January 16-18
The beach just down the path from our B&B in Rarotonga, Cooks Island
The Cook Islands are a small island chain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean about three quarters of the way to New Zealand. If you aren't from the Asia/Pacific area you may have never heard of them. So how on earth did we end up spending 36 hours on a small island called Rarotonga, you may be wondering? Well, lets go back a few weeks to late December when we were booking this leg of the trip!
If you've never done a journey like this, then you may never have heard of a Round the World ticket (RTW for short) or a Regional fare, but they are actually quite common for trips of this nature. The way these fares work is fairly simple. Most major airlines have an alliance with other international airlines. For example, we fly United, which is part of the Star Alliance and includes Air New Zealand, Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines among others. So if you want to book an RTW ticket or a regional ticket using these carriers, they have a mileage based fare that allows you to buy one ticket that includes stops in many countries on multiple airlines. The fare is based only on how many miles you travel and the lowest tier is 22,000 miles, which is what we wanted.
We had a basic outline of where we wanted to go and when, so we started out looking at a Circle Pacific ticket that went from LA to New Zealand to Australia to Vietnam, Bangkok and then back to LA. This included lots of long flight, but the ones at the beginning and end of the trip were particularly ugly; they were 15-18 hours long! We were still under 22,000 miles so after a few hours of planning and a few calls with United we basically realized we could make a stop in an Island Paradise on the way to New Zealand and make a stop in Hong Kong on the way home from Southeast Asia without increasing the price of the ticket at all! We booked the ticket on December 29th and flew out of LA on Sunday January 15th at 10:45PM. We were back on the road!
The flight to Rarotonga was our longest flight so far, clocking in at 10 hours 30 minutes. Fortunately for us, we had three things working in our favor. First, we had been on the West Coast for about 10 days, so we were at least acclimated to West Coast time. Second, the flight left late at night and landed at 7AM, perfect timing if you can sleep on a plane. I normally can't sleep on a plane though, which made the third thing the most important. One word: Ambien. We both slept for the first six hours of the plane ride! It was definitely a fitful sleep, but it was enough to make both of us feel pretty rested upon arrival in Rarotonga.
We had booked our lodging at a place called the Cooks Oasis which was only about 3 kilometers from the airport. The best reason for booking the Cooks Oasis? Early Check-In. Sure, you have to pay for it, but when you arrive somewhere at 7AM and you only have 36 hours to spend there, it is wonderful to go straight to your B&B and check in! By 10AM that morning we were unpacked, showered and we had eaten the lovely breakfast of yogurt, toast, juice and local fruits like passionfruit and starfruit. We took a walk over to the B&B office to talk to Eric and Roselle and get some help planning our short stay.
Our hosts were great. We explained that we wanted to do some snorkeling, swimming and possibly paddle-boarding. They talked about the best places to do each activity and looked at the tides to help us figure out what times would be best. The island had a bus service on the hour but considering our limited time, Roselle recommended getting a car. There was a service right down the road that would rent a basic beater for 24 hours for 36 NZD (about 28 USD) and they would come and pick us up to get the car. We decided that if we snorkeled off the beach behind the B&B at a place called Black Rock, we could wait until 2PM to get the car which would give us the vehicle for most of the next day as well.
You see these signs everywhere on the Island. You know you are on an island in the middle of the Pacific when there are more tsunami evacuation route signs than street signs!
The B&B was perfect for travelers like us. They supplied beach towels, reef shoes, kayaks, and snorkeling gear, all free of charge. Shaun and I picked out some reef shoes, snorkels and fins and loaded up on sunscreen. Then Eric helped us pick out a two person kayak which he loaded up onto a portable set of wheels. Shaun pulled the kayak down to beach, which was no more than 50 meters down a dirt path. We paddled a little ways down the beach, put the kayak on shore, suited up into our snorkeling gear and dove into the crystal clear waters.
Shaun pulling the kayak down the path to the water.
The beaches are pristine and almost empty. So peaceful.
The snorkeling was excellent. We could see all kinds of crazy little multi-colored fish and other creatures like sea urchins and sea slugs. One of the coolest things we saw was a kind of starfish that was bright blue! The camera I have been using is waterproof, so we actually took it on our snorkeling expedition and tried to capture the things we saw. It was a great way to start our Cook Islands adventure!
Shaun posing for the camera. This is the same camera I've used for all my blog pictures. It's also waterproof. Love it!!
The crazy blue starfish!
After the snorkeling we headed back up to the B&B, ate a little more fruit and toast from breakfast and packed up a bag for the afternoon. The car rental guy pulled up right at 2 and we were in our rental car on the road by about 2:15. First stop was the grocery store! We had decided to cook out on the grill provided by the B&B that evening so we got dinner supplies and a few things for breakfast the next day. We dropped those off back at Cooks Oasis and headed over to the other side of the island to Muri Beach. Muri Beach is a big beautiful lagoon on the southeastern side of the island. The water never gets more than about chest deep, but it is crystal clear and warm and lovely. We swam around the lagoon for a while until we decided that maybe we should take a break from the Sun. We had a beer at Sails restaurant and stopped at the beach rental place next door to ask about Paddle Board rentals before heading back to the B&B.
A post-swim beer at Sails on Muri beach
I love this sign. We are closer to Japan than London. And not a McDonalds in sight!
Back at the Cooks Oasis, we did a little napping and then prepped our food for dinner. Things are always expensive on an island but we found a way to keep dinner cheap and even stretch it so it would make a second meal the next day. First we parboiled some red potatoes that we finished in the skillet on the grill. Next we grilled up red peppers, zucchini and spring onions in a little balsamic dressing. Finally, we grilled chicken thighs that had been marinated in the same dressing and boatloads of grated fresh ginger. It all came out great and we were happy to have a simple home cooked meal after our big day. We washed all that down with a couple of cheap local beers called Tui and then took a walk down the beach to watch the Sunset. The Cooks Oasis is on the West side of the island so the Sunsets over the ocean are absolutely gorgeous. We walked along the sand, taking pictures and enjoying our Tui's until the Sun had set and the dusk was creeping in. By that point we were tired and happy so we grabbed a video from the selection in the guest video library (Lord of the Rings, of course!) and curled up in our big cozy bed. By 9PM Shaun was out and I wasn't far after.
Sunset in Rarotonga after a day of swimming and snorkeling. Bliss.
This Hermit Crab was determined to pull this little piece of melon down the beach.
The next morning I was up at 6 but Shaun was still sleeping, so I made some coffee and went for a walk down on the beach. This island is so peaceful. I imagine it is what Kauai, in the Hawaiian islands was like 30 or 40 years ago. The roads have more scooters than cars, the pace is casual and quiet and the beaches are pristine and in many cases, practically empty. On my morning walk, I saw more dogs than people! (Three vs two).
Once we were both up and dressed, we ate some breakfast and then headed over to Muri Beach. The activity for the day was paddle-boarding. Stand Up Paddle-boarding is just what it says. It started with surfers paddling on their surf boards, but now the boards are made specifically for Paddle-boarding. You basically stand in the middle of the board and paddle yourself along, which gives you an amazing birds-eye view of the water down below. Originally Shaun wanted to rent the boards for three hours but the sun in Rarotonga is really strong and even with Sunscreen the day before we ended up getting a little burnt so we opted for the one hour rental instead. We paddled around together for a while, then separately for a while. The lagoon was so beautiful and there were all kinds of fish to see. It was a great experience.
Shaun on the Paddle Board at Muri Beach
After we returned the paddle boards, we swam for a while in the lagoon until we were in need of food. We planned to have a late dinner so we sat on the deck at Sails and ordered an island specialty called Ika Mata to hold us over. It's very similar to ceviche, but with a few tropical twists. Raw yellowfin tuna is marinated in lime juice and tossed with tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers and red onion, then finished in coconut milk. It was quite delicious and went perfectly with an afternoon beer. Just enough to hold us off until dinner.
Ika Mata- YUMMY!
The rest of the day was quite relaxing. After dropping off the rental car we headed back to Cook's Oasis. They had a great little "cool-off" pool by our room and it was mostly shaded, which was what we were looking for that afternoon. We swam for a while and then settled in on lounge chairs in the shade where I read my book and Shaun napped. As evening rolled around we decided to do a load of laundry since we didn't know when we would get the next opportunity. So while the clothes were washing, we heated up our leftovers from the previous night and started organizing our stuff. Did I mention that our flight to Auckland left Rarotonga at 1:30 in the morning? Yup. Crazy, but it seems to be the norm from Raro.
So we put together our laundry and then took a long walk on the beach to watch the sunset. Finally we packed up our bags and settled in for a little nap. Our taxi was coming at 11:30 and we were in good shape. We had only spent about 36 hours in Rarotonga, but we were both really glad we had chosen to make the stop. It is unlikely that we will ever get here again so we will cherish the time we had and always remember this beautiful Island Paradise.
As they say in the Cook's Islands, Kia Orana! May you live long!
Kia Orana from Rarotonga!
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