January 10, 2001 Wednesday - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
We landed in Rarotonga early this morning at 7:30AM. The airport was small and situated in a hanger-like structure. Even this early in the morning, I got a blast of warm humid air right off the plane. After going through customs with my luggage, I met up with Diane from the Aremango hostel. I was introduced to Folkert, a guy visiting from Holland and a British couple named Hemmend and Jenni who are also staying at the hostel.
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| AreMango in the morning - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
This was my first hostel experience and it would change the way I travel from this point on. . It was a 15-minute ride through town to Muri Beach, where the hostel's located. The route to the hostel is on the outer loop of the island lined with lush vegetation and flowers. We arrived and Diane checked us into our room, which Folkert and I shared with another American named Nathan.
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| Muri Lagoon in the morning - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
The beach was a short distance away from the hostel. A small green island could be seen from the beach about 100 meters away. I went into the water a little bit and saw a bunch of fish and a few Picasso Triggers. I took a few pictures and then went back to the hostel to catch a bus into town.
I couldn't get any money from the ATM (no PLUS network) at the bank so I had to change my US dollars into NZ dollars at the WestPac Bank. After picking out some groceries we headed back to the hostel. The hostel started to stir with activities and we headed to the beach to have a second look-around.
I went snorkeling for a while and saw a large variety of butterfly fish swimming around the hard corals. Small boxfish, triggers, and porcupine fish can also be seen along with yellow angels and giant blue starfish.
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| Me in Muri Lagoon - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
I went back to the hostel for lunch and then back into the lagoon again for more snorkeling. I saw some branching coral this time filled with hovering damsels. After resting on the beach for a few more hours (it's a hard life), I went back to the hostel and ate some 2-minute noodles for dinner.
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| The sick fish poisoned trio - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
I started to get to know the people there. I found out that Natan's been spear fishing and eating his catch for a whole week. Finally, a few days ago, he speared a big fish and shared it with 3 or 4 other people in the hostel. They all got fish poisioning and were in bed for 3 straight days. They couldn't eat meat for 2 weeks and no sea food for a whole year! We played some games of cards (Gin Rummy and Shithead) before heading to bed.
*Note to other travelers - dorm rooms were about NZ$16.50 a night. Vara's Beach House, which was right next door had better location - right on the beach. I talked to a few people who stayed at Vara's and they said it's fairly disorganized and a little on the dirty / loud side compared to AreMango. I am not affiliated with either hostel.
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