Llew Wanders the World

Kia Orana once again from the Cook Islands. (Kia Orana is the local greeting/farewell in the Cooks [similar to the Hawaiian “aloha”] and translates to “may you live long.”)

Since I last wrote, I’ve been to Aitutaki, another of the Cook Islands, and spent a couple more days in Rarotonga. As with my previous experiences in the Cooks, everything has been pretty uniformly wonderful.

Aitutaki is, like Rarotonga, volcanic in it’s origin, but coral has had an even greater part in its growth. Indeed, save for a few 100m peaks in the centre, horseshoe shaped Aitutaki is almost a perfect coral atoll. The island is about 7km long, with a huge (15km x 12km) lagoon of beautiful turquoise water surrounding it. Dotted throughout the lagoon are many small uninhabited islands or motus.

The flight to Aitutaki was very quick (about 40 minutes on a 33 seat prop plane) but was, nonetheless an interesting experience, beginning with checking my bag. I stopped in at the airport at about 9:30 am hoping, I suspected in vain, that I could check my backpack for the 15:30 flight, allowing me to wander around town for a bit before departure. To my pleasant surprise, the Air Rarotonga staff had no problem with this. The baggage check wasn’t the only way this trip differed from the usual airport experience. The waiting area consisted of six thatched-roof sun shades, some wooden benches, and little else. When boarding time was announced, everyone simply picked up their hand luggage, walked through a gate in the chain link fence and out onto the airport tarmac and climbed aboard the (seemingly brand new) Saab 340, with not even the vaguest pretense of security checks.

Less than an hour after this, I was on the ground in Aitutaki. Since my phone card had run out as I was finishing up booking my accomodations, I hadn’t arranged for an airport transfer, but was unconcerned, since it was only about a 2km walk from the airport to Josie’s Beach Lodge, where I was staying.

Things went ever so slightly amiss at this point, when I happily accepted a ride from an Australian in a pickup truck who said he was headed that way. It took a few minutes to gain my sense of direction, but before long I’d discerned that we weren’t headed the way I needed to. It was at this point that I realized Josie had a lodge in town, as well as the one on the beach. The driver kindly drove most of the way back to the airport and pointed me in the proper direction.

The walk was less than entirely pleasant, with my pant bottoms, shoes and sometimes even feet quickly becoming covered in small burr-like plant seeds, the main difference being that these had much sharper spikes. After picking them all off and learning to walk on the edge of the road rather than just off it, I carried on. And then it started raining. It would be unreasonable to complain TOO much about this, given that it was a warm day, and only a moderately heavy rain, but I did begin to feel a little bit discouraged.

I was getting close to my destination when a teenaged island girl rode by on her scooter in the opposite direction, stopped, turned around and positively insisted that she give me a ride to my destination.

So. At long last I’d arrived at Josie’s, and after being introduced to the managers, who lived on site, retired to the luxury of my own private room.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around my corner of Aitutaki. It was incredible how beautiful the area was, and how the lagoon water retained it’s turquoise colour even on this, a miserable cloudy day.

Since the rain and cloud continued, I retired to bed shortly after my walk, in hopes of waking early for a very full day on Tuesday.

And what a full day it turned out to be. The day dawned with the final traces of Monday’s rainclouds being swept out of the sky, and the weather shaping up for a gorgeous day. Nice weather aside, my personal Tuesday began in a very unpleasant and embarassing way, with a walk along the beach where I sat down and attempted to husk a coconut to eat for breakfast. I was about 80% done when my knife slipped and left me with a rather nasty cut on the top of my right index finger. Before it even started bleeding, I’d popped it into my mouth, but I knew it wasn’t just a little scratch. Further examination revealed it to be (in my admittedly untrained eyes) just on the borderline of what would require stitches. Since the nearest hospital was some 9km away by road, I decided to make do with a large fabric bandage and plenty of antiseptic. (Some 40 hours later I gave it another thorough cleaning and super-glued the wound shut, in hopes of making the inevitable scar a little smaller. It now seems to be healing just fine, so no need to worry about my health anyone.)

With this unpleasantness behind me, I walked across a short bridge near my accomodation to a small island that held an exlcusive resort, as well as the docks for two of the three lagoon cruises on the island. I was somewhat skeptical about paying the NZ$55 for the cruise, but eventually decided that I would.

As I waited by the boat for the crew to arrive (they were operating on “island time” it seems) I was approached by what appeared to be a local woman, who asked if I was from Canada. As it turned out, she was born in the Cooks, but now lives in Burnaby, BC, and was on Aitutaki visiting her sister, who owns the boat that I was planning to take the cruise on. Shortly thereafter, her sister, as well as many other of her relatives arrived. After I was introduced to every one of them, they set about making preparations for departure. This surprised me a little, since there were a sum total of 3 cruisers on a boat that looked to hold at least 40. Not to worry… Shortly thereafter many more appeared, mostly those over from Rarotonga on a day trip, bringing the total to about 20.

With the crew, the family of the boat owner and all the cruisers aboard, we headed out into the lagoon. I can hardly do justice to the beauty of the Aitutaki lagoon. As the boat got further and further from the shore of the main island, I often found myself scarcely believing that what I was seing could be real. The incredible vastness and simple blueness of the water was dazzling. This combined with the expanses of white sand and small forested islands to give vistas like few, if any, others on earth.

I won’t even try to properly introduce any of the 50 or 60 pictures I took of the lagoon and islands, as it wouldn’t be possible. I found myself constantly wondering how many pictures of blue water, white sand and green trees I needed, but just couldn’t resist taking more out of sheer awe at the sight of it. Here are just a few of them:

Aitutaki Lagoon 1
Aitutaki Lagoon 2
Aitutaki Lagoon 3

In addition to the simple wonder of viewing the lagoon, the cruise also included stops at several of the Motus in the lagoon and a chance to snorkel near the outer reef.

The snorkelling by itself wasn’t that incredible, but the experience of standing waist deep in the water, surrounded by turquoise-ness with the nearest land being probably kilometers distant was amazing.

The stops on the islands were similarly impressive, though the first one furthered by embarassment at my coconut husking injury that morning; with the cruisers all gathered round, one of the crew members husked and opened a coconut in about 30 seconds using nothing more than a slightly pointed (rounded almost) stick, and proceeded to make coconut cream using little more hardware.

Aside from this, the motus were uniformly wonderful. At one stop I walked about 350m through knee deep water to a large pure white sandbar that I had all to myself. In addition, I swam a short distance across a channel to have another island all to myself for a short spell. It was little different than all the other small islands in the lagoon, but being the only person on it was a really neat feeling.

Yet another great part of the cruise was lunch. Sandwiched between snorkelling and the last island visit, it consisted of barbecued tuna and a wide variety of island food, ranging from breadfruit, to banannas to a wonderful baked dish consisting of arrowroot, coconut cream and turmeric for colour. I absolutely stuffed myself. Indeed, this superb lunch was the only meal I ate in my 1.5 days on Aitutaki.

The final addition to the cruise, and possibly even the most memorable part of all was happening in the rearmost seats in the boat. Throuhgout the cruise, my friend from Burnaby and all her relatives from Aitutaki sat talking, laughing and most importantly singing and playing. The music was almost constant. It consisted of a mixture of English and Maori songs played on a guitar and two traditional instruments resembling mandolins. All of the islanders on the boat sang along, and as the cruise continued and they drank more and more, the musinc and laughter got continually louder, as did the applause from the rest of us on the boat. As we headed back for the mainland, I was invited to come and sit with them (I think partly because I was smiling so broadly at their antics, and partly because of my geographic connection.) For the last half hour of the cruise, I sat and talked and laughed with them, singing along when I could and smiling so much that my cheeks hurt by the time we arrived home.

With lots more smiles, several handshakes and a couple of big hugs, I bid my companions farewell, and headed out to explore the rest of Aitutaki for the evening.

This exploration consisted of a walk along the beach to town, covering almost all of the island’s length. Thankfully one of the boat crew offered me a ride on her scooter to the airport (about the quarter point of my planned walk) so I was able to arrive in town just before sunset, walking past the local rugby pitch on the way in. While waiting the last few minutes, I walked around the (small) town. Small as it is, it appears to have both a downtown and an uptown. After exploring the town a bit, I sat and watched the local kids playing a soccer match pitting the boys against the girls. I have no idea who won, but everyone seemed happy at its conclusion.

Following the sunset, I walked bak the way I had come, quickly becoming surrounded by the darkness. It was a long walk back, but it was made much easier and more interesting by the incredible stars and moon in the sky. I was constantly amazed by the sharpness of the shadow that the moonlight cast on the white sand of the beach.

Finally, about 3.5 hours after sunset I arrived back in my own neighbourhood and headed over to a nearby Island Night with John and Claire, a young English Couple also staying at Josie’s. An island night consists of traditional music and dancing, often accompanied by a meal of island food. The dancing of the young men and women was amazing, as was the intensity of the music. (Traditional Cook Islands music consists primarily of drumming, but also includes various stringed instruments.)

The trip home was an eventful one, with Claire having drank far too much, and the pair having lost their key. I did my best to help, but had to get to bed, especially as I’d lost my watch while snorkelling, and had to be up early to walk to the airport and catch a 9:10 flight the next morning.

As it turned out, I woke up early. Very early. About 4:00 in fact. At this point, I was very hesistant to go back to sleep, being almost certain that I’d not wake up in time. So I read for a couple of hours and then went for one final walk on the beaches of Aitutaki to watch the sunrise.

After my walk and a bit of packing, I headed out to Aitutaki “International” airport, and was in plenty of time for my flight, due mostly to yet another scooter ride from a friendly local gentleman.

After my very full day in Aitutaki, I felt deserved in a day of rest back on Rarotonga. Indeed, as it turned out both Wednesday and Thursday were spent lounging around the hostel, enjoying the sun, reading and little else.

Which brings us to today, Friday. This evening I’ll be leaving for Fiji, and despite the fact that it’s a wonderful destination itself, it will be sad to leave the Cook Islands behind. It’s very possible that I’ll never return here, but I hope not. The Cooks are some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and their people among the most friendly I’ve ever met.

Before departure, I’ll just make note of a few more Cook Islands memories that haven’t made it into the weblog yet, but I must keep a reminder of:

-Roosters. They’re everywhere, and begin crowing at about 3:30am and stop around noon. Indeed, at the top of the cross island walk, about 3km away from the nearest road or settlement, we found a rooster and a hen waiting for us.

-The amazing halo that appeared around the moon one night. I’ve no idea what caused it, but it appeared to be a perfect ring of clouds centred on the moon, taking up perhaps a 15 degree arc in the sky.

-The dogs. The Cook Islands has the most relaxed dogs I’ve ever met. They rarely bark, and never run. Perhaps it’s just too hot? Also, by their shape it appears that a lot of them have some daschund in their family trees.

-The cat. A skinny cat constantly floated around the Rarotonga Backpackers, begging for food, killing mice and jumping up on peoples laps. It was very friendly, but was hated nonetheless by Paul and especially Rebecca, since between throwing up, urinating and eating garbage, it made a horrible mess of the hostel kitchen when left alone there.

-The “kids.” In my hostel dorm, we had the two oldest (myself and a Brit named Catharine, at 28 and 29 respectively), and the two youngest (two 19 year old Englishmen) dorm residents in the hostel (there were older folks in the private rooms and bungalows.) The youngsters’ first night there also happened to be one of their birthdays. Given this, they went out and drank a very large amount of alcohol. I ended up switching dorm beds with someone so I could spend the night looking after the birthday boy, constantly rolling him back over on to his side so when he threw up (which he did) he wouldn’t choke. While all this was going on, three youthful Scots were outside, running around naked, shouting and jumping in and out of the pool. Just in case anyone develops a poor view of the hostel as a result of this story, I’ll add that this was an isolated incident. The place was otherwise quite peaceful at night. Save for the roar of the ocean and the inescapable roosters.

-The price of food. Some things are reasonably priced compared to Canada, for instance cheese is perhaps a little less expensive than at home. Most things however, especially fruits and vegetables, and ESPECIALLY imported ones are outrageously expensive. For example, cauliflower is on sale for NZ$9.65 a kilo. Potatoes are normally priced at around NZ$5 a kilo. I still managed to cook myself fairly inexpensive, tasty meals, but it wasn’t easy.

Finally, if anyone’s interested in visiting the Cook Islands (and I’d HIGHLY recommend it if you can) I found their official tourism website to be very helpful. And I’ll once again plug Rarotonga Backpackers since Paul and Rebecca were such wonderful and friendly hosts.

Tags: South Pacific

This entry was posted on Friday, August 27th, 2004 at 8:38 pm and is filed under South Pacific. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.