A little about the islands. Rarotonga isn't huge, about 20 miles in circumference and there are only about 13,000 people on the island almost doubled by the amount of tourists at any one time. There are 14 islands in the Cook Island group the rest of the population in the remaining islands totalling about another 4,000. Lots of Cook Islanders live in NZ and Australia for work. Avarua is the capital. At its' highest point the island stands over 14,750 feet and the mountains in the middle of the island always look spectacular. That is another thing we have to do if we come again as they do trips up there and through the middle of the island but it is quite a hike and in the heat would make it a bit strenuous, not what we go on holiday for really.
The island is nearly completely surrounded by a coral reef so the inner lagoon is safe to swim in and from predators i.e. no sharks. They get turtles and rays in the lagoon which one of our neighbs from the hotel saw but we didn't.
They thank God for everything they have and while we were here, we joined in prayers for just about everything; food, travel, boat trips etc. Makes you quite humble too.
So today is Sunday and church day for the islanders. There are so many churches and religions on this little island, every village having their own which the community look after with such pride. The one below is beautiful and just happens to be a Mormon one; it could just as easily be a Catholic, Protestant or Bahi.
Properties here are not fenced in on the whole, vegetation being their barriers. It would be much nicer the world over if we could all have rubber trees, bourgainvillia, hibiscus etc as hedging! So while driving round the island on scooters as most of the population and tourists do you have to be wary of the local wild life, mainly the dogs and chickens, that run out on to the road without warning. Hence there are a lot of three legged dogs on the island and loads of panic stricken chickens. We saw lots of baby chicks following their Mums too so don't think the locals find many of the eggs! They have to tie up the goats though which they use to keep down the rampant vegetation and for milk and luckily we saw bulls and cows tied up too (they eat the grass round in circles!!) though they don't like it and 'low' a lot which sounds very sad. Milk is expensive here.
Anyway today was a nice sleepy day, more reading under the palm trees (I finished another Jojo Moyes book and Derek a Dan Brown one), a trip to the nearest bakery, a scooter trip to the waterfall and a visit to the Tropical Gardens.
We went to the LBV bakery for lunch which proved to be a good choice.
As you can see from the scooters, it is a popular place to be - it is at Muri Beach if anyone ever goes. The sandwiches are good and we finally found a place that does jam donuts and these were so good, completely ooozing with jam and finger lickin' good. For some reason they are not popular in our area of NZ until you ask people which I have done! So come on NZ if the Cook Islanders can why can't you? |
And so on to the gardens which are just round the corner from the hotel.
TTFN, lots of love and hope you are enjoying the trip so far.
(Good luck today Julie with your op, so wish I was there to hold your good hand xxxxx)
AND Happy Birthday Gordon 89 on the 15th April xx