Rarotonga

On Saturday August 1 we got up about 5 am to get on a plane to Auckland to then get on a plane to Rarotonga for a mid-winter break. The second plane flight was about 3 and a half-hours long and got us there mid afternoon on Friday July 31! Crossing the International Date Line is such fun. We were greeted by a shuttle to our hotel and given leis, which was a nice touch. We stayed at the Palm Grove Hotel on the south side of the island. We had a nice A frame bungalow with its own kitchen. There is a small swimming pool and a nice beach across the street facing onto a wide lagoon. We arrived just in time for their Friday night happy hour with live music – a lady singer and a male guitarist/singer and electronic drums/background music. Most of the songs were rock/pop/country classics. Some people loosened up to sing along to the chorus.

The next day being Saturday all over again, we got to go to the Saturday market in Avarua, the capital of the Cook Islands. Besides the many stalls with pareus (sarongs) and other clothing, and produce, there was also a dance and drumming troupe performance. They do a nice style of fast hula in the Cooks, especially for the men, and sometimes the women also do a slower one. We also just wandered around the town getting oriented, and did some supermarket shopping, so that we ate most of our lunches as picnics and dinners in our bungalow.

The weather was not as hot as we expected, mostly I would guess around 70 F, but with a steady wind that made it seem cooler. It was also cloudy the first two days and rained occasionally, but I am not complaining. Anyway, it made us not want to swim, and I was glad I had packed some long pants and tops. However, the weather cleared up for the last two days.

Rarotonga is a volcanic island about 31 kilometers in circumference. The mountains are quite steep, and are obviously collapsed calderas. It is very green, and does not seem to have a dry side like some of the Hawaiian Islands do. There are a number of hikes up to various mountaintops or across the island, but as they all involved scrambling, muddy & slippery trails, and sometimes ropes, we decided not to try them. We did walk to a small waterfall at the beginning of the cross-island walk. In fact, we walked a lot everyday, mostly on the beach, but sometimes on the inland road. I was impressed by the small and tidy market gardens of the interior. In fact, most of the produce in the stores seemed local. One day we managed to walk 10 kilometers going east. The lagoon widens out there and includes some small islands and people wind surf and wind board. I don’t know if that is the proper word, but the person is on something like a snowboard and is being pulled by a large kite. Going west, we walked probably 5-6 kilometers, so you can see that there is a lot of beach. Luckily, they have a good bus system, so we could go as far as we wanted and hop on a bus to return. They come every half-hour, one going clockwise, the other counterclockwise.

We went back to the main town on Monday – the rainiest day we were there. It has two museums, for some reason, although they seemed somewhat redundant. They were interesting, but only about as sophisticated as you would expect for an island of a little over 20,000 people. The museums help to point out what a huge effect the coming of the missionaries had on the island culture. We went out that evening to a resort that was having an “Island Night,” with singing and drumming. Ironically, it turned out to be the same troupe we had seen for free at the Saturday Market, but it was still fun.

So Rarotonga seemed, from our brief experience, to be a very pleasant and sane tropical island. None of the resorts we saw were extravagantly plush, nor did we see any obvious poverty. Most of the islanders seemed to speak Maori among themselves, which was nice to hear. We had a very nice vacation. Plus, now that we are back, the worst of the cold, wet weather seems to be past, and it is feeling almost Spring-like!