Cook Island Adventure the rest

[theshopper3]

Thursday up early as usual, this morning we head to the beach to watch the sunrise over the water, I must admit this is a first for me…. What a beautiful sight.
Back to the villa for the morning coffee on the back deck watching the day come alive & the hoards of chickens running around.

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Now something that we found very strange & have never seen before was chickens up in the trees. We had a few banana tree's in our yard & to our surprise what did we see but these guys up there eating the banana's right off the tree.

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Spent the day relaxing & walking on the beach. We were really looking forward to snorkelling, & I had done a great deal of reading & checking out Trip Advisor from all I read it was supposed to be amazing as there is a reef that goes around the whole Island. Unfortuatley, they have just come out of hurricane season & with the water running off from the mountain, the snorkelling was not nice unless you went way out over the break wall that surrounded the Island. All we really seen was Yucky Sea Cucumbers & a few little fish.

Another beautiful day on the beach.
Larry tried his luck at trying to catch a fish with his hands. A local in Cuba taught him how to do it.

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And he still has it…..LOL

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Back to the villa for dinner & enjoyed the lovely night sounds of the Island.


Friday, the usual morning routine, then took a walk along the beach to the far left of our villa, to check out the area. There are a few small resorts & little villa’s like ours.
Somehow, we happened to stumble on a Black Pearl shop,,,,, not sure how I could have been so lucky…HEHE. Truth be told, I had spotted the 50% off sign on our way back in from town. I had promised our Daughter –In Law a Black Pearl for her birthday & today was her B-Day, so I just have to take look. Black Pearl shopping done, next on the shopping list was a shell I had promised a fellow forumite, found that as well. With the shopping done it was back to the villa & off to the beach for the afternoon.
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We had really wanted to go to an Island show while here & had heard that the one at the Pacific Resort, that was right beside us was very nice. Stopped on our way out on our
walk & they said there was lots of room. Well by the time we made it back they were all booked….. Bummer. Back to the villa to call one that had been listed in the Island info book, they only have it on Tuesday… OH OH
Tried another one & luckily they had plenty of room so we booked it right away. This Venue required taking the bus into town but that was OK. The Island night included the option of a typical Island dinner or order off the menu and the show. Larry being the adventurous person had the Island dinner & I had chicken.
The show was very good, much like a Hawiian show & just over an hour.

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Hopped back on the bus,to the villa. As we had run out of refreshments at the villa we thought we would stop in at the Pacific Resort Barefoot Bar for a night cap. To our surprise they were closed ….. Strange for a Friday night & a big resort, OH Well.

Saturday morning we are off to the local market in town. They sell produce & the usual souvenirs. It was very busy with both locals & tourists. The Island is very strong in keeping with there traditions and have youth groups that learn the local dances. Friday night had been the Miss Raro contest and this morning at the market they had a few of the young ones performing, it was so adorable to 4 & 5 years olds doing the local dances. Unfortunatley my pic’s didn’t turn out of the young ones, only the little older ones, and the winner of the padgent.

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Finished off our shopping & picked up some refreshments for the next few days, back on the bus home.

Hit the beach for the afternoon.
Every Sat there is a sail boat rigota at the sailing club that is a few feet down the beach. What a beautiful sight. A great afternoon at the beach.

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We had made reservations to eat a little restraunt called The Flame Tree, it had received good reviews on TA & was just down the road. A very nice place.
We both had the Ribeye that was real yummy & a lovely bottle of wine.

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Now something that we found very strange & had never seen before was chicken sleeping in the trees at night…. Here is a guy settling in for the night at the restraunt.
We were told they head up in the trees to be safe from the other animals at night. Sure is a strange sight.

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Back at the villa, we see that we have neighbours who are from New Zealand & chat a little with them.

Sunday brings our last full day in Raro, as normal we are up early & decide to get the packing done so we won’t miss any sun time.
Packing done, we enjoy our final morning on the patio, chatting about the time we have spent on this amazing little Island. Off to spend our last day on the beach.

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Our neighbours head onto the beach & they have some kind of wind surfing thing. It took about an hour to get the thing all together before he could even get into the water.
He was having a bit of hard time getting all the lines in place so off Larry & I go to give him a hand.

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It looked cool, but is way too much work for me…..

Since we had eaten all the food we had picked up, we grabbed lunch at a little takeaway just off the beach. They had great sandwichs, other than the Beets they put on them… strange. Rest of the afternoon relaxed & walked the beach.
Back to the takeaway to pick up some dinner to have back at the villa, while star gazing and talking about how fortunate we are to have had the opportunity to experience another adventure.

Monday morning brings a very early wakeup call. Flight # 4 leaves at 7:00 AM & our ride Is coming at 4:45AM. Easy check in at the Raro airport. It is very very small so there is not much to do. We decide to take peek in the duty free shop and joke about how funny it would be if they had Cruzan….. To our surprise & disappointment they had it… Oh so close & yet so far away. Cruzan is Larry’s favourite rum & it is no longer available in Canada so to see it in such an out of the way place & not be able to pick up hurt. Since we are changing planes in Auckland we can not get duty free liqour here. Who would have guessed.

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Great flight to Auckland.

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This is where the days get all mixed up. We had left Raro on Monday at 7:00 am & arrived in Auckland on Tuesday at 10:00am and only had a 4 hr flight….Darn Tropic of Capricorn….
On the flight over, we had been given the custom forms to complete prior to landing. We had been told by our friends that live in OZ & it clearly stated on the forms that it was a criminal offence to not claim everything, including food.
We felt that with going on to OZ & we didn’t want to have any problems we better claim the shells that we had picked up & the food that we brought with us.
As we had a 5 hr layover until our flight to Melbourne, we decided to again leave the airport & explore the area. When we passed thru customs & the girl looked at our form she wanted to see our shells & food that we had indicated on the form. We advised her that everything was in our luggage that was checked thru to Melbourne. She first said we would have to go & get it & when I asked how was I to do that she didn’t know what to say, other than, OH ok then. Whew. Once out of the airport we head off to explore. There really is not much around, but being the shopper I am we did find a little strip mall with a few shops & grocery store about a 10 minute walk. Passed the time checking out the prices of things which all seemed very expensive.
The scenery was very beautiful & we would love to someday spend more time in Auckland.


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Boarded flight # 5 to Melbourne.

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Our final thoughts on Rarotonga, Cook Island, we had a very relaxing week & enjoyed both the people & scenery.It is a pretty little Island. A little to sleepy for us, but we are glad that we had the opportunity to experience it.

On to the Ozzie adventure.

Here is the link to all of the pictures to this point in our trip.

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The Shopper

[California Girl]

Larry tried his luck at trying to catch a fish with his hands. A local in Cuba taught him how to do it.

And he still has it…..LOL

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Loving your report. Too bad all Larry caught was "Mr. Hankey"!
(what IS that, anyway??)

[Nic in KC]

I'm loving your reports. So great to hear about somewhere new. I'm glad you enjoyed your time and some of your pictures are beautiful!

Thanks for sharing!