Rarotonga – Bloody Mary
Back to Rarotonga, and to be honest, I wasn’t really in the mood for jollity and happiness. I was still considering returning to New Zealand earlier than planned.
I was back at Varas, which had seemed to have had an influx of 18-30s new South Pacific venture. Talk about making me feel old! I felt like an outside observer, not really participating in, nor interested in, the antics of the younger guests who just seemed to be interested in partying. Nice enough people, but just not a huge amount in common with them. This was highlighted the first night back in the dorms there where the 18 year olds tripped back in at 2am, came into the dorm where I was sleeping, and put the light on. This would have been bad enough, had I not raised my head off the pillow, and the culprit simpered to me, “oh, sorry, have I woken you up?” “Yes”, I growled, at which point she just said, “oh, I am sorry” again, and sat down on her bed to write her diary.
There were some sane people staying there, fortunately, amongst whom were Malika, from Denmark, and Stefan, from Germany. We three went on a night out to the cinema, the only cinema in the Cook Islands. It shows one film every night, and is a rather wonderful lilac colour. When we went, they were showing “Take The Lead”, which turned out to be a hybrid of Sister Act, Dangerous Minds, and Strictly Come Dancing. Yes, it was wonderful! Some of the best moments of the night were when they held the film until us three were sitting down (there were only about 10 other people in there), and when the film suddenly went off in the middle and we realised it was an intermission. An intermission! I haven’t seen one of those since God was a boy. Wonderful. Also, during the second half, the projector got knocked, and so we were suddenly watching loads of bums and tums having conversations. I think that’s where we lost the plot, and giggled all the way through the rest of the movie.
Another real highlight during my time in Rarotonga was going to the church service along the road. Missionaries got to the Cooks about 170 years ago, and they have taken to Christianity with real zeal. They have their own church, the Cook Islands Christian Church, and a group of us went along on Sundays. It was wonderful! Probably the most welcoming service I’ve ever been to – special prayers were said for us visitors, and the welcome extended to giving us lunch afterwards.
I was lucky enough to be there on a national holiday, Gospel Day, which celebrates the arrival of the Gospel in the Cook Islands, and all the local churches get together and put on dramatic presentations based on Christianity and the history of the Cooks. There was so much joy and enthusiasm put into their shows, it was impossible to watch without a smile on my face. And the singing – the singing was something else. A few times, we heard them sing one particular song, in the Maori language, which was in two parts, harmonised beautifully, and was just spine-tingling to hear.
On my last day there, I decided that it really was time I DID something on Rarotonga, so Malika and I booked a jeep tour round the island. I was actually sorry I hadn’t done it earlier. I’d got a pretty good idea of the geography of the island – it really isn’t big, and I’d done the complete circuit a couple of times on the bus – but this way, we got to see it from the hills in the middle, with gorgeous sweeping views right down to the sea. We found out much more about the three main tribes of Rarotonga (all the Maoris who live there today are part of one of these tribes), each of which still has a king or queen running it. One of them still has a palace in the town centre, which is lovely, although strangely not open to anyone.
On the tour, there was an Australian woman who had me gritting my teeth literally within three minutes of being in her company. Not only did she have a shrieking laugh, but she seemed to find EVERYTHING that ANYONE said completely hilarious. Malika and I made a tactical move to sit in a different jeep to her, but it still didn’t work… we could hear her laugh lingering on the wind as we wound our way across Rarotonga. When we got to the waterfall, she decided to take a dive into it. Fully dressed. In knee length denim shorts. She was still wet a few hours later.
And that was it, really for the Cook Islands. Like I predicted, not the most exciting, action-packed blogs I have ever written, nor the most exciting, action-packed weeks I have ever spent. But I got a really good tan!
Tags: Cook Islands, Travel
Suzanne
Suze, reading this on a cold Noveber morning, I think I could be persuaded to spend a month in Rarotonga.
Miss and love you lots.
Mum
P.S. I’m on countdown!!!
Hooray does that mean Voorderman’s going ?
Well I hope it doesn’t mean that Richard Whiteley is going otherwise we would all be in for a shock!
The cinema sounds just great. I think the last time I was at a cinema with an interlude would have been in Leigh, so you’re probably right – when God was a boy.
I think you should start to sleep with a camera by your side so when you are rudely awoken in dorms you can take a picture of the offender for a rogues gallery and another one of your scary “you woke me up” face. (Which I normally see around December after coming back from the pub!)
Love you and miss you lots.
Mitch