Llew Wanders the World

Well, I’ve been here in the Cook Islands for a week now, but am finally getting around to writing my first entry about the place.

And what a place! I’ve been staying on the main island of Rarotonga since my arrival at 6:15am last Monday, and it has been wonderful in just about every way.

Rarotonga is a sort of “hybrid” island. It was originally formed by volcaninc activity, leading to some significant peaks (up to about 650m high) but has since been expanded by the growth of coral around it, which provides it with calm seas due to the barrier reef that almost completely surrounds the island, as well as some lovely white sand beaches.

The Cook Islands themselves are a sort of semi-independent state. The local government runs pretty much everything that deals with the islands themselves, while New Zealand takes care of foreign policy, defence and so forth.

(The few extra photos that I couldn’t add when my camera batteries ran out have now been added)

After a miserable layover in LA, a long flight, and a quick late-night stop in Tahiti, I found myself at the Rarotonga airport at 6:00am. Thankfully everything went according to plan and Paul from Rarotonga Backpackers’ was there to pick me up. After a quick drive down the road, I went straight to bed to get a couple more hours sleep.

Waking up at about 9:00, I felt quite refreshed and ready to explore the island. My exploration began with a 10km bus ride into Avarua (the main and indeed, only, town on Rarotonga.) The town itself is fairly small, but still has pretty much everything one could need: Two grocery stores, at least three banks (two with ATMs [my card works here. Hurrah!]) a couple of “general store type places, which sell everything from clothing and shoes to major appliances, as well as miscellaneous stores of use to both locals and tourists.

After a quick walk from one end of the Main Street to the other and back, I hopped back on the bus and returned to the hostel. The public transport system in Rarotonga is simple to navigate; there are only two roads on Rarotonga of any length, the main road, which circles the island near the shore, and the inland road which circles most of the island about 300m inland from it. This means that there are only two bus routes as well: one running clockwise around the main road, and one running anti-clockwise. Each comes once an hour, with varying times of operation.

The remainder of Monday was spent making lunch and lazing around the deck of the hostel near the pool, reading, watching the beautiful sunset, and then sitting in the hostel common room watching a DVD or playing cards. Indeed, I’ve been doing an awful lot of that, so if I don’t mention having done something at a given time, odds are pretty good that that was what I was up to.

Tuesday morning was time for some more island exploring. This time, it was a walk along the inland road near the hostel. The inland road is lined with many fewer hotels, hostels etc., and many more farms, houses and schools. Indeed, it was while walking past one of these that I met a group of island kids on their way home. As happens the world over, a bigger brother was ill-treating his little brother who didn’t seem to want to go home, and was dragging, kicking and carrying him the whole way. I walked along with the whole group, which actually consisted of children from just two extended families (everyone was a brother, sister or cousin of someone else.) While walking, we talked about their school, their teachers, our families and their (and my) favourite movies. Finally we arrived at their homes, where they were overjoyed to be photographed, and to look at the photos on the tiny LCD on my camera before heading inside to their families. On the way back, I also photographed some of the beautiful wildflowers (in this case a hibiscus) that line the roadsides on the Rarotonga.

Wednesday saw me trying one of many walking trails on the island. I was accompanied on the hike by Jeff and Elle (Jeff is perhaps the most well-travelled person I’ve ever met) as well as Damien and Tara, two Australian couples staying at the hostel. The Raemaru track is perhaps 2km long each way, and takes about 2.5 hours return. The walk up the hill is a little bit slippery, and winds through the hillside tropical forests that make up most of Rarotonga’s interior. Once you approach the top, the walk gets a bit tougher. Indeed, for a short period it is no longer a walk at all, but something of a rock-climb, where one must pull oneself up using ropes, chains and handles that have been thoughtfully attached to the rock of Raemaru.

Unfortunately the view from the top wasn’t all it could be, since low clouds blocked much of it. All the same, the little snatches we saw through the clouds were still gorgeous.

Thursday was another more ambitious walking day, this time on the cross-island track, accompanied by Kate, a (soon to be) university student from Bristol. The trail starts at the end of one road heading inland, and climbs up a ridge to the peak of one of the more spectacular mountains on the island: The Needle, which is a 30m (by my guess) tall spire of rock.

The walk up the ridge is amazing, with tree roots forming almost a natural stairway (this was fortunate because it had rained Wednesday evening, and even the small sections of muddy slope we had to ascend unaided were NOT easy.) The beauty of the walk up is, if anything, surpassed by the sights at the top. Wonderful close-ups of The Needle, and incredible views of the surrounding mountains and the slopes leading down to the beaches and coral reef are to be had from here.

As it turned out, Kate and I didn’t climb ALL the way up The Needle. We were willing to follow along the ropes and chains, similar to those on the Raemaru Track, but when we arrived at a somewhat rickety ladder, followed by a very steep rope-aided climb, all with a 60m (or more) sheer drop beneath, we reached the limits of our bravery.

Heading back down the mountainsides was yet another wonderful experience. After a (by relative measure only) unexciting walk down through more forest, we came to a river, which leads through the forest into an area called “Fernland.” There’s good reason for this, as this part of the forest is dominated by giant ferns, along with tangles of huge vines, and more, smaller ferns covering the ground. The trail follows along the river, skipping back and forth across it before finally emerging and rejoining actual road at Wigmore’s Waterfall. The fall itself is nice enough, though not really spectacular. It’s real appeal lies in the pool at the bottom. It’s a superb swimming spot. Indeed, when we arrived, five local kids were swimming and diving off the 13m high rocks into the pool (2.5m deep maybe below.) I wasn’t quite as brave as they, but still convinced myself to jump into the pool from about half that height.

Friday was another day spent with Kate, this time snorkelling. Jeff and Elle, the Australian couple I’d done the Raemaru track with earlier, had been “willed” some snorkelling equipment by another couple who’d stayed at the hostel. They repaid this good deed by passing it on to Kate and I when they departed. Thus we hopped on Kate’s motor-scooter and rode to Muri Beach, perhaps the most beautiful beach and definitely the best snorkelling spot on the island.

I’ve been a bit spoiled by having gone snorkelling in many of the worlds best spots (the Great Barrier Reef, Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, the Galapagos Islands) but nonetheless, Muri Beach didn’t disappoint. There were loads of fish, swimming around, all in incredibly clear but shallow water. I also swam far out towards the reef (maybe 800m) to where there were some glass bottomed boats taking people out on a snorkelling tour. Surprisingly, while the coral was nicer out that far, there were actually fewer fish.

The swim back in was easier than heading out, but nonetheless a 1500m swim without fins was enough to have me sitting on the beach writing postcards for most of the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday was an “administration” day, which I spent preparing my last ‘blog entry for my stop in Vancouver, as well as picking up a few more groceries in anticipation of everything being closed on Sunday.

The reason that almost all businesses are closed on Sundays can be found in the Cook Islands religious (Christian) fervour. About 60% of the islands’ residents are protestant, 30% are Catholic, and almost all of the remainder belong to some other Christian church, whether Mormon or Seventh Day Adventist (the presence of these folks on the island is convenient, as it means that there are at least a FEW shops open on Sundays.)

In addition to being well attended, the Cooks’ church services also have a reputation for being very beautiful, with wonderful singing in both English and Cook Islands Maori. With this in mind, myself and several other hostel residents headed to the Cook Islands Christian Church, about 1km from our accomodations, for the 10:00 service.

The singing was, indeed beautiful, even when (as was usually the case) I couldn’t understand a word of it. It seemed that not only the church choir, but evryone on the island must have been born with near perfect pitch and the voices of the lovliest of birds. Not only was the service impressive, but the parishioners invite all their guests to a hall next door afterwards for a home-made lunch. This is, as they explained, their way of thanking the tourists whose donations provide the majority of funding for the church, as well as providing (along with foreign aid) the main basis of island economy.

The remainder of Sunday was another lazy day with yet another gorgeous sunset…

Which brings us to today, Monday. I’ve packed up my bags, headed to the airport and checked them in anticipation of my flight to Aitutaki, the second most important of the Cooks, also reputed to be one of the (if not the) most beautiful islands in the South Pacific.

Tags: South Pacific

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2004 at 7:39 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.