Kia Orana! Rarotonga Day 1

After several months in the pipeline our first visit to the Cook Islands was underway. Mike and I gleefully left work early for the flight to Auckland. Once there we mooched around the international terminal for a couple of hours.

Killing time

The next flight was fairly full and noisy with one or two wedding groups aboard. Tis the season for it, and also our reason for going. We arrived in Rarotonga just after midnight.

No need for air bridges here!

The first order of business was a spot of shopping at what are apparently the cheapest duty free prices you can find anywhere. We finally checked in to The Rarotongan Beach Resort around 1.30am.

When we woke up to our second Thursday 3rd November – CI being 23 hours behind NZ – we got our first view of the place in daylight.

Our beachfront room was pretty much that

Surveying our patch of beach

The main resort area perched amongst white sand, clear water, blue sky!

Blue skies and sunshine were present as ordered. In front of the beach is a lagoon featuring fish and coral and other things of appeal to snorkelers. Beyond is a reef which the Pacific Ocean crashes against all day long.

We quickly located our breakfast food source, the main dining area which has wonderful views across the lagoon and the beach beyond the adjacent adults-only resort. Off the deck fish can easily be seen in the beautiful clear water.

The breeze was a bit more prominent than we might have expected but we lined up a couple of loungers just above the beach near our place and settled in for some reading and surveying of our surrounds.

Not sure I expected to see this

After lunch and some more being busy doing nothing, we went for a walk to find the supermarket. Mike at least knew which direction to head and we did find it after a hot 40ish minute walk made longer from our numerous deviations for photos and exploring.

An old store on the side of the road

Don't walk under the brown coconuts Mike

I was especially fascinated by the large resort complex abandoned during construction. It has an interesting history and was meant to open as a Hilton in 2009, but I guess that fell through.

Such exertions required rest and refreshments on our return, though Mike also summoned the energy to check out the marine life.

Later on just down the beach from us a wedding took place so we had a bit of a sticky beak at that and lingered to watch the sunset – though that didn’t amount to much.

A good place from which to survey wedding photos and sunsets

The day’s walk and a poor sleep the night before made for a bit of an early one. Discovered this is the place to come if you want to watch reruns of American sitcoms – including The Dukes of Hazzard of all things.