Rarotonga, Cook Islands

August 23- September 7
We arrived in the beautiful Cook Islands after a great 4 hour flight with Air New Zealand. The interesting part is that we flew out on Friday Aug 24 and after only flying 4 hours we landed on Thursday Aug 23, due to the International Date Line. This was a little confusing for booking hotels as we really had to double check our arrival and departure dates.  Rarotonga is a beautiful and laid back island. It’s like Hawaii without the tourist traps. There is one major highway that runs around the whole circumference of the island and you’re only ever 10m from the coast. They have a clockwise and counter-clockwise bus that operates around the island on the hour and half hour and that is usually how we got around. It is also very popular to rent scooters/ motor bikes here and Neal got his Cook Islands driver’s license just in case we wanted to be typical tourists and do just that. We arrived just before the International Pacific Forum that was attended by Hillary Clinton, so needless to say the island was very busy and renting anything was a challenge so we opted for the bus and walking instead. There is an annual race in Rarotonga that is a 36km run around the entire island on the major highway.

Accommodation: Kura’s Kabanas (Located on the northern end of Muri Lagoon) http://www.kkabanas.co.ck/
We heard about Kura's through a friend of ours that has stayed here for the last 5 years. Everything about Kura's was more than we expected. The location on Muri beach is fantastic! The lagoon is very child friendly as the water is calm and usually comes up to your thighs at high tide. Kura's is a 15mins drive from Avarua (main town). The bus stops directly outside Kura's so it is easy to get around. There are plenty of nice restaurants and cafe's within walking distance and a small supermarket to pick up the basics 100m down the road. We stayed in Kabana #3 and had a beautiful view off our balcony and were 10m from the beach. There is a lot of privacy as there are only 4 kabanas in total and they are offset so you can't see any of your neighbours when you are eating dinner. The staff is so friendly! Robin & Kura go out of their way to make sure you have an enjoyable stay and the cleaning staff is exemplary. Our room was always so clean and they loved to chat with you and give you information from a local perspective. There is everything you might need in the kitchen and the BBQ area on the beach was utilized often. This is the place if you want quiet relaxation and no busy resort crowds to fight for loungers with. We would definitely come back here again and recommend it to our family and friends. Room Tip: Kabana #4 is closest to the beach. All are great but try to get #3 or 4 if you can.

Diving: Dive Rarotonga
www.diverarotonga.com
We had two days of two-tank dives with Dive Rarotonga. Ed and Karen (owners) were fantastic and very accommodating with our bookings. We also enjoyed our time out on the boat with Ben and Paul. The marine life on the North side of Rarotonga is world class and thriving. We dove just outside the harbour, and were blown away by the health of the coral and the amount of fish there. We also found a giant Wrasse (1.5m at least) and a large white tip reef shark. We definitely recommend diving on the north side of the island versus the south. The interesting part is that Rarotonga has 75% surrounded by reef and therefore the boats have to use a few channels/ openings in the reef to get out and it has to be timed right with the swells. We heard horror stories about boats not paying attention and getting stuck/ sunk on the reefs. Diving here was very impressive and the visibility under water can be up to 30m!!

Attractions:
Te Vara Nui Village
Te Vara Nui Village is the Cultural Centre of the Cook Islands and we attended an Over-Water Night Show and Island/Western fusion buffet dining experience on floating and fixed stages set in botanical gardens surrounded by rock gardens and waterfalls. Overall the food was good but not as big of a selection, especially of fresh fish/ Sushi as I had hoped for. The show was great with very talented musicians and dancers. It's a one-time tourist thing to do, like a luau in Hawaii. We more than likely wouldn't go again if we came back.





Te Rua Manga (The Needle)
This tall, rocky pinnacle can be spotted from several locations on the island and is a favorite challenge for those who enjoy a good climb. This was the last hike we will be doing for a while. Do this walk north to south. The terrain is challenging, and you need to be quite fit and agile to complete it. Some parts are very steep and you use the tree roots like a ladder, or steps, to climb up. There are also several areas where you use ropes to climb down very steep slopes.

The needle has a great view, and there was an additional portion to the hike where you can climb the needle but you would have to be insane to try to take that challenge on!
The descent to the south side of the island is longer and further than the way up and other tracks join it, hence why you should go north to south (you can take the wrong track if you come the other way).

Took us about 4 hours and we did it without a guide and managed just fine. The most humbling experience was that the guided group behind us had about 12 people in it; the group included 4 boys under the age of 10. Neal and I were all prepped with our hiking boots, bottles of water, bug spray and snacks and thought at the beginning of the climb that those poor kids weren’t going to be able to complete the climb. The kids’ footwear was anything from flip flops to bare feet. They flew up the mountain and came down like it was no problem. We had done a lot of hiking throughout New Zealand and that was definitely one of the most challenging hikes we had completed.

Captain Moko's Fishing Charters
Neal decided to have a Man Day and took off for 6 hours with Captain Moko to have a true fishing experience! Captain Moko is a mad passionate fisherman himself, with more years experience than he will care to admit to. His boat, Tangaroa, is a NZ Osprey and Neal was hoping to bring home some yellow fin/mahi-mahi/Wahoo/marlin on his first fishing trip ever! Neal managed to reel in a large yellow fin tuna. I met him after he got back and took some photos of Neal with his trophy fish. There were 8 people on the fishing charter and they all spit the 2 mahi-mahi and tuna that was caught. We ate very well for a few nights!
Captain Moko’s wife Jill runs the Mooring Café and we had a few really good lunches with literally fresh of the boat fish.

RAROTOURS Friday Night Pub Crawl
We paid our $35/each and joined the infamous Friday night pub crawl. The party bus picks you up around 730pm and takes to 5-6 of the Islands infamous bars/ night clubs. We started at the Coco putt (mini golf course) for our first drink and then carried on the Crown Beach Resort. We were then taken into Avarua where we stopped for drinks at Trader Jack’s, WHATEVER bar and grill, Banana Court and Rehab. We met a lovely couple from Rotorua in NZ and the four of us somehow managed to outlast everyone else on the bus, since the clubs close at 2am that wasn’t nearly as late as we had been staying up in New Zealand!


Saturday Market
On Saturday mornings from 6am-1pm you can go to Avarua and visit the market. There are several food stands and lots of fresh fruits, veggies, crafts and souvenirs to browse through and buy. It is a very bust market and cultural performances and music on the main stage. We dragged ourselves out of bed following the pub crawl and made it here.

Touch the Belly

We were told one the of things we had to make sure we did was go to the airport and “touch the belly” of the 737 Air New Zealand Jet that arrives every afternoon around 4pm. There were approximately 20 tourists there doing the same thing. The start of the runway is 10m from the ocean so people stand on the sidewalk as the jet soars literally over their heads and you can almost touch the belly of the plane. Neal got some great photos and I took the video. This is also supposed to be spectacular at night but we didn’t get a chance to make it back.

We met a wonderful couple Dion and Jennifer and their 2 adorable kids Ruby (5) and Ollie (3), whom we shared a few BBQ nights, a couple milkshakes and some beach walks with. They are from Wellington, NZ and their company was lovely.

 Our other companions on the island were the stray dogs that wander the beach and join you for your walks, runs or swims. The Dogs don’t usually go across the lagoon to islands unless they see people going across and then they will follow you and then go fishing. The dogs were lovely and very friendly. We also ended up having a Cat and her kitten living under our deck and would come visit us on our balcony for breakfast and dinner. I am not a cat person at all but the kitten won me over and would come snuggle on our laps while we were reading our kindles. Our other unwelcome neighbors were the crabs with their huge ankle breaking holes in the lawn and the roosters and would cock-a-doodle-do at anytime day or night. That took a little getting used to.

The remainder of our time was spent getting some much needed sun, kayaking and exploring the Motu’s (Oneroa & Koromiri) across the lagoon, snorkeling and enjoying happy hour drinks.
We ate really good food at several restaurants. The grocery stores were ridiculously expensive (Red capsicums (peppers) were $23/kg! Milk was $8/ 1L and yogurt was $12 for 1kg container) so we bought as cheap of food as we could and ate breakfast and lunch mostly at home. Thanks to the delicious fish Neal caught we had some great BBQ dinners and the rest of the time we ate out. Just like most holiday islands they recommend drinking bottled water, which was advice we stuck to.

And that ladies and gentleman was our trip to the beautiful Cook Islands! I hope you enjoyed our summary and use these tips when you plan to visit Rarotonga in the future!!

We are now on to start our Melbourne Adventure and most importantly start working!!

Love
Laura & Neal

Coromandel Peninsula and The Final Leg Of Our NZ Adventure

Sorry that this is a little late. We have 90% secured work and the job hunt is coming to an end. Sorry to have ignored the blog for a while. We promise to get you all caught up soon!!

Aug 18-24/12
We spent 3 days in the Coromandel Peninsula which is a stunning place filled with bays and beaches. This is definitely similar to ‘The Hamptons’ of New York without the “snobby & elite” type atmosphere.  It is a laid back place with a lot of stunning beach front houses. We spent 2 days in the town of Coromandel. There isn't actually a whole lot to do here. Looking at the map I thought it was right on the water and we could do lots of kayaking and try some stand up paddle boards. However, Coromandel is quite a bit inland and sits on a marsh. So we didn't get up to as much as we planned. To be honest, since it was the last 3 days of our adventure and we were nearing the 50 day mark of sleeping in a camper van, we were both feeling quite done with the camper and doing hikes. The weather also wasn't very cooperative so we relaxed and watched The All Blacks take on the Aussies in a nearby pub. We are slowly but surely learning the rules of Rugby (mostly thanks to Wikipedia!)
We made our way across the winding roads along the coast and across the peninsula and made a few stops along the way. First stop was Cook’s beach, just to say I was there. Next stop was a 45min hike down to Cathedral Cove which is a stunning beach in the middle of the Cathedral Cove marine reserve. It was really beautiful down there and the hike was well worth it.

We then ventured to the famous tourist trap “Hot Water Beach.” This is a small piece of the beach that has a hot spring coming up from the sand and draining into the ocean. You can dig 5m down and reach 50-degree temperatures. We arrived with our tourist spade in hand to dig our own little hot pool. You can only do this at low tide and when we got to the right spot on the beach it was packed with people. At this point traveling in New Zealand in the middle of “winter” has left us a little spoiled since we haven’t had to deal with any crowds anywhere; so needless to say we weren't in a sharing mood. We tried to work around the crowds but anywhere Neal dug a hole all we could find was cold ocean water. After 3 holes with no luck we just found a warm spot and wiggled our feet down into the sand, where we were was actually really hot and we stayed there for about 2 seconds before our feet felt burning. At this point Neal and I just shrugged our shoulders and said “Been there, done that” and left to get some lunch and drinks.
After our stint in the Coromandel we headed back to Hamilton for one last visit with Vaughn, Maxine & Nicole. We really got to experience farm life as Vaughn took us around for the morning and we got to see 3 calves being delivered. Needless to say it isn't a whole lot different from human births; you do what you have to get the calf out (as you will see in Neal’s detailed photos below!) We packed up our camper and collected our suitcases they were holding on to for us and left for Auckland to return our camper van  We truly appreciated having a home away from home in Hamilton.
We spent 2 nights in Auckland running errands and seeing some of the “family” members of Jeff & Jess.  Now we head off to another adventure in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands!! We are very ready for warm beaches and cold drinks!!