BootsnAll Travel Network



Aitutaki Day 2

The next day we went to this bar/restaurant on the beach called Samade. It was a very cool place with perfect island decor and everything is all on the beach in the sand. It was on the stunning lagoon and you could even see the silver fish swimming by in the water occasionally. Samade seemed like the best place to hang out in Aitutaki, even though the food wasn’t very good.

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View from Samade bar. Beauuutiful!

So we went back to our hotel and got the shower stuff and came back to the resort and had a nice shower!

Then we went back to the hotel (on the scooter.. only took about 5 minutes) and cooked our last Uncle Bens individual rice pack with some frozen stir fry mix and sauce and it was practically gourmet.

We walked to a bar called the Coconut Crusher because it had a big sign that said, “Open Sunday Nite” but it was closed, and it was a Sunday Nite. That’s one thing about these places, if you want to go anywhere, you have to call and make reservations because sometimes they aren’t even open unless people call to say they are coming.

It was a beautiful night to see the stars, though.

The next day, we wanted to rent snorkels, so we went to this huge resort that is on a little island at the end of Aitutaki (I think it’s the Pearl Resort?). On the walk there, we saw a gray crab in the water and other little red crabs with one big claw that were funny looking.

When you cross this small footbridge to the resort, you can look into the water and see TONS of cool fish! We saw puffer fish, trigger fish, moorish idols, and the usually brightly colored yellow and orange and black fish. We also thought we saw an eel under a rock. Every time I went over that bridge during our stay (MANY times!) I had to stop and stare.

The resort day pass cost NZ$25 and we could use their snorkels, kayaks, life jackets, paddle boats, beach chairs, pool and a towel. So we took the kayak into the lagoon. The sun was really shining down hot. But even though it is hot, it isn’t a heat that makes you sweat and be uncomfortable, it is a nice heat from the sun. I don’t think it was very humid.

We finally paddled to an empty beach on a tiny island. There are SO many sea cucumbers in the water it is gross!! They don’t hurt you, but who wants to step on a sea cucumber?? There is literally one every 6 inches! You have to watch where you step all the time.

Anyway, on the island we saw a sprouting coconut and a little hermit crab eating a dead trumpetfish! Jim had to poke it and it took us a while to determine whether it was a fruit or a dead fish. (“Does that look like guts or a plant?”)

There wasn’t much coral but we tried to snorkel anyway. It was a bit murky, surprisingly, because from above it looked very clear. So we paddled back and went to the hotel pool and I saw that there was a very nice shower with warm water! Yesss!

We ran into Theresa, our Rarotongan friend, while walking out on the sandbar. She was with two other men, of some relation to her. One made a joke that Jim looked like he could be “half of one of us,” because of his dark skin. It was so beautiful and we sat in the shallow water. It was weird to think that in a week we will be flying back to the USA.

There is something Theresa, a hostel owner, said that sticks in my mind. We were talking about the flight back to Raro and she sighed and said, “Back to the stress island.” And of course that sounded insane to Jim and I–stress living in an island paradise? It never crossed our mind that a Rarotongan would come to Aitutaki for some R&R. Definitely put things into perspective. It still blows my mind that a few thousand people can live on a teeny tiny spec in the ocean, and have government, public services, currency, internet, and even fine restaurants. It’s just fascinating to me.

We booked a lagoon cruise for tomorrow.



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