Another Visit To The Post Office

Friday 29 December

We were woken this morning by the phone ringing – it could only be Juz – to let us know that she had told Dave about the planned trip to Las Vegas for his 50th birthday (although not all the details) – he was apparently making plans to take her away in the next week or so to Bali – at least he now has a few weeks to look forward to it.

Breakfast was a pressure meal – at least for the staff. When we arrived there was no cold water in the jug, no hot water in the thermos (for teas and coffees), no croissants and the fruit was running low. To add to the chaos the toast machine (it’s another of those machines where you have to put the bread round three or four times to get a slight tan) was moving at “snail pace” and the queue was growing by the minute. The staff just didn’t seem to be able to cope now the hotel was full. Enquiring about the lack of croissants I was told that there would be more soon (island time soon?), and after twenty minutes or so Colin spied a waitress loading the tray with something. By the time I arrived – a minute to walk down the restaurant (?) – all the croissants had been claimed. So, silly me, I asked again if there was going to be more, as there seemed to be many of us still searching. The waitress said she would look into it. I returned to the table and my chamomile tea – Colin by this time was in the long line waiting for toast. Suddenly the waitress appears by my arm and plonks (not quite slams) a large white plate with four croissants in front of me and marches off before I even have time to mutter a “thank you”. They were still hot, so I chose one and took the others back to the serving area, where they were immediately pounced on by three other lucky souls – it was like fish feeding time. (I had obviously had the nerve to suggest that all was not perfect and these people are never happy when that happens.) I did enjoy it, but it was not the most relaxing start to the day.

Last night we decided that we would to go to town again this morning, to ring Juz – but she beat us to it – as well as to post another set of the paperwork back home. We phoned the parents instead and caught up briefly with their news in the six minutes allowed on our last phone card. By the time we got inside the post office it was crowded – all the computers (five – as one was broken) were in use and there was a queue at the counter – was Friday pension day?! Eventually it was our turn we purchased a padded envelope into which we loaded the contents of our carrier bag, filled out the necessary forms. Question: contents? – paperwork. Question: How much? – hundreds of receipts, brochures and little bits of paper that you collect on your way round the world – as you do. Question: what’s it worth? – well zero to everyone else. The man at the desk seemed surprised we were sending a worthless parcel half way round the world at a cost of about 6 GBP (2.2 kgs) – surface mail of course. But it hopefully saves us a few dollars at the airport. We sent a couple of emails to the family with good wishes for New Year, before having a final wander round the shops – the Cook Islands definitely wont be staying in our memories for great shopping.

We decided to celebrate our last day here by having lunch in town – something different from hotel food – and found the only Indian restaurant on the island. Having not had a curry since Surfers Paradise, and still missing Adolf’s delights from Koh Samui, we ventured inside, and collected menus before choosing a seat at one of the picnic benches in the front “garden”. We opted for fairly ordinary selections – chicken saag and chicken korma which both came with rice or a naan (we could share these), but you could also choose how hot you wanted the dishes (I have never heard of a hot chicken korma, but the waiter said they just added chillis!) He also offered us two of his last twelve “Kingfisher” beers – once they have gone, he doesn’t know when the next shipment will arrive! Very privileged. The meal was scrummy - I had chosen to have mine medium to hot – didn’t want to chance ‘hot’ as it might have been ‘vindaloo’ strength – but it was just right – spicy with a bit of hot after taste - it definitely made a change from the bland food we have been eating for the last six weeks or so. We just had time to wander along the sea front, staring out into the Pacific Ocean, realizing there was nothing between here and the Antarctic – just miles and miles of blue rolling sea – before returning to Cooks Point to catch the 14.00 clockwise bus, having one a last look at the far side of the island. I noticed that most of the single storey houses were built in a “village hall” style, just sub-divided into rooms inside. They were mainly made of wood with louvre windows throughout, although some of the very new ones were being built of brick with double glazed pvc panels – so the construction business here must be moving forward. Most of the properties had small cemeteries like we had seen before, but many were now decorated with shell “necklaces” and still more flowers. Several of the houses had small produce stalls at the gate, with small amounts of coconuts, paw paws, tomatoes and vegetables. Lots of trees were coming into blossom – pink and white petals unfolding in the sun – today was another of those perfect blue sky days on the south side of the island.

We arrived back at the hotel and sorted our cases, ready for our 10.00 eviction from our room tomorrow (not a lot of time to pack in the morning), have afternoon tea and blog. They do not offer a complimentary room for those leaving later in the day unless you pay for an extra day’s stay. As we have already paid for a day that we hardly used when we arrived, we felt we didn’t want to pay for another full day for just a few hours. Their alternative suggestion was that we use the shower and toilets near the pool!

We played cards and finished our remaining bottle of wine before changing for dinner – in fact we forgot about yet another Manager’s Cocktail Party and more lethal green brew – the memory is obviously slowing down ‘big time’. There have been two mynah birds who visit us each time we sit on our balcony – chirping away noisily – and who often come and have a peek in the room as well to see what we are up to when we open the doors. They were introduced to the islands to destroy the coconut weevil that attacks the fruit, and have been very successful here. They were also introduced in Thailand, but I don’t think the experiment was so successful there, as they still have the weevils.

Having decided we only needed a snack to eat, I chose porterhouse steak and chips!!!! While Colin, keeping to the concept that we had already eaten a main meal, chose a starter portion of calamari (which turned out to be a huge portion of battered rings and sweet chilli sauce) and banana fritters with ice cream. We will need to do some exercise tomorrow to work off all the extra calories. The film starting as we returned to the room was “The Horse Whisperer” – a favourite of mine – but it’s nearly three hours long, and would not have finished until nearly 01.00. We have planned to get up early tomorrow - Colin had set the alarm for 07.30 - to ensure we had time to finish our packing - so I decided to read my book instead.