Kia Orana

Hello in Cook island Maori

We flew to the Cook islands from LA on Sunday 9th November. We landed on Rarotonga after an 9 and half hour flight. There are 15 islands making up the Cook islands and Rarotonga is part of the southern group and home to more than half the groups population. This is where the country's seat of government is also.  The Pacific islanders as the local  people are known as speak Cook islands Maori and English as well. They are extremely friendly people and always seem to have a smile. We have stayed in a lovely modern self contained apartment. Our hosts were Andrew and Melinda and they have 3 children. Andrew collected us on the morning we arrived at 6 am looking shattered after a night flight, but we were greeted wih a garland of flowers for each of us. This is a tradition of the islands. The island was extremely hot even at that time in the morning, it is a very beautiful island though having mountains covered in greenery and lovely tropical flowers and trees everywhere. Most of the women and some of the men have a fresh flower in their hair. Andrew took us to the apartment where we soon settled in, nipping to the local supermarket later for supplies. Its always nice to have a nose around a supermarket in another country. We stocked up on fresh fruits as these were lovely and sweet.

We decided to hire a car and the first thing you have to do is go to the local police station and get a Cook islands driving licence. You can not hire a car or a scooter without one. It is credit card size and comes with your photo and is valid for a year.  We toured the island, which is only 32km around in total, Rarotonga has a beautiful lagoon that is sheltered by the reef that encircles the island. The beaches were gorgeous, palm trees, powder white sand and pure blue sea. They were also nearly deserted and each day we only had to share with one or two people at the most. This area was excellent for snokrling as there was coral and tropical bright fish. Emilia and I had a go at snorkling, Emilia was fine and managed really well, I on the other hand obviously had a faulty snorkel.

The Cook islands keep many of their traditional heritage and culture alive. Their traditional arts and crafts are regularly used, woven mats, fans and baskets. Embroidered quilts and floral art. Woodcarving is big and they still carve their traditional canoes called Vakas. The islands are also known for their black pearls. These are from the island called Manihiki which has a 4km lagoon. They make jewellery with the pearls and also from the shells that they come from. These carve quite exquisite designs.

We left Rarotonga after a lovely realaxing week, noboby is in a hurry, so its a lovely place to get away from it all.