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Okay, so by now you’re reading this and realising that I’m almost home, and you’d be right – this ‘current’ update comes direct to you from my present location, San Francisco – but more on this at a later date.  Obviously it takes me time to think, write, construct and edit this blog, and that’s before I’ve found a suitably cheap and fast internet outpost.  The thinking takes the longest amount of time, as those of you whom know me would testify to.

I’m sure after my post on Fiji, many of you will be expecting more of the same jealousy-inducing tales of tropical paradise in the South Pacific – well I’m afraid you’ll be slightly disappointed.  From the air Rarotonga looks amazing, but I have to say I wouldn’t recommend coming here unless you have enough money to journey to one of the other islands – Aitutaki or Mangaia perhaps – only accessible by flying rather expensively with Air Rarotonga.

To be fair, my own experiece of Rarotonga was tainted by my choice of accommodation.  Several people I know had previously raved on about staying at a place called ‘Vara’s’, right on Muri Beach.  Most of the passengers on the flight over seemed to be headed for the same hostel, so things looked promising.

  

Don’t get me wrong – the surroundings were excellent.  The main issue I had with this place was that it was extremely poorly managed.  The accommodation itself is great – even if they did screw up my reservation, putting me on the hillside for the first night instead of next to the beach (yeah I know, life’s hard, eh joe?)  The reception staff were either unhelpful, gave incorrect information, were plain rude, or occasionally all of the above – rarely were they to be found when needed anyhow.  There were no working tin-openers, despite the fact that the nearest shop only sold meals (read: baked beans) in a can; everyone was told to go to bed at exactly 11pm each night by the most arrogant and abrupt security guard – incedently this appeared to be his only task as ‘security’, the rest of the time he was either asleep or nowhere to be found.

However, despite these minor annoyances, there was simply nothing to do on Rarotonga to keep you sufficiently entertained or occupied: the town (30 mins bus ride away) was basic and the nightlife just didn’t appear safe enough if you happened to be a foreigner.  Some of the younger locals obviously weren’t the friendliest and enjoyed taunting or even threatening some of the guys from our hostel.  Food and drink was expensive also.  I generally got the blues – I decided to shorten my stay from two weeks to just one in order to save money and try to stop myself going insane.  It was a wise choice:  there’s only one flight per week to Los Angeles and most people I’d befriended here were already booked on it.

There were some interesting events during my stay though.  The guys at our hostel invented a strange beach game involving holes dug into the sand and a tennis ball…

  

  

…it took them 3 hours to construct – seriously – …I think they were very bored indeed.

  

I now possess a Cook Islands Drivers License after passing my scooter test, which involved driving once around the block.  Seriously, it was so simple it was a joke.

  

At least it made getting around easy and fun!

A cool fella named Toby and I also undertook the Cross-Island Walk:

  

  

  

  

The beaches, sunsets and snorkelling opportunities were also excellent overall, but activities cost a lot and most people were pretty skint.

  

Rarotonga doesn’t really make for a fantastic backpacker destination – the infastructure simply isn’t in place yet like it appears to be in the other countries I’ve visited.  I’m sure it’s a great holiday location if you’re looking for rest, relaxation and staying put.  But by the end of my time here, I was certainly looking forward to getting back to ‘civilization’ in the form of L.A. and the good ol’ U.S. of A….

“Cali-fornia dream-ing la la lala…”

J.

Tags: Cook Islands, Random Stuff, The Cook Islands, Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 6:38 pm and is filed under The Cook Islands, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.