Posted by Niels & Amy on March 13, 2007

DAY 25  Off to Aitutaki

After over a week of 'monsoon like' conditions, we are once again seeing the sun, yea! The amount of rain was quite uncharacteristic for Rarotonga and resulted in flooding and as one shop owner told us, 'bad business'. Hopefully we will see the sun more often, but it is the end of the rainy season here.

Yesterday we rented bicycles and rode around the island, stopping at a shop that sells carved items, for a snack at The Fruits of Rarotonga, and to snorkel off the shore at the Rarotongan Resort. It was a lovely day but the camera batteries, including the back-up went dead, without warning so we didn't get any pictures of it :(.

Later today we are heading to Aitutaki, an island in the Southern group. This is also the island we visited on our past trip and got married on. We'll be there for a few days and then we'll head back here to Rarotonga as we are still holding out hope to catch the cargo ship that goes to the Northern Group. It leaves on 'Cook Island time' we are told, so even though it is scheduled for the 20th, it could leave +/- 3 days from then.

Well, we're off to catch our flight to Aitutaki - we will post again when we return.

Posted by Niels & Amy on March 13, 2007

DAY 21  Simple Pleasures

When we arrived at Rarotonga, Cook Islands and to our 'home away from home' - a small 1 bedroom bungalow in a garden setting, a 20 minute walk from the main town of Avarua - we were able to take our first hot shower since leaving Seattle! Since it had been so hot everywhere, a hot shower isn't really necessary and many places of accommodation just don't have hot water, but taking a hot shower with soap that actually lathered felt quite decadent :).

After 2+ weeks in bare bones, no privacy accommodation, it is also so nice to have a space to ourselves that has real windows that can even lock. Previously the places we were staying in often only had rough cut-outs with vibrant fabric hung above that served as the all in one window, screen, and window covering, which doesn't work so well when just a puff of wind sends it flying. There is something to be said for living communally and so open to nature, but it is blissful to be able to shut out some of the bugs and geckos and lock up our gear so that it isn't easily, permanently borrowed.

We are surrounded by huge mango trees and a few avocado and some kind of citrus trees. We've been told to take anything we would like. The only catch is that we have to find ways to pick the ripe fruit that is much to high. When we succeed, we will have a nice treat!

By now we have fully adapted to 'island time' - not really a sense of time - no rushing, no firm commitments. This is quite a change for Amy as she lived by her planner and lists, daily. At times it can be a bit frustrating to wait an unknown period of time for a place to open or something to start, but we wouldn't trade it! We often leave the for the day and forget to take a watch and find ourselves calculating the time by the sun. It is so nice to be able to FEEL the day and rely on our senses. We can't believe that just a short time ago we both went weeks without spending more than an hour outside, now, even in pouring rain, we're out most of the day.

Rarotonga is much as we remember it, with some new places of accommodation, restaurants and houses popping up. Friendly, smiling people stop to say 'good day' and dogs, chickens, and roosters run around haphazardly as scooters pass blasting their horns. No one is in a rush and the locals still appear to far outnumber the tourists, at least this time of year.

Hopefully the weather will hold out so we can take more pictures and add them to our next posts!

Posted by Niels on March 09, 2007

DAY 19  Overgrown

Aargh, it's still raining in Rarotonga. The high humidity makes it feel quite stuffy for most of the day. At midday the temperature hovers around 29 degrees Celcius, but luckily it cools down to around 25 degrees at night - a fairly comfortable temperature.

Today, I (Amy was not feeling well) set out to hike one of the trails that go inland, into the Rarotongan rainforests. I thought the rain and humidity would ensure I'd encounter plenty of mosquitoes, so I rubbed every uncovered part of skin with 100% DEET before leaving the bungalow. It seemed to work. A good thing since there have recently been over 900 reported cases of Dengue fever on the island and the number is on the increase (according to the local paper). The mosquito that carries it is active during daylight hours so they are advising everyone to take special care during the day to prevent getting bitten.

The trail head wasn't easy to find, but a little persistence can go a long way and after a few minutes I managed to uncover the marker (literally) for the start of the trail. I selected to hike the Mangatea Bluff trail as it is only about 3 hours round trip, supposedly provides great views over Avarua town and starts within walking distance from where we are staying.
With all the rain that has fallen the last few days, I was prepared for some muddy conditions. What I wasn't prepared for, was the rate at which the jungle can grow here...

Even after 20 minutes of searching and asking some people, I could not locate the second trail marker. My well intended effort ended at the edge of a field of out of control low vegetation in the middle of a muddy pig pit. A stare-down with the resident swine also did not get me any further. A bit disappointed, I had to throw in the towel.

The jungle looks dramatically thick and lush here so I hope Amy and I will have another chance to try to venture out into Rarotonga's inland and explore the cloud forests. First though, we'll have to wait out the rains.

Posted by Amy on March 05, 2007

DAY 17  Feels like home

In a strange way, being back in the Cook Islands feels a bit 'home like'. We arrived on Rarotonga on Saturday, 4 weeks earlier than we planned because French Polynesia was so grossly overpriced and in our opinion, much overrated. So before we blew through our budget, we decided to change course, slightly.

We do not have much of a plan yet (of course) as we are hoping to take a cargo ship to the Northern group of the Cooks if it is possible - the schedule depends on the amount and demand of cargo, sailing conditions, and of course the condition that we would have to travel in as it must be better than our previous cargo ship! We may just make it to the Southern group as that is much closer and a bit more feasible. We've asked around, but the boat isn't due in until this weekend so we'll check in later and make our plans accordingly. We would really like to make it to some of the outer islands, other than Aitutaki and Aitu, which we visited on our trip here 1.5 years ago. We have 6 weeks so we'll see! Oh, it is so luxurious to not be rushed!!

Our posts will hopefully be slightly more regular while we are here on Raro with good resources - at least through the next week. As in French Polynesia, internet connections are S L O W and it takes us an hour at best to simply upload a few pictures and enter the text that has been pre-written by hand, and it is not cheap but a little better than in Papeete, Tahiti where were were paying at least $13US per hour. We'll do our best to keep the posts with pictures (sometimes) coming!

To all of you who have signed the guestbook and/or sent us a message through the site...THANKS!! We read all of the messages, even if we don't have time to reply.

Until next post...

Posted by Niels & Amy on March 02, 2007

DAY 11  Living the Good Life

We have found a slice of paradise here on Motu Tiapaa (One of the islets in Maupiti's lagoon). The wind blows most of the time making the temperature much more bearable. At the place we are staying, Maupiti Village, there is a wide stretch of white sand beach, dotted with coral and shells. The lagoon is bright turquoise and clear and offers some great snorkeling with an amazing variety of fish.

About ten years ago, Maupiti was hit by a tropical storm which destroyed a lot of settlements on the island, but also damaged the reef and the coral formations in the lagoon. It is great to see that the coral in the lagoon is recovering so well. Almost everytime we go out snorkeling, we see new varieties of fish and coral. Even though the lagoon is quite shallow in most places, there can be a strong current at times. We think this may have to do with the fact that we are not far from the only pass in the reef through which the entire lagoon draws and fills.

The reef gloves we brought with us come in really handy because when wearing them, it is possible to hold on to a rock and hover underwater in one spot effortlessly. When you lay silent for a while, more and more sealife comes out of their hiding places. The lagoon here also hosts large numbers of clams that have brightly colored mouths and look just like the giant clams we saw in Aitutaki's lagoon, just much smaller; no bigger than an outstretched hand. Apparently, there are two kinds of rays; manta rays and leopard rays. Niels sees them almost everyday, especially when kayaking or going anywhere by boat. Twice, Niels has had the pleasure of seeing them underwater. It is an amazing sight, they are so graceful and just fly through the water without disturbing anything. As soon as they spot you, though, they fly away really quickly. From a boat, they are easy to spot in the shallow waters - they look just like a dark shadow moving across the white, sandy bottom.

The owners of the pension where we are staying are very friendly and we have found it to be quite peaceful and relaxing. We plan to stay about a week here since it is so lovely. Our room is again very basic; and old bed, no privacy and shared bathroom facilities but it is clean and the location is great. Grapefruit, avocados, and bananas grow well and are free for the taking. The meals were are eating are made here at the pension as there are no restaurants on the motu. The food is fresh and made with mostly local ingredients of vanilla, coconut milk, lemon, and fish of course. Despite the remoteness, the food is quite varied and wonderfully prepared by the owners. We can certainly spend some time here living the good life.