Rarotonga. Back to the Future????

So we fly from Fiji to Rarotonga. We fly out of Fiji on the 26th of May but we landed on the day before (25th of May). So am I in the past or the future? Or am in some kind of parallel universe and are there 2 Simons? I'm in Fiji now writing this (the 25th of May) but tomorrow will be the 25th as well and I'll be in another country? It's all to much for me to work out! I wonder if I can put a bet on/

Anyway the flight to Rarotonga took about 3 hours and Jo and I are still feeling a bit groggy from the Kava. once we landed we made our way through customs and got a cab to our apartment at a place called Daydreamer apartments. Daydreamer apartments are really nice and clean. It's owned by a couple who do all those nice little touches, like filling the fridge and making sure that everything's working ok. This is one of the cheapest apartments to stay on the island and is really nice which makes me think what the others must be like for more money.

Here we were entertained by traditional Cook Island dances and music which was jaw droppingly impressive. All the dancing and music was full on, high energy!

The cab took us along the main coast road which goes the whole way round the island. This place is tiny and we can drive round the whole island in about an 30 minutes. The island of Rarotonga is only 22 miles (35 km) around and Jo and I managed to cycle it in about an hour one day. it pays to shop around when hiring stuff like bikes, snorkal gear, kayaks etc as the prices vary a lot.

One of the islands most well known characters is a bloke called Piri. Out of interest I did a google search and came up with 838 references to him. Everyone on the island knows him. For $59 we got to watch him do a show where him literally hops up a 70 foot coconut tree in about 10 seconds. While he was up there he does a few ariel acrobatics before showing us how to start a fire, using just a bit of coconut and 2 bits of wood. On the following day Piri took us on a guided bush walk across the island. I've been on "bush walks" before in Oz that were very sanitised and were nothing more than a walk in a park. This is a trek through real jungle and not to be attempted by those who are not fit or out of shape. There were a number of occasions where Jo and I were on all 4s crawling through the bush or up and down hills. Piri told us that when people have turned up to do the cross island trek he's took one look at some people and told them 'no. You can't come. You will not be able to make it.' The views of the island were truely beautiful and I felt that I was one of the early explorers seeing the tropical paradise for the first time.

One of the evenings we were enertained by the owners of the apartments we were staying at by Nga and Bruce putting on a barbeque for us. We shared some food with the guys and spent the night chatting with them. It turns out that Nga's dad was the Queens representive in the Cook Islands.

Another absolute MUST is the Island Nights that are run at various venues around the island. The one we opted for was at a place called The Staircase. Here we were entertained by traditional Cook Island dances and music which was jaw droppingly impressive. All the dancing and music was full on, high energy!The Staircase is a smaller joint then some of the hotels but that's better I think. It's also locally owned so the money all goes to the Cook Islanders (rather than some international leech). The food was crap though to be honest and I wouldn't eat there again. We were so impressed with the island night that we went to see another one.

A week is quite long enough to spend in Rarotonga though. As the island's so small by the end of a week we had done pretty much everything.