Tuesday 01 September, 2009 – Rarotonga, Cook Islands
This is just a really quick, one-page blog on a trip to Rarotonga…
Pending our early evening departure on the lovely Pacific Blue, we purchased a $15.00 duty free bottle of Ouzo (Black jellybeans in liquid form) and watched a pleasant looking girl drive a small pick up vehicle back and forth between our departure gate and some unknown pick up point. It made an interesting beeping noise often, as I’m not sure she knew how to reverse it. The video camera was present for this occasion and many more following that.
The flight was….bearable? I think maybe it was the pringles and alcohol that made it so. Fortunately interest in the video camera ceased quite quickly on the flight. The Pacific Blue staff are quirky and tend to make lots of jokes along the way. They’re very funny and made a joke on landing that it was the pilot’s first landing.
On arrival at Rarotonga International (similar looking and smelling to your wood shed), we were greeted by friendly looking ladies in floral muumuus (see the seventh episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons – King Size Homer to see the definition of muumuu), with delicious smelling frangipani eis (and also shell ones) and a free bottle of water.
In all, the holiday was fairly good, although not as good as I remember it being the first time but that could be because last time included Aitutaki and Muri Lagoon marine life hadn’t been wiped out by a cyclone. But because Andrew hadn’t snorkelled in tropical waters before, this didn’t really make much difference to him.. we did see a few fish. We hired a red convertible, which was really cool (out comes video camera again) and explored the island – went up some dirt side roads (is that covered in the insurance???!) and past some local houses. We had a naughty look through the abandoned Hilton, which is always an experience, and we even wrote our names in chalk on a creepy old rusted door. Actually, I might’ve been a teeny bit scared. It looks like people squat in there. I spose, if you’re on a budget and would rather spend all your money on things more exciting than accommodation, why the heck not?! We experienced an Island Night with the island dancers, that night as well.
I have decided I definitely prefer Fiji. Raro has average snorkelling, the water is not as warm, and the weather is certainly not as good.Sorry Raro!
WHEREISLAUS 