone with the supervisor explaining that a) they were both
being f*$#&@^ morons b) neither of them was an immigration officer and c)
THEY WERE WRONG, oh yea and d) I paid close to 2k for this flight, I was not
missing it because they were dragging ass. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t call
security…people were staring. Anyway, at
some point, the supervisor realized she was wrong, made up some story about
finding a visa for me to go to New Zealand (I haven’t even applied for the visa
yet, and she could never look up my visa status without information like, you
know, my birthday and passport number).
Anyway, whatever. They printed
off my boarding pass, I gave them the biggest eye roll of my life and hauled A
to my gate. The rest of my flights,
though long, were all hassle free.
I finally arrived in sunny and warm Rarotonga, Cook Islands
in the afternoon. I was so excited!
Everyone always seems especially excited when arriving to a location like
this. I made it easily through customs,
and went to pick up my bag…which never came.
Yes, the airline had lost my bag somewhere; I don’t want to point any
fingers, but London, I’m looking at you.
Not a big deal, the airline gave me $100 to spend on a few items, and
the only things I’d need for the next week were a bathing suit, flip flops and
a sarong. I just crossed my fingers that
the bag wasn’t gone forever, and promptly brushed it off. Jared was arriving from Tahiti not long after
me, so I waited a bit for him to arrive.
He had arranged a pickup from the airport, so when he arrived we both
met our transfer and drove to our hostel.
Most of that day was gone, so we just settled into the hostel and walked
down the block to the beach. The island
is surrounded by a reef lagoon, so the water looked especially clear and
pristine with lots of coral easily seen and coral fish. We were really excited to explore the island
and fantastic beaches, but we were pretty exhausted, so instead we spent a bit
of time planning out our activities for the next few days. We had an early dinner that night, watched a
movie and passed out; my jetlag was setting in.
The next day, I woke up retardly early…like 1am early, and
couldn’t fall back asleep; ug, jetlag.
Anyway, around 7am Jared FINALLY woke up, lazy bones haha. We had a small breakfast, mostly because we
had no food, and set out. There is one
main road on the island, circumventing the entire island right on the
coast. In accordance, there are two buses,
labeled “clockwise” or “anti-clockwise”.
We got on the bus heading to town (clockwise). We needed to pick up some groceries, and I
had to get some beach appropriate attire.
All I had were my pants (not appropriate hot island attire), an XXL
see-through T-shirt the airline had given me the day before, and my stinky
clothes from 3 days in airports. We had
a nice walk through town, and I got a bathing suit and sarong. We had been warned not to buy produce, as it
was much more expensive here, but we were not prepared for how expensive
everything else would be as well. A small
can of tuna was over $4, zucchini was $18 a kilo, a bag of pasta $4 (the kind
that was normally 65 cents). Anyway, we
had to get a bit creative, but we found things for our budget. Once we had loaded up our bags with the
things we needed, we made our way to the Cross Island Walk and Needle
Walk. This walk went directly through
the island from one side to the other, climbing Te Rua Manga to “The Needle”, a
large sheer edged rock piercing up through the top of the mountain. The day started off very hot, but once we got
into the forest canopy, the temperature drastically dropped, making the hike
tolerable. The ascent itself was pretty
easy; it was mostly a slight incline, and then a sharp continuous climb for probably
a touch under 300 meters. The climb
brought us up to The Needle, where we could see the coastline along almost the
entire southern and western coasts. At
the top, we met a few people from the US.
One was the pilot of a drone plane being flown around the island for
tourism photos and videos. Apparently,
he took some pretty neat footage of me and Jared right at the edge of The
Needle; we’ve gotten his business card, so hopefully you all will get to see
that footage if we ever get it. We also
met a young guy who worked for a tourism agency (he was at work at the
time…tough life), who could not recommend an island called Aitutaku
enough. Jared knew of the island; we had
discussed visiting Aitutaki. I opted
out, because the plane ticket cost over $400, but Jared decided he would
splurge and buy the ticket, so he was already planning on going. Anyway, after discussing it with the tour
guide, he really sold the trip well, and I started to rethink my decision to
bypass this island. Apparently, it’s the
“undeveloped Bora Bora”. We spent a bit
of time snapping photos and taking in the amazing landscape before making our
way down the other side of the mountain to the other side of the island. When we got to the end of the hike, we passed
some people I had noticed on my plane the day before. Oh, Lord, I should mention this. The people here are the nicest I have ever
met. They will literally call you out
from across the street as you’re minding your own business, to just to say
hello and wave. Everyone waves to
everyone else, says good morning, offers what they have. It really struck us. Anyway, so we walked past these people and
waved our hellos and continued on our way.
A few minutes later, as we were walking down the road, they pulled up
behind us and offered a ride! As we drove
down, we realized we had a much longer walk down the road than we anticipated,
and we had a bit of casual conversation with them, discussing all the fantastic
things about….Aitutaki. They were locals
and one of the couples was actually getting married there that week. BAH!!!
I was really starting to regret my decision to forego that island. When they dropped us off at the hostel…my bag
was back!!!! Jared and I started
discussing my option to come to Aitutaki, and I decided I would bite the bullet,
cut out other activities in other islands and make it work! After a bit, we put on our swimsuits and
walked out to the beach at the end of our street, not so much for swimming as
for grooming. Yes, Jared and I have
decided to cut each other’s hair. I had
done Jared’s once in Australia and it turned out really well, but Jared had
refused to do mine before Bita’s wedding (haha), so I was in desperate
need. Part of my homework in Italy was
to figure out how to cut my hair, so I could instruct Jared. Anyway, they both turned out well;
surprisingly, though mine had a lot more instructions, it took about half the
time of trying to perfectly fade his hair.
After we beautified, we had a quick dip and headed back to our hostel
for dinner. My jetlag had done a number
on me, so after dinner, we watched another movie in bed and went to sleep.
I again woke up at a retardedly early hour,
3am this time. At a more appropriate
hour, Jared woke up and we had our tea and breakfast. That day, we decided to rent a scooter. The scooter is a really common way to get
around as there are only the two buses.
We got ourselves out to the bus stop nice and early, and ended up having
to wait an hour for the bus to come around.
We probably could have just walked to the scooter rental location in the
amount of time it took us to wait, but we did not know that at the time. After a short ride on the bus, we picked up
our temporary motorcycle license (yes, apparently you need one to rent a bike
here, and yes, they will just give you an actual motorcycle license for 24
hours without asking any questions). Jared drove us into town, where we went to the
Rarotonga Saturday morning market. As
you might imagine, there were lots of fruit and vegetable stalls, prepared foods,
sarongs, hats, jewelry and especially black pearls; apparently the only places
to actually get black pearls are here or Tahiti, the rest are manmade. I bought a pawpaw fruit, as I had never heard
of it or seen one, but we saw an abundance on our hike the day before. I also bought 2 small solitary black
pearls. The cheapest pearls were
solitary, not on a necklace, and you could really get one for a steal if you
looked well. We went to ever pearl
vendor and then doubled back to the best ones.
The market also had a small traditional drum and dancing show. After a few hours of meandering, we got back
on the scooter and stopped back at the hostel for quick lunch, before setting
out to the beach. We opted to explore
Muri beach that time, as it was the highest recommended around the island. The beach did not disappoint; the water was
perfect, warm and clear. We relaxed in
the water and walked up and down the beach for a few hours. As the later hours of the afternoon rolled
in, we got back on the scooter, and opted to see the other areas of the
island. We drove the long way back
around the island, pulling into some of the back roads leading to people’s land
and homes. When we got back to the
hostel, we showered up and got pretty.
We were going to a traditional drum and island dancing show with
dinner. We drove back down toward Muri
beach, and into Te Vara Nui village, where the show would take place. The night we had so much good food, that we
felt genuinely uncomfortable; curried pawpaw, ika mata, fried rice, lamb baked
in taro leaves, bread pudding, salad, potato scallops, marinated taro leaves,
and the list went on and on. After
dinner, we got to enjoy a show with traditional island drumming accompanied by
male and female dancers with their grass skirts, shell jewelry, and head
pieces, and fire dancers. After the show,
dancers pulled up random people from the audience to dance; obviously I got
pulled up, despite my strategy of carefully examining the roof rafters as the
dancer came through to the table to choose someone; I could barely move I was
so full, but I feel like that was sort of normal for most people there. After the mini-post show, we stuffed
ourselves just a bit more with several types of dessert. We were more full than we’ve been in a very
very very long time. Honestly, we just
don’t really know how to control ourselves at buffets. I think we’ve conditioned ourselves to
attempt to store food for long periods of time as if we are going into a state
of hibernation…but we’re not!! Anyway,
in the end, we got back on the scooter and made the uncomfortable journey back
to the hostel.
The next morning, we decided to hike to the tallest peak in
Rarotonga, Te Manga, followed by some beach time. We returned the scooter in the morning and caught
the bus to the other side of the island.
We asked the bus driver to drop us off around the entrance to the track,
but a while after passing what we thought were the landmarks close to the
track, the bus driver pulled over and informed us that we had passed the track
several kilometers behind us. Soooo,
instead of attempted the hike, we opted to just continue on to the beach! We settled into the sand and sun and clear
water lagoon for several hours. After
our skin had just about enough sun, we made our way back out to the road and
waited for the bus for a while, before being informed by a local that the buses
stopped running at 4pm on Sunday. It was
4:30pm. Oh well, we started the very
long walk back while thumbing for a ride from a kind car-owning citizen. After not long, a man with his daughter
pulled over, picked us up, and went several kilometers out of their way to drop
us off right at our hostel, while his dog mauled us in the back seat…Jared
loved it. On our way home from the
beach, we realized that I had made a bit of a mistake when I booked my flight
to Aitutaki…for the next day, Monday…or was it the 12th? Damn.
We got the date and day mixed up, so I booked my flight for Monday
instead of Tuesday, when Jared had already booked his. That night, I washed up a bit of clothing and
pre-emptively packed my things just in case I had to leave the next day, before
eating our dinner and heading to bed.
First thing, the next morning, I called the small local
airline company, Air Rarotonga, and they allowed me to change my ticket without
charging me!!! I told you, nicest people
ever!! Anyway, we were excited that got
resolved without issue; it wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but I had already
paid for the Rarotonga hostel and I had no way of contacting the Aitutaki
accommodation to get myself a room a night early, but all’s well that ends
well. Since we had missed the hike the
day before, we attempted it again, this time getting dropped off at the correct
location. We made our way through the neighborhood
up to the hiking track. Right before
hitting the track, we asked a man in his front yard if we were going in the
right direction. He pointed us in the
right direction and offered his three dogs to accompany us along the walk,
saying “just follow the dogs”; Jared was ecstatic. We had talked to a few locals about the hike,
all of whom either had never heard of it, never done it, or had done it ages
ago but were pretty sure the trail wasn’t around anymore. Option number three was the most accurate;
thankfully though, the dogs did know the exact route. That track was probably the least maintained
hiking track we’ve done. It was kind of
neat to feel like we were exploring an area that had been left to nature’s
devices for such a long time. For the
most part, the hike was not difficult, however, it did get to a point where
things got a bit dangerous. I don’t mind
a bit of adventure, but when the track is so overgrown that you can’t see the
snags and roots growing up through the path, the path is under a foot wide, and
on both sides of your one-foot-wide path is a sheer drop, I get a bit
nervous. Jared was also a lot faster
than me, so he would disappear for ages while I was having a nervous
breakdown. At one point, I freaked out,
because I was climbing up a rope thrown down a rock face and apparently the
stupid rope was snagged on some root at the top. As I got higher to rope came lose and jerked
me down. I mean, I enjoy “feeling” like
an adventurous explorer…but I am not an adventurous explorer!!! I need the dumbed down version; the bumpers
from the bowling alley, if you will.
Anyway, we made it just about to the top before fog starting setting
in. We basically decided we had kicked
butt and would turn around for a very miserable descent before the fog completely
settled around us. The dogs were useful
on the way up, but basically left us in the dust on the way down, so we did get
a bit lost off the track, but were able to make our way back luckily; getting
lost in a rainforest is always a bit of a scary prospect. We were told the hike would take about 2
hours. In totally it took us over 4
hours, so I’m not sure where they were getting their figures. The day was sooooo humid, we were pretty
tired. We grabbed a few groceries and an
ice cream reward before getting on the bus back to the hostel. After a much needed shower, we made a nice
big dinner and packed up our stuff to go to Aitutaki the next day!!We had a very lazy start as our flight wasn’t leaving until the afternoon. We hung around the hostel reading and chatting with people before making our way to the airport on the bus. After an easy check-in, there was absolutely no security screening to go through, we boarded the 45 minute flight to Aitutaki. I should mention, this place came highly recommended to Jared from a couple we met in Mexico last year; he again saw them serendipitously in Italy when he travelled there for his vacation from Afghanistan. Jared had booked himself into a bungalow accommodation ages ago, but we had no way of letting them know I was coming, so we sort of just crossed our fingers and hoped they would be obliging. We met Tracey, one of the managers of our accommodation at the airport, and she was happy to adjust for one more. We drove a short distance to Matriki, our accommodation, where we were set up in a private bungalow right on the beach!!! It was A-MAZING!! The bungalow came with its own fully stocked kitchenette and balcony with a table and chairs looking out over the water. WWooooooowwwww!!!! We set our stuff up and then set out with Tracey to town to pick up some fruit for our breakfasts. When we got back, it was pretty hot out, so first thing, we got into our swimsuits and ventured into the water, which felt like bathwater!!! It was so perfectly clear, with bits of coral and coral fish scattered around. The island was encapsulated by a shallow reef, so you could walk for ages through the water and not get into anything over your neck. It was already the early evening, so we took a stroll down the beach before coming back to Matriki to sit and watch the sunset over the water, munching on coconut meat…you know…from a coconut we found on the ground. That night we made some dinner, opened up a bottle of wine, and sat on our balcony for a nice dinner. Perfection!
The next morning, my sleep schedule was still a bit off, so I woke up pretty early, and did a bit of yoga on the beach before Jared woke up. We then had a breakfast of tea, fruit salad of pawpaw and bananas with honeyed toast. Yum! After packing a beach bag, we grabbed one of the scooters at the accommodation made available to people staying there. We drove all the way around the island to the other side, and up to the highest point of the island, which revealed the most amazing view of the island, the lagoon, and the ocean surrounding. Lord, just check out the pictures. The day was exceedingly hot and humid; Jared and I both completely sweat through our clothes, so after taking in the view sufficiently, we headed to Ootu beach, supposedly the best beach. Ohhh MMyyyyy GGoooddddddd!!!!!!!!! I can’t even describe it well enough. It was so amazing, with ever color of blue fading into each other. You could walk for ages through the most clear water. When I have normally described ocean water, it’s been in varying degrees of blue, but so much of this was clear like tap water. The sand was so soft underfoot. The people and place just seemed to ooze happiness. We met so many other people walking around, and everyone was just the nicest and in the best mood ever, including us! There must be something in the air there, because we were on Cloud 9! After a bit of lounging and walking and way more than a bit of gushing, we hopped back on the scooter (I would only go if Jared promised we’d come back) to grab lunch back in our…you know…beach front bungalow!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t even get enough of thinking about it (we also just left this morning as I write this, so it’s still very fresh in my mind). After lunch, we did get to go back to Ootu beach for a few more hours. While there, we met a nice couple from Wales/New Zealand and chatted with them for a bit, when I was informed of a free Zumba class that night! A bit after 4pm, we went back to the Matriki so I could quick change and Jared dropped me off at my Zumba class in town! After an hour of fun dancing with a bunch a locals and a few tourists, Jared came back and picked me up, and we returned to the Matriki. Oh!! I forgot to mention, the outdoor shower!! We had an outdoor shower attached to the bungalow, which I always think is the coolest thing. That night we again had dinner on the balcony with a bit of wine and some coconut meat for dessert, before calling it a night.
We woke up early and had breakfast of fruit salad with pawpaw, bananas, and coconut, with honeyed toast and tea again. That morning, we set up a lagoon tour and snorkeling. Our tour guide, Puna, picked us up, along with everyone else at the Matriki, haha, there are only five bungalows, and all but one were taken, so it was only six people. After picking up a few more people, we drove to his boat and set out into the lagoon. The lagoon is spotted with a few islands. Our first stop was Honeymoon Island, where we offloaded a few people who didn’t want to snorkel while the rest of us snorkeled just off its coast. The water was sooooo flippin perfect, but to be honest the snorkeling was a bit lackluster. It was awesome to see the water so clear; you could see for ages, and I feel like such a snob saying this, but we’ve been to at least a handful of places with more vibrant sea life, most recently, the Great Barrier Reef. I KNOW, I KNOW!!! I’m being a snob; I told you I was, I just had to be honest. Anyway, after snorkeling, we drove in the boat to One Foot Island, where we had lunch, which was really really good. Tons of food like grilled tuna, taro leave, fried rice, curried pawpaw, salad, potato salad and more. Again, Jared and I ate a bit more than our share, but there were leftovers! After a bit of beachside digestion, we headed out for our last snorkel spot off of One Foot Island. Jared and I opted out of snorkeling and instead just frolicked in the perfect water. A bit before 4pm, we all headed back to shore in the boat. Puna dropped us off at Matriki again. We had both gotten a bit too much sun that day despite being a fanatic with sunscreen; I even wore a hat, my rash guard, and my sarong for a bit. Luckily, neither of us was terribly burnt, just very sun kissed. That evening, Jared became coconut master by shucking, cracking, and extracting the meat from four coconuts for us to use. I made coconut rice and we drank sweet tea that I had made early while we munched on some of our coconut. I took a glorious shower outside, before walking on the beach a bit with Jared before settling in for sunset. That night there was a drum and dance show at a hotel down the beach from us, so we got ready and walked down the beach with some wine and watched the show. I again got pulled up at the end of the show. Afterward, we walked back to our bungalow and got ourselves ready to fly out the next morning. Wahhh!
That next morning (today as I write this), we woke up early
and had a nice leisurely breakfast before cleaning up the bungalow a bit and
finishing up packing our things. We got
a ride to the airport and got back on the 45 minute plan ride to
Rarotonga. We sit in the airport now
awaiting our next Pacific Island adventure.
I think if I had to leave this place and go back home, I would cry. I’m just hoping that our next places are as
awe inspiring and as the Cook Islands have been to us. I think we discovered where God vacations.
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