This was our last stop before coming home, so we were hoping to unwind by relaxing on the beaches, swimming in the ocean and soaking up some sun. But…
the beach on Rarotonga
Rarotonga is a nice round little coral island. Its very cute and the road went right around the circumference. So to get to town, we hopped on a bus (either clockwise or “anti”clockwise) and took the tour of the island. The town was quite small and had a few touristy shops selling black pearls. I guess there are many black pearl farms in the Cook Islands.
One thing we noticed about Rarotonga is that it rained a lot. We even looked into leaving a few days early to stay in Los Angeles. But the forecast for LA was rainy on the two days we wanted to be there.
The storms were interesting, though, the rain and the wind blowing through the palm trees had a nice swooshing sound. Even when it wasn’t raining, the wind was so strong, that the sound the palms made was just like rain on the roof.
One rare day, when it was hot and sunny, we sat out on the deck by the beach and read our books. The wind was so strong, we were going numb from the cold! Everyday seemed to follow the same pattern: Sleep in, wake up slowly, pick up our books and read till our stomachs told us to go eat lunch. Then we’d wander out to the store, buy filled rolls (like Subway sandwiches) and wandered up to the internetcafe/used bookstore. Then back to read more or nap, then make dinner, then either read or play cards with other couples in the same lodgings. The day it poured all day, we didn’t even leave the lodge!
We went to town twice – once to get a drivers license from the police station to rent a scooter. The cop stop closed just before we got there (it was 1:30 on a Saturday) and all the stores were closed. Strange how things close so early!
And yes, you read it right – you need to have a Cook Islands license to rent a scooter, AND you need to take a driving test around the block with a cop to get that picture license. So we got back on the bus and went back home. The second time we went to town was to see the rest of the island on the bus and to buy some pearls and souvenirs.
The dog population: very weird. Almost every dog has short legs. Like a basset hound. Imagine a golden retriever or a German shepherd with short bow legs. I think there might have been some interesting crossbreeding and definitely some inbreeding of the dogs.
Another interesting thing to see is the front yards of the houses. They have huge cement graves in their front yards. There are bigger cemeteries at the churches but almost every other house has a two or three graves.
One day, when it cleared up a bit, we rented snorkel gear and snorkeled in the lagoon to one of the small islands and around the other side of it. We saw some cool fish and a lot of sea cucumbers. Richard picked one up so I could get a picture and it squirted this stringy sticky stuff that tied his fingers together. At least it didn’t puke its guts out! One type of strange fish, with its eyes set way back on its very colorful body was territorial. If we got close to one, it would stare at us and come straight for us! Yikes! I looked it up and I think it’s a triggerfish the Lagoon/Picasso kind. Saw some pufferfish too. And a really long fish with a long pointy nose-like mouth.
The place we stayed at first was at Vara’s Beach house. It was a hostel, but we had a private room. It was loud at times and the kitchen and bathroom was kind of dirty but the beds were comfortable for us. Every evening after dinner, there were tons of little wingless bugs and bugless wings all over Richard’s side of the bed. Don’t know where they came from as there are screens on the windows. After 3 nights, we moved to a more expensive place up on the hill. Still owned by Vara’s, we had our own bathroom and a cleaner kitchen. The other people staying there were couples too, so we didn’t feel as old as we did in the hostel. The walk up the hill wasn’t too bad, there were lots of nice smelling flowers on the way, a cute pig, a horse, papaya and banana trees, and couple of goats to greet us on our way. Trust me, though, we got sick of our “Horses and Cemeteries” game when we only saw the same horse every day, and tons of cemeteries…
Read a little bit about Rarotonga
