notes from the road

knowledge is power buddy
Rarotonga is the largest of the 15 Cook Islands. Total population is 12,000 people, with 9,000 living on Raro. There’s one main road that runs the circumference of the island – which is a whopping 50 miles. The island is mountainous and surrounded by a shallow lagoon, as the waves break on a sand bar in the distance. The water in the lagoon is so shallow that you can actually walk out to other islands – very, very cool.
People are friendly, chickens run free, watch out for falling coconuts, and please take your shoes off to go inside.

The hostel was right on the beach, with a huge deck for lounging around and a sand volleyball court which we took advantage of quite often.
The bad news was that if it wasn’t sunny out, there was no warm water. The good news was that we had amazing weather most of the time.
The other bad news was that while showering I saw a flying cockroach that was bigger than my harmonica. And there’s just no good news that can take that away.

Everyone at the hostel was staying for the better part of a week, allowing the 30 of us to become the best of beach buddies.
The only really crappy thing is that everyone partied themselves into a drunken frenzy each night, which just so isn’t my scene.

breakdown of activities homie
So how does one spend there time while in paradise? Here are some of things I did when not reading by the sea and eating fresh coconuts…
- Survivor. That’s right pal. The first group to catch and kill a chicken for dinner wins. Ha. JK. We did split into 2 groups, setting out to race around the entire island, one group starting clockwise and the other group starting counter-clockwise. First group back wins. Mode of transportation was hitchhiking. Tasks were taking pictures of certain landmarks. It ended up taking about 2 hours and was a super neat way to meet locals and see the island.
- Snorkeling. Amaaaazing. AMAZING. This was my favorite.
- When we weren’t hitchhiking to get around town or go the grocery store, we cruised around on scooters that we rented. My scooter buddy was a fellow by the name of Rodrigo, an aspiring musician born in Brazil and bred in the UK. Listening to him sing and play his acoustic guitar at local restaurants or under the stars on the beach was beyond fabulous.
- 2 nights we went out to the dance clubs in town and took a taxi van that is designed to fit 9 people. We had 28 people. Read that sentence again. 9. 28. A 30 minute ride to the club. Think about it.
- One night we went to a local dance competition. Dance, as in the tribal-I-have-no-idea-how-the-girls-move-their-hips-like-that-it-simply-can’t-be-natural-dancing.

So that was the Cook Islands. $1300NZ = a little bit of sand, sunshine, and snorkeling.