January 18, 2001 Thursday - Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Today was the lagoon cruise. I got up early and got picked up along with Urs and Folkert after 9:15. We also picked up an older native woman with fine smile wrinkles who greeted us and we learned that her son has been camping out on an island with his British girlfriend. She's making a surprise visit and she had some cooking oil and a large ripe breadfruit that she will be frying for them because she said it's his favorite. It's so refreshing and nice to see simple, yet heart warming love between people like this.
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| One of the many sites during the Lagoon Cruise - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
We were driven to a small wharf and boarded a small orange boat. The boat then took us to a sand bank with a deep drop-off where there were giant clams and large reefs in deep crystal clear water. The drop-off was at least 20 to 30 feet deep but I floated effortlessly without any floatation device. It must be what being in Space is like - the reef was full of life with numerous hard corals and swarms of bright damsels hovering over them.
Giant clams with bright neon coloured openings sucked water in and out in a rhythmic pace. Small pipefish slither in and out of the seaweeds looking for crustaceans to feast on. Everyone was waiting for me on the boat after I lost myself in the turquoise water for a while, and we headed to our next destination.
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| Happy bunch eating lunch - Dave is 3rd from the left - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
We headed to an island after that and headed toward two people snorkeling in the shallows. A big beefy native guy with dreadlocks came up to the boat and the woman in the boat broke into a big smile and hugged him with tears. She continued to caress his arms and looked very happy and relieved to finally see her son safe and sound. We were told later that her two sons once paddled to this island on their own when they were about 13 and stayed overnight without telling their parents. The parents panicked but were assured by the local fisherman, who spotted the kids, that they were fine.
We went off to snorkel again while Dave, the tour owner / boat driver prepared lunch for us. The shallow lagoon surrounding the island provided a slightly different variety of critters in the water. I saw a few Morays and even spotted a rare anemone with some harlequin anemone shrimps on them. I'm not sure why there are not many anemones and sponges around the waters of Cook Islands.
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| From left: Urs, Folkert and I eating our lunch - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
We returned from our snorkel to find a very scrumptious bar-b-q lunch. We were served fresh grilled Wahoo, sausages, Kumara, awesome Papaya salad, curried potato salad, and grilled bananas in a leaf bow made fresh from the palm leaves. It was one of the best meals I've ever had.
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| Our delicious lunch - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
The woman and her family enjoyed their own bar-b-q meal with fish freshly caught by her son. After lunch, Dave walked us to a nest site on the island where the Longtails were nesting. I've never seen one this close before - and with twin red feather. I've only seen them flying up high in the Bermuda skies so this was a new experience.
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| A nesting longtail - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
After lunch and dozing off under the shades of palm trees and listening to the waves lapping softly against the coral shore, we headed off again to another drop-off where we snorkeled some more. We headed to another island with some great views and Dave pulled up to a spot to moor his boat. I'm guessing there's only one mooring spot on this particular tiny island and there was a couple in the water already.
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| Urs and Me - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
We pulled up and started getting off and the old guy said, "do you have to park your boat right at this spot?" Dave didn't detect the annoyance in the guy's voice and said, "Yes, this is a fine spot" and the old guy said "Well, it's not OK with me - we were told that we could spend the day on a deserted island and there won't be anybody here..." and he continued to whine and babble, and judging by his accent, he was either an American or a Canadian. We found out later that they're Americans from California.
Dave got annoyed by his whines and complaints and said, "This is my country and I was born here - you don't tell me where I can and cannot park my boat". I was quite amused by the exchange. We only spent 5 minutes there anyway; taking some pictures and continued onto the next island. We stopped by another island where fish swam in the shallows and crabs could be seen darting in and out of the tidal pools.
Dave told us that this is the island where they filmed the British version of the show "Survivor" - I think the British version was called "Castaway". He said that the Brits were complaining that they couldn't catch a single fish but I saw plenty of fish in the water. Either the Brits were pissed or they weren't as cleaver as I thought. (Heh-heh).
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| Me and my lovely pair of coconuts - Aitutaki, Cook Islands |
We finally stopped by One Foot Island, which also had the beautiful lush scenery as the other islands. Dave proceeded to climb the coconut trees and cut us some fresh coconut juice to drink. We left the island after our drinks and headed back to the main island of Aitutaki. The turquoise water shimmered behind the boat as I bid farewell to this fantastic spot on earth.
This tour is better than the other ones because we were pretty much by ourselves the entire time. The other tour operators visit the same islands together but at a different time as us so we didn't see them at all except in the far distance.
We got back and I hung out with Per and Helena for a while and then went to an Island Night with food at the Crusher Bar. They basically make you wait for like 2 hours before they serve the food but they served this good salty peppered grilled coconut meat for you to munch on in the mean time.
I had 2 small glass of water which cost me $NZ 3.50 as I found out later. The food was mediocre and the dancing was amateurish so I would recommend it at the $26 price. I went back after that and talked to Per and Helena for a while before turning into bed.
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