January 13, 2001 Saturday - Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Mike, Sarah, and I got up early today but we managed to miss our bus by a few minutes. A little disappointed, we tried hitchhiking for a while. Mike tried it first for 5 minutes before I tried it and then Sarah. I found out I was doing it all wrong according to Sarah. I was supposed to try to make eye contacts with the driver and look desperate. I tried it again after that but no luck. After a second round through everyone, a Kiwi guy was kind enough to stop and pick us up and drove us into town.
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| Sarah climbing the mountain-o-ficus-roots - Cross Island Track - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
We hiked from the town and went on a paved road for about a mile before we got to the trailhead. While on the road, "Pa" was leading a group of tourists to go for the cross-island hike but they were in a van so they zoomed by us. When we got the trailhead, they were just starting out. We quickly jumped ahead of them and hiked on.
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| Sarah and Mike on top of the mountain-o-ficus-roots - Cross Island Track - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
The trail was beautiful - lined with giant fern trees and moss covered tropical foliage. The trail quickly swung upwards and we climb this hill covered by the roots of the Fichus trees. It was a very interesting hill and I snapped a few pictures while climbing up.
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| The Needle - Cross Island Track - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
The trail was a bit tricky and branched off at a few areas, but we managed to stay on "our" version of the trail. After another very steep climb, we got to the base of the "Needle" where a mother hen and a chick greeted us.
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| Me at a river crossing, dwarfed by the fern - Cross Island Track - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
We hiked a little further to the needle but didn't climb it like other people have. I found out later that I should have because there was a good sweeping view of the island. I got a chance to talk to Mike and Sarah, both individually and as a couple and got to know them a little better.
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| Snail on the trail - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
On the way down on the other side, we scampered through more treacherous trails. Mike refers the whole hike is an adventure, which it is, while Sarah did not like all the river crossings we had to do. I helped her through some of the crossings while Mike just looked on.
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| Waterfall at the end of the Cross Island Track - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
All in all, it was a very interesting hike and the company just makes it more enjoyable. We made it to the waterfall on the other side in about 3.5 hours. There was a bunch of people swimming in the water already but none of us jumped in. We had to spray ourselves with mozzie spray during the hike, but there were just a few at a time, not a swarm like in Hawaii.
We caught the bus back after that and I didn't do much after that except another snorkeling tour of the lagoon. We played cards again and I made fun of the food the Brits were eating - beans on toast and such - a weird diet. They save money by eating 2-minute noodles and beans on toast and they spend the money on beer.
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| Angela and Jack - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
Angela is Diane's daughter who is taking care of the hostel while Diane took a short few weeks of vacation. She and her boyfriend Jack hung out with us and played cards. We played more cards that night and eventually, some people went out while most of us turned in. All in all, it was another wonderful day in the Cooks.
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