jetjunkies

February 3, 2018

Made arrangements to get to the airport to pick up John. He arrived from San Diego through Tahiti. Amazing it’s only a 2 hour time different after flying for 8 hours. Since we had to catch the clockwise bus that only comes once an hour, we decided to get to the airport early and have a late lunch. Walking around the airport neighborhood, we found the old historic Nikao cemetery right on the water. Tourists, foreigners, and WWI “Anzacs” (Australian and New Zealand) from the Cook Islands are interred.

It was so good to see John’s smiling face at the airport. We had arranged through Sonny at the Aroko Bungalows to have Kiki pick us all up in his taxi and transport us back.  We stopped at a store, so John would have water and juice the next morning. We had enough banana bread left so he wouldn’t go hungry. It is a walk to everything, groceries, restaurants, etc.  We are fortunate to be in the area of Muri Beach, which has a little commercial area. On our bus rides around the island we have noticed the many of the Bungalows, Hotels and Resorts have very few options for groceries or restaurants. 

Not much to report for the rest of our day….long naps and a stroll to a delicious dinner at the Rickshaw restaurant. The food has been with one exception very good in Rarotonga. We walked home in the dark, using my iPhone flashlight to see and let cars know we were along side the road.  

February 4, 2018

We were all up fairly early today, had a lazy morning and decided to catch the 10:13 am bus to Tikioki beach. We have been told that it is one of the better snorkeling beaches. 

As it’s Sunday, the bus is only running Clockwise and until 4 pm. There is no liquor sold in the little groceries and all the stores are closed. There are some energy stations open, grocery stores and the Night Market. We saw some lovely ladies in their Sunday best on scooters headed for church. Many of the men were dressed in white suits, like the two gentlemen entering the church below.

We had a great time at the beach and found an outdoor shower to wash the salt water off down the road behind a cemetery. It was up in the air as to whether the bus was going to show up. After examining the fine print on our bus schedules, it appeared on Sundays they didn’t run from 12 to 2 pm. We are dealing with the bus, because driving  on the island means obtaining a local drivers license, taking a test and purchasing the license. Just doesn’t seem worth the bother. Besides we are on island time….there is no urgency to get anywhere, except to the airport for flights and then there is taxi service.

`

This odd fish was about 14″ long and just kept circling me getting quite close and checking me out the whole time.  His buddies were behaving like normal fish, but this guy was definitely curious. 

I was looking in a coral hole when I saw something moving. At first I thought it was a piece of waving seaweed, but it was moving around a lot and seemed to be black and white.  It was very hard to get a picture with it never coming out into the light. I’ve been on the internet trying to figure out what it is, but haven’t had any luck.

Ok, enough with the fish. They fascinate me, but I know they’re not on everyone’s hit list.  

One of the highlights of the day was that the bus schedule was out of date and the bus did arrive only 10 minutes late.  We headed into town and stocked up on snacks at the energy station. We lucked out, our bus driver took a 1 hour break, so we had time. I couldn’t figure out how come they had such large containers of everything, then I noticed the Kirkland Brand. They must order on line from Costco.  

Onward towards home and a nice nap. Then a walk down to the Night Market for more fantastic local food.  I had mixed shrimp, mussels, fish and squid in coconut milk on rice with mushroom gravy.  I know it sounds weird, but it was sooooo good.  

Headed back with a store stop for breakfast supplies and was amazed that they had Almond/Coconut milk…..hallelujah! No more nasty powdered creamer floating around on my morning coffee. 

Here’s our extremely laid back and wonderful friend John. We stopped at a beach side bar on our way home, since it was the only way we were going to get a glass of wine today.