Rarotonga Blog Entry

We have now arrived in Rarotonga after a very nice flght of sleeping and relaxing. We turned up and the airport was very small, but we were glad to be greeted by the bus that is going to take us to the Hostel/beach house.(vara's Beach House)

The Island itself is only 20 miles in circumference so didn't take us long to get to the Hostel.

We didn't know what kind of weather to expect as we had looked it up and the seasons seem to be very strange in that the summer is the rainy season and the winter is the dry season and just slightly cooler than summer,althouh global warming seems to have taken it's toll and we had arrived during some bad weather.

There seemed to have been a storm the night before, but as we were tired and it was 6 in the morning we payed little attention and just waited to see what the next day was going to bring.

We go into the beach house and were in a room with four ther people so tried not to wake them. We ended u sleeping for a bit until the sun comes up.

The place seemed very nice and it was right on the beach front (Well Lagoon front), the beach was lovely and sea seemed very clear. The only thing that seemed to be missing was the sun, however we were told by locals the weather was not great and they don't feel it would improve.

Unfazed by this we had a little something to eat and chatted to the people in our dorm (Tid, Kate, Graham and John) who were just leaving to do the nature walk (After the Inca trail I am going to leave it until I do another walk - of any kind)

We decide that it would be a good idea to hire bikes and see the Island in a healthy and cheap fashion.

It was indeed very cheap and the Island looked great, which is what we had heard. We kept going in a forest Gump fashion, and after about three hours or so we had completed the whole Island. A great achievement I felt. It was nice because we got our bearings and could see exactly waht we had missed during our drive to the hostel
in the dark.

We lazed around for a while and just chilled out on the beach.

Still no sign of the sun, but as optimistic as we are we didn't let it dampen our spirits although I was getting desperate for some kind colour change on my skin.

That night, we didn't really get up to much and seemed to ready for bed by about ten,so Pete and Paul went to the dorm and Alex and I stayed for a short while longer talking to the guys from our room.

We hit the sack shortly after and woke up fairly early the next day. Still no sun thogh and there didn't seem to be much we could do without it.

The day seemed to pass very quickly and we decided that we would go for a meal to what seemed a quite nice place. The food wasn't great and the service was even worse. A lady leaving the restaurant tripped on a rock and broke her ancle, so Paul
had to go and help as the staff seemeed very disinterested.

Off to bed and the next day cosisted of the same sort of thing, just lazing and hoping for some sun. That evening we went for a meal with Graham and John for a nice steak and heard some interesting music.The locals love a cover of Phil collins and similar
artists from that era.

Off to bed eary as this seems to be a trend on the island.

Woke up the next day and there was still no sun, so me and Frosty decided to hire a Kayak and paddle round the lagoon and around the small island in the middle. That eveing was far more eventful, with a lot of the people from the hostel heading to
local club for a good drink up. We crammed 21 people into a small minibus and were on our way. The club was good and drinks were cheap so we were all were happy. The 21 person ride back was good. Very drunken and equally loud.

Finally the next day me and Frosty decided to do somethig to lighten our spirits due to the lack of sun and decided to hire car (A Toyota Starlet - What a beast) We paid around 25 pound for the day and once we'd hired it had to go to the Police station and
apply for a Cook Island Driving Licence. It cost 10 pounds and they just take a look at the UK licence, take a picture of you and there you have it, a Cook Islands driving Licence. It was like something from Blue Peter and will be kept for ID when back in England (Although of course I don't need ID due to looking so old)

We hired the car for a day and drove round the Island in about 15 minutes on one road. We used the car to take Tid and Kate to the airport and that night Frosty drove to a bar to see some tradional Rarotongan Dancing. Again it was a very early night. we left the bar to see a lot of Police and paramedics as a lady had come off of her moped.

We got back to the bach house in one piece and off to bed. The next day, fed up by the lack of sun, we decided to take a trip to the airport to see when we could get a flight for and they could put us on a plane heading for Fiji at around 7 o'clock, so
as a group decided that this would be the best thing, as we were intent on chasing that sun down.

We headed back to pack our things up and say our good bye to the lads and were off to Fiji. Here we come sun.

Next Blog entry will be Fiji (Hopefully with some tales of sun)