Cook Islands - Day 1
We take off from Sydney at 930pm Friday night and land in Raratonga at 7am Friday morning. Yep, the Cook Islands are 20 hours behind Sydney so we get to do Friday twice!
Not a lot of sleep was had on that Jetstar flight, so we're feeling pretty groggy waiting to get through immigration. Our welcome singer on the ukeelali banging out the same sounding song on repeat isn't helping.
But, as soon as we're through it's smooth sailing. Straight into our beat-up 8 seater van and onto the streets. There's effectively one main road that does a loop of the island and we jump on and into the morning traffic. We head to the rental car office to show our licences and keep heading clockwise towards our accommodation. A quick stop for a much needed coffee and then onwards to somewhere that does food. We might have a few hours to kill before our accommodation is ready, so we're in no hurry.
We all order some food and it was all pretty decent. We realise we are right across the road from where we are staying and get a message saying we can check-in.
The place is incredible. Beach-front, via the infinity pool, of course. We have 2 big villas between 7 of us. We get the tour then head straight down to the beach. The place comes with snorkels and kayaks and all the fun stuff we're gonna need.
We layer up with sunscreen and go snorkelling. Our beach front is onto the Muri Lagoon. There is clear, shallow-ish water effectively circling the entire island out to the reef which separates the vast South Pacific from the island. It's larger here at the lagoon with a couple of small islands around. A perfect playground for water activities.
Within 10 minutes we've spotted a turtle and follow it along for a while as it munches on a bit of sea grass. The rest is a bonus from here!
We all have a 30 minute nap before piling back into the Ol' Silver Fern and pray she holds together for a lap of the island.
The main road follows pretty close to the beach the whole way around, so it's just non-stop gorgeous views. The tropical mountain side to our right ain't too bad either. We hit the brakes when we see Raratonga Brewey and stop in for a taste. Not bad, but on we go.
We head back past the airport and then into the mega supermarket for supplies. We stock up on food and booze and putt on back to the accommodation.
Jeff heads out on the kayak to see what he can see as the sun is starting to drop behind mountains. Very therapeutic. A nice deep breath and a great way to take in how special this island in the middle of knowehere is.
A few pina coladas, a few coronas, a bit of aerobie in the yard and some great burgers from the local a few kilometres away and we are all feeling very happy and content.
The boys decide they better use the spa and finish up the night in style. It's bloody hot though, so we had to jump in the pool to cool off. The Swedes are onto something here.
We wrap it up around 9pm and get a decent 11 hours of sleep in.
