January 15, 2001 Monday - Rarotonga / Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Today was my day to fly to Aitutaki and I hated saying goodbye to these people. It felt I've known them for months now but they are leaving my life already. A bunch of them invited me to look them up when I get to their countries.
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| Group lunch before departure - Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
We had a group lunch that afternoon for one last time before everyone headed off in the world again. It was a nice lunch but Sarah kept stealing food off my plate. We snapped some group photos and then we all headed back to the hostel again. I packed up and said good-bye to most of the people there and headed to the airport.
I caught the bus and was dropped off at the airport. The plane to Aitutaki was bigger than I thought with comfortable leather seats and we landed 40 minutes later. It took another 15 minutes for Tetia from Tom's Cottage to pick us up. I got into the van with Urs, a father of 2 from Switzerland traveling to meet up with his family in Brazil.
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| Beach view at Tom's Cottage - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
The airport at Aitutaki was even simpler, with just a huge hut-like open structure as the airport and dirt runway. The road from the airport was unpaved also but the "main road" around the island was mostly paved. We got dropped off at the dark hostel and checked in. I don't know why they keep the hostel so dark. It was a decent place otherwise, with single rooms for only NZ$15-$20 a night.
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| Per and Helena at Tom's Cottage - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
Urs went for a swim right away and I went to the local shop and got some food for the night. There wasn't much of a sunset so I went back in to cook my meal. Helena, a Swedish girl started talking to me and we chatted for a while before her boyfriend Per (pronounced as "Par" in "Parasite") joined us. They are a very nice couple with an inquisitive mind. After dinner, we played card games and chilled.
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