The next stop for me after Muri would be Avarua as this is the largest town on the island, and it is also another third of the way around the island so it would mean that I get to stop every third of the way around the island and would leave me just one more third to walk after wards! I made my way along the road from Muri to Avarua managed to get there for about 3pm, so I made good progress, but whilst here in Avarua I needed to stock up on food supplies as I was getting low and there was no where near the hostel that offered the same variety that the supermarkets here offered and it was also cheaper! So I went in and brought some milk, which would get me through the rest of my stay as well as 5 apples and 5 mandarines for the duration of my stay on the island, plus some pasta, salmon and sweetcorn for when the noodles ran out as well as some more pineapple pieces for dessert, and finally a really refreshing fizzy lemon drink to replenish my energy supplies which felt as though they were at zero and drinking all my water that I had taken with me, so after sitting down in a seating area across the road from the supermarket, I ate an apple and a mandarine that I had just brought and drank a lot of the lemon drink but saved some for the remaining journey as it was a big 1.75 litre bottle! After filling up, I left Avarua at about 3.45 and continued on the last third of the journey toward the hostel, this was the hardest part of the journey however because I had been on my feet for 5 hours and was beginning to tire and the sun was still blazing hot with no shelter from it plus I had 2 such heavy bags holding the shopping I had just brought, so I began the last third adamant to get through the pain barrier as my flip flops were constantly rubbing in between my toes which every step that I took and was causing me such pain but I continued, even after being offered a lift on two separate occasions, they looked as me as though I was made when I rejected their offers, but I told them I was walking around the island which is probably why they found it amusing, as much as I would loved to of got a lift as I was hurting so much, I didnt walk this far to give up, I was so adamant and determined to make the full journey that I rejected the opportunities as much as I hadnt wanted to, and then I continued on with the hard graft, and believe me it was horrible knowing that I was so close to the finish line, I would constantly keep tabs on the map to see how much further I had to go, the last leg of the journey I walked past the Rarotonga golf and tennis clubs, as well as the usual beaches and houses and small shops and what nots before eventually arriving back within the proximity of the hostel at 6.15pm after a 2 and a half hour walk from Avarua with lots of people staring at me on the back of vans and pick up trucks and laughing, I was becoming a tourist attraction by the looks of things! Once back near the hostel I went to the beach where I saw Lars soaking up the rays as he had sensibly decided not to join me on my walk! It was here that I noticed how filthy my feet and legs had got from the days torture that I went in the sea to wash it all off before heading back to the hostel to literally just collapse and do absolutely nothing, except have my usual dinner! I was so happy to have finally finished and the relief was immense, I was quite proud with what I had managed to do, no matter how silly the locals thought I was in doing such a thing, I had a sense of achievement and could say that I was able to walk the 32 km around Rarotonga, it took 7 and a half hours to do in total but 1 hour of that I was stopped taking rests in Avarua and Muri so it took me about 6 and a half hours of total walking time which isnt too bad really so all in all I was happy with the time it had taken and even more happy with the acheivement itself! I did discover that I got burnt around my neck and arms after walking the island however, as I was wearing a 'V' neck tshirt so there was a really red 'V' shape around my neck and also my arms were red raw because they had been exposed to the sun all day, I had put suncream on but the sun was so powerful that it just burnt through the cream! But believe me it was easy to get to sleep this night however much noise was being made outside the window!
The next day, Friday, I did not go easy on myself though, far from it, despite waking up with the most horrendously aching feet from the day before! Lars and I had decided that we would do another trek across the mountains apart from this time we decided to do the hardest hike that Rarotonga offered, this involved walking through the mountains from one side of the island to the other! If I thought that the first trek that we did into the mountains was hard work, well that was a breeze compared to the one we were about to conquer today, we set off from the hostel at around 11am and headed straight for the road that we had to walk down to start the hike, it took approximately half an hour to walk from the hostel to the start of the hike, which started at this road, but then we walked along the road for about half an hour before the trek actually got up into the mountainside, once we were there, there were some men doing some work on the forests nearby so we asked them where we entered the forest and they showed us the direction, they were actually cutting down some of the branches of the trees as they were blocking the entrance meaning it is quite hard to see, there was also meant to be a waterfall here but because the weather is so hot there was no water about it, it was just a rock face, dry as anything! It is actually meant to be easier to do the trek from the other side of the island, and start where we ended up finishing but we decided to start the trek near the hostel!
The hike involved us going up hill straight away, the inclines were so much steeper than the previous hike and there were so many mosquitoes in the mountains, but thankfully they werent the malarious type, they just gave you the most annoying bites which were so itchy, there were also many lizards which we encountered some big some small, this hike involved passing a couple of rivers where we ended up getting wet a couple of times, we also saw many other people doing the trek whereas the last one we did there was nobody else doing it! We even saw some people who had given up because they have lost the track, the track was hard to follow as its not very well signposted but Lars and I managed to find the track the whole way along despite losing it a couple of times! I cant descibe to you how hard it was climbing this mountain with a bag on your back and going uphill constantly and having to duck under tree branches and climb over fallen tree stumps and holding onto parts of trees as you tried to get a grip as you crossed from one section to another, the walk really was so hard, and by the time we reached the top I felt as if all my energy had been zapped away from me, I felt as though I needed a huge chocolate bar to rebuild my energy stores but obviously I didnt have that so we took a much needed break at the top of the mountain where so randomly we saw this chicken, and really questioned why it would want to climb to the top of this mountain and why! The way down was a lot easier but it was still difficult as the slopes you go down are slippy and so steep that you have to concentrate so much that you dont slip otherwise you would tumble about 30 metres to where the next flat area was! There were a couple of times that I lost my footing but I managed to grab hold of a branch at the last moment, we eventually made it to the end however and reached the road on the otherside of the mountain which we had to walk down for 30 minutes before reaching Avarua where after getting some postcards, we got the bus back to the hostel, where we soon headed off to the beach to jump in the sea and cool down and relax on the sandy beaches but again we had deserved the rest as the hike that day was trully something else, I was covered in sweat as the forests were so damp and humid yet hot and sticky and believe me noodles had never tasted so good as I was starving because I felt as though I had no energy left from the walking I had done the previous 3 days! This was the last day of my noodles though....waheyy! After dinner this night a few of us chilled out on the balcony area and watched this completely random film, about meatballs and clouds and some other crap, it was a cartoon but was actually pretty good I have to admit, and after that finished at around midnight, I was off to bed as that was the end of a very busy few days!
The next day was Saturday and Lars and I decided that we would just have a day of pure bliss and relaxation as we were both knackered and so decided to head down to this section of beach about 20 minutes walk from the hostel which was lovely and so secluded that we almost had the beach to ourselves except from when this dog decided he would bark his head of for half an hour, the owners didnt seem to bothered by this though, but it was pure bliss again when they left! We didnt do a lot this day except take in the rays, cool off in the pacific and lay back in the lagoon and watch the fish swim around you! The sea and waves were about 100 metres away from the beach as there was a lagoon which covered that 100 metres which meant the sea wasnt that deep here and you could go out quite far not that I did, as I was scared of the sharks lol, which im told did exist within fairly close proximity! Aftering going through a fair amonut of songs on my Ipod, and reading my Vietnam book, it was 5pm and so we decided to head back to the hostel for some dinner, before I went out to the Rarotongan resort and spa which I found out was the first resort to open on Rarotonga, this really was a posh and expensive resort however and the pool and everything that it offered was amazing, it was luxury accomodation and was a shame I couldnt stay there but the rates didnt quite suit my budget, I think the prices for one night ranged from £50 up to about £200 so it werent cheap! I know your wondering why I went there, well it was only to use their wifi, as there are only about 5 sites on the island that offer wifi and this was the closest for me so thats where I went to use the internet but I still had to pay NZ$15 for 50mb, the wifi was incredibly slow as well as expensive, so I sat by the pool on my netbook for about 2 and a half hours admiring the place before heading back to reality of where I was staying at about 11pm, so I was walking along the road in pitch black virtually as they have no lights on the side of the road, the only light came when a vehicle drove past, but I made it back safely!
On Sunday Lars and I decided that we loved the day before so much of doing absolutely nothing that we would do the same again, so we went down to the beach at the Rarotongan resort and chilled out there for the day, this is also another lovely area of beach except there are a few more people that congreagate at this beach, nevertheless we had a great day of doing abscolutely nothing and it gave my poor feet a chance to recover from the hard graft of the days previous! Only the day was cut short by the fact that it decided to rain about 3pm this day, I was in the sea at the time and could see this nasty cloud hovering above the mountains heading our way so I sat in the sea and though I will wait for it to pass over so that I wont feel the rain as I am in water anyway, but the rain was persistant and heavy so I had to get out and collect my stuff and head for shelter so I did just that and then when it died down a little I went and headed back to the hostel, when a few minutes later it was glourious sunshine again, this was slightly annoying but I cant complain about a nice bit of rain to cool us down after the glourious sunshine I had had the whole time I had been here! That was the only bit of bad weather we had while I was on the island and it lasted only for about an hour! Once back at the hostel we just chilled out there, chatting to everyone and playing cards, and having dinner which was pasta, salmon and sweetcorn for the second night out of three, it was so much more filling than the noodles I had lived on previously though, the only frustrating thing was that the salmon had great big bones in it that I had to get out before mixing all the ingredients together, but I also managed to miss a few so I would find some in my bowl as I was eating which wasnt very nice! This was Lars last night so before I went to sleep that night I said the usual goodbyes, and he was on his way to Auckland in the eatly hours!
The next day, Monday was my last day on Rarotonga so after showering I went to find Ana to ask her if I could do some washing as we had to do but she said that there was a load in at the moment so I had to wait an hour before I could put mine in, so I had breakfast and played a bit of solitaire before putting my washing in and then sorting a few things out like paying Tisha for my weeks accomodation and sorting out the arrangments for getting back to the airport in the early hours! After this I fetched me washinh which was complete and hung it out to dry before heading to the Rarotongan to use their wifi again as I still hadnt used up all the mb that I had paid for, after this I walked along the beach back to the beach by the hostel before realising I had forgotten to post my postcards so had to walk all the way back to the Rarotongan and back again, which was annoying but then after that I listened to my Ipod and read my book, and relaxed as it was my last day before I started chatting to this German girl who was staying at the hostel, and we sat on the beach to watch the sunset which was rather ruined by the clouds but nevertheless it was the first sunset that I had got to witness in the Cooks, after this I went back to the hostel to have my dinner, than get my washing of the line which had dried thankfully and then I packed my bags ready fot my flight to New Zealand, my flight was at 3.40am on the Tuesday morning and we were leaving to go to the airport from the hostel with Bill at 2am so I decided to get a few hours sleep before waking up at 1am to get showered and pack my last few bits, before getting on the minibus with 2 other girls who were on the same flight and we got to the airport at about 2.20am where we had to check in and then go and pay the NZ$55 departure tax which is a bit of a rip to be honest but if you dont pay you dont leave, then we had to go through this makeshift security with really old equipment and then I sat in the gate and chatted to these New Zealanders who I had met on the island in the daytime before we boarded the flight which took off on time, the only annoying thing that I was starting to peel really badly all over my body and all my skin was flaking off which wasnt nice, but overall the Cook Islands was an amazing place where I did more physical hard work than I had anticipated but also got to appreciate the wonderful beaches and relax! It did feel slightly odd having a hot sunny holiday in March though! But all the tan that I had got was peeling off :(
Still it was time to leave paradise and go to New Zealand for 6 weeks : D
Hope everybody is well back home!
Missing you all as ever
Lots of love
Toby
xxx