Raro Day I
We arrived in Rarotonga at 1 AM from Auckland and the Backpacker place had a van there to pick us up. Lots of us packed into the crappy van and drove to the hostel, and I noticed lots of stray dogs in the streets. Finally we got to our room and it was nasty. We killed some mosquitos and I dropped something and it rolled under the bed and when I got it, it was covered with grossness. The window screen was full of holes and was patched many times over, poorly.
There was one sink and one toilet, and the room with the sink was, for some reason, permanently locked. So to use a sink, you had to walk down rickety stairs, across a room, then up some more stairs into a totally different building. And the toilet room had a pile of trash next to the toilet since there was no bin. During the night, some drunk guys were making SO much noise it sounded like they were playing football in the hallway! Also, the roosters crowed all night (they do every night here) and at about 6 AM, a baby started screaming downstairs. So there wasn’t much sleep.
Obviously we weren’t going to stay there, so we checked out and the lady told Jim he had to pay for two nights, so they got into an argument. Awkward! It was silly for her to think we’d ever pay two nights, especially when no one told us about that. So we paid for one and went to look for a new place.
We eventually got an AWESOME room for much cheaper than they usually charged. It was a self-contained unit (like an apartment) with it’s own great kitchen, bathroom, and fridge. It was HUGE and very clean. Awesome! And the owners were super nice. Also a nice pool and free use of snorkeling equipment. That was more like it! They also had a cool dog who could open coconuts! The couple who owned it moved to Raro years ago from somewhere (Australia? NZ? Europe? I can’t remember) which is really interesting… Jim and I thought we’d go crazy if we lived on such a tiny island for a long period of time. I guess that’s why they call it “island fever”.
We rented a scooter right away and got groceries. They are more expensive here since most things are imported. It wasn’t super hot outside, but the weather was odd that day and it poured later on. Looking at the waves breaking in the distance, you see that the water is an amazing bright blue color. And of course, you can see to the bottom.
We wanted to go to an island night (with food and island dancing and music) but we fell asleep and slept too long and missed it.
View of Rarotonga
Tags: Cook Islands
Kelly