The fourth installment of my edited stories of my three-week trip to three islands in Polynesia.  My South Pacific pattern begins to be clear — it takes the first few days to get my bearings and then I can get down to the sightseeing and soaking up the culture.

The view of the magnificent Te Rua Manga

On the morning of my third day on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, I joined four others from the hostel on the cross-island trek, a popular three-to-four-hour walk across the north to south spine of the island with views of Te Rua Manga, or “the needle.”  To have a guide costs some NZ$50, but to do it on our own was free.

Rarotonga, though the largest of the Cook Islands, is just 18 kilometers lengthwise, and 32 kilometers in circumference.  Most people live on the flat coastal areas.  Being a volcanic island, the land rises quickly to sharp green covered hills.  We would be walking this.   Though at the beginning most of us were huffing and puffing up the sharp incline, we were good once we reached the Needle, the large sharp bare outcropping in the middle of the island.  Then it was mostly downhill.  Not easy mind you.  But downhill.  The view from the top was breathtaking, the ocean could be seen on all sides.  Hardly any sign of town could be seen, just the lush, green forest.  It was almost as if the island were uninhabited.  Except for the pesky wild chickens.  They were there, even on top of the highest point on the island.  I felt pretty good after doing the trek.  I felt strong and relatively fit.  Especially as three of the other hostellers were all in their early twenties, and they were huffing and puffing too.  At the end of the trail we hitched a ride back to the other side of the island in the back of a pick-up truck.  We all felt triumphant.  Tired, but elated.

That night I joined the other hostellers in a trip to a local dance spot/bar.  I was a wee bit reluctant to go (I am neither a drinker nor abar fly).  They were all playing drinking games to prepare for going out.  I read a book.  But I decided I might as well go.  While there, I started to feel a bit old.  Though there were certainly all ages in the crowd, I would say most were in their early twenties, and most were very keen on drinking as much as they could.  Still, the place was going to hold a dance contest, and I like dancing.  I start dancing with Jay, another guy from the hostel.  After the initial dancing was over, I was just standing by the side when the judge came up and asked me who my partner was.  I pointed at Jay.  The judge says, okay, you two are the final couple in the contest.  Our mouths hung open.  It turned out to be a contest of foreigners dancing to Cook Island music.  Basically, we had to dance like Cook Islanders.   We danced our little hearts out – I tried to remember anything from when I studied Polynesian dance as a child.  We came away as runners up, winning a case of vodka drinks.  Ha!  Just what a teetotaler who rarely goes to bars wants – Jay was pretty happy though.  I felt pretty impressed with myself.  I trekked for four hours AND danced away in a manic Cook Islands dance contest in the evening (along with two hours more of dancing) – maybe I was not that old after all?

Except for the next two days I did nothing.  On the following day, I slept in, lay around, read a book.  And relaxed, something I often have trouble doing.  I must have gotten the hang of it, because I did the same thing the day after as well.  Thank you Cook Islands!

Ready for take-off

On Thursday morning, I joined a biking and kayaking ecotour.   The tour guide was a true Cook Islander, whose 97-year-old grandmother is a traditional medicine healer.  Out guide told us all about the medicinal benefits of plants around us, such as the salve found in the stem of a frangipani flower – good for hornet stings.  And how the juice from the noni plant helps people live longer (his grandmother drinks it every day).  He claimed two papaya seeds a day works as a natural birth control.  We saw papaya, banana plants (several kinds), taro fields, and noni – the major agricultural exports of the Cook Islands.  The guide also told us about Cook Island history – past and present.  About the tribal government, and the feuds they still have today.  He pointed out the traditional palace for his tribe.  A campaign promise by the current chief head (a woman) was to restore the palace.  Although she came to power in 1991, the palace still lies below overgrowth, barely discernable beneath the grass.  Her reign is being challenged by her sister.

Following the biking portion of the tour, we hopped into kayaks and paddled ourselves across a beautiful lagoon, then up a small tributary.  Several land crabs were brought to our attention as they scurried about.  Then back to the pristine lagoon.  We rowed against the current to see a traditional fish trap, built of rocks in the water, which during high tide channels fish into a stone pen where they are caught at low tide.   Then we lazily sat in our kayaks as the current pushed us back to our departure point – and we watched fish swim beneath and around our boats.   What I remember most about the kayaking was just watching several frangipani flowers floating across the surface of the sparkling water – so clear it was like a swimming pool. 

In the afternoon I decided to take a microlight trip.  Soon enough I found myself hopping into a two-seater mini plane.  We took off like a regular plane, barreling down a grass runway adjacent to the airport’s regular runway, but we took off quite quickly.  Up we went to 3,000 feet where I had a view of the entire island.  It was so amazing.  The island was such like that out of King Kong or Jurassic Park.  And the lagoon waters could clearly be seen against the darker blue of the Pacific Ocean, with not another island in sight.  Thirty minutes was just the right amount of time to see the island.   The only thing was the plane was open, and it was much cooler with a strong wind.  My nose was running like crazy and my ears were cold.  Well, also the pilot turned off the engine as we were cruising high over the lagoon and pretended it had cut off and he could not restart it.  It was funny, but also not funny.  In a way though, that brief sense of terror while looking down at something so breathtakingly beautiful, made the experience all the more special.

Rarotonga from the sky

Although the Hawaiian Islands are supposed to be the most isolated in the world in terms of their distance from other land, these days they are not truly that remote.  The other islands in the chain are relatively close, the islands are larger, and well connected to the U.S., Japan, and other countries.  Tourism is huge in Hawaii.   Although there are some similarities with Hawaii, I did feel much further removed from any mainland while in the Cooks.

Another great thing about Rarotonga that puts Hawaii to shame is the public transport.  On the Big Island of Hawaii, which takes some five hours to drive around the island, there is only one bus per day going in each direction.  Rarotonga, just 20 miles around, has a bus going in each direction every hour from around 7 AM to 5 PM, and also less frequent night buses.  Three cheers for public transport in most places outside the U.S.

Thursday night I attended “Island Night” at the Staircase restaurant in downtown Avarua.  This is a night of food and island dance.  I was feeling cheap and only paid for the dancing.  The show was a full hour, though the last bit was more about making people in the audience look like fools with the dancers than anything else.  Still, I love Polynesian dancing.   Frenetic hip swinging for the women.  Knee knocking for the men.  What a workout.  I love the music.  The hollow wood drums make the most incredible sound.    The unfortunate thing about the show was that there were these beautifully dressed dancers in traditional grass skirts, leg adornments, headdresses, and coconut bikini tops.  They looked fantastic.  But the dancing was in a small area at the front of a restaurant, with a disco ball twirling on the ceiling, rather than on a beach at sunset with tiki torches.  Despite the small, even corny venue, I managed a few decent photos.

Cook Islanders know how to shake it

I caught a cold sometime Wednesday night (the nights were surprisingly chilly) and I expect the microlight aggravated it, so I had a sore throat and the sniffles on Friday.  Oh well, another day to chill out on a tropical island.  I just hung out and walked about town in the morning.  Yet, I found out coincidentally that festivities would begin that day in the lead up to Constitution Day on August 4.

A parade was to begin at 1 PM.  I arrived at the market grounds at one on the dot to find no parade whatsoever.  It was 2:30 before there was any parade activity.  Ah, island time!  The government officials arrived in fancy cars.  The Prime Minister’s car being the most obvious, with the license plate – PM.  There were dancers on grass covered floats, interspersed with civil and religious groups carrying banners.  The floats of dancers were the best because they were colorful and lively, beating drums signaled their arrival.  I enjoyed seeing this slice of local life.

On Saturday morning I rented a bicycle and rode the entire way around the island.  It took me nearly three hours, including a 20-minute break to eat an apple and read a little in my book at the half way point.  It was an easy flat ride.  Very enjoyable for the morning.  I could hardly understand why there are so many cars on the island at all.

My flight left at 8:30 in the evening.  Around two I returned to the hostel, made lunch, watched a movie on the tv, then gathered my backpack for the walk to the airport.  Yes, walk.  I can think of few places where I could simply walk from my hotel to the airport (not counting those expensive airport hotels).  It took me only about 20 minutes to make my way along a country road winding by grazing cows.  I was sad to leave.  It struck me my short holiday was more than half way over.  I really wanted to be heading on to Fiji or Tahiti or New Zealand like the others in the hostel.  I love traveling so much.