Two Days For The Price Of One

Tuesday 19 December
Part Two

The flight to Rarotonga was very bumpy in places – all those winds and rain from Auckland buffeting the skies – and we were advised to keep our seat belts on all the way – and even instructed not to get out of our seats at one point.

As we descended from 37,000 feet, the captain informed us that the time was now 02.30 on Tuesday 19 December – 19 hours before we took off in the plane! So we are now ten hours behind those in England instead of thirteen hours in front! It’s a bit like a time warp – and feels quite confusing. They opened doors at both the front and the rear of the plane to disgorge the passengers – not wanting it to take hours in the middle of the night. Rarotonga is another countrified airport – with a thatched hut to pass through for passport control where you have to declare that you have no food, nuts, seeds or plants in your luggage – I had already binned my pumpkin seeds just in case. As we walked out, the air was warm – even though it was three o’clock in the morning. The forecourt was teaming with Polynesians meeting and greeting those coming off the plane – it was like a large family get together, all wearing jasmine garlands round their necks or on their heads. The air smelt strongly of the floral fragrance.

Each hotel had a desk to report to, and we too were given a garland each before boarding the minibus waiting to take us to our hotel. We made calls at other hotels nearer the airport on the way. The reception areas at these hotels were thatched open-sided buildings – looking quite temporary – and the guests were almost immediately whisked off in golf buggies. Mmmmm – not quite what I had expected. The blurbs enticing you to visit the Cook Islands, make it sound like modern glitzy hotels on white sandy beaches – paradise islands. We arrived at our hotel, and the Reception was in a proper building – no doors at the front – but it is warm here even at night – about 24 degrees C when we landed – but a proper desk and staff waiting to allocate us our room – there were about a dozen of us – a couple of families and two couples. We were all given a fruit punch to drink, before being given room our keys - room 520 for us. We had booked a garden room – well the block when we found it was in a garden I think – it was very dark and difficult enough to follow the paths – but the outside of the building looked like a large dark concrete brick, two stories high - and we were on the ground floor. A cell block with doors in dark porches sunk into the building with lighted scallop shells to show you the room number.

Opening our door we were faced with a small room, painted in garish turquoise, yellow and brown (I later realize that these are the colours the Polynesian people like) with twin beds (we had asked for a double) that didn’t actually fit on the wall they were placed against – half of the head of one hung over the end of the wall into an alcove. A table and two chairs were squashed in by the picture window, touching the bed. A large wooden protrusion cut off part of the room near the door – this formed part of the bathroom – no door – containing a wash/hand basin and a large mirror. Through a door behind was the loo and a large shower base with an uneven floor – presumably to encourage the water to drain away – this was also described as a bath – the front side is no more than six inches high – and this whole room was tiled in mini mosaic tiles in all shades of turquoise. Not exactly what I had been expecting – this made the bungalows at Smile on Koh Samui seem very luxurious – and I was not happy. We traipsed back to Reception – finding our way in the dark was quite an achievement - and Colin, being more diplomatic than me, explained that we had asked for a double bed. It took a little while, but they found another room, where we could stay for the eleven days we are here – No 505 – one block closer to the main building. Sure enough this room has a huge queen-size bed (6ft wide or more), which still hangs over the end of the wall! But the rest is the same. By this time it is nearly 05.30, so we decide to sleep on it and have a look round later.

We slept through till 10.30 – thereby missing breakfast which finishes promptly at 10.00. It was definitely time to explore the resort a little more. We are surrounded by gardens, and our balcony has loungers out on a strip of grass facing ferns, coral bougainvillea, banana trees with bunches of bananas ripening, and lots of bellbine – I know how hard it is to get rid of that weed! Covered walkways took us to other blocks like ours, and even those facing the beach looked the same, just a different view. The bay is a long sandy lagoon, with large waves breaking in a frill of white foam about 50 metres out. The water was pale turquoise and very clear, and when we reached the verandah of the restaurants, we could look over and see loads of fish – sliver, blue and grey, all different shapes and sizes – swimming in shoals in the shallows. There seems to be a constant breeze here (sometimes getting to wind strength), which blows through the palm trees, making a soft whirring sound – very calming. There is just one boomerang shaped swimming pool, with a few loungers around, but there seems to be a wide range of optional activities to choose from – snorkeling, kayaking, tennis, table tennis, pool, diving, making hats and dyeing sarongs. We had not seen any accommodation that looked a lot different to ours – there is a honeymoon suite here with a private pool, but you have to provide wedding documentation to book it! - so we decided to stay in our little enclave. As you enter into the relaxed spirit of the island, everything seems better.

We tried to connect the Thai Shite to the Wifi connection here, without success and the mobile phones don’t work either, so we may be incommunicado for the next ten days. After having some lunch – Colin was starving by this time – we sat around the pool and I blogged (I am desperately trying to catch up on the last few days entries) and Colin listened to his book on his MP4 – so relaxed he fell asleep. The time whizzed by and it seemed only a short while before we needed to prepare ourselves for the manager’s cocktail party at 17.30.

We showered and changed – but needn’t have bothered, as most people turned up in their shorts or swimmers – and were offered a bright green garish liquid, ladled out of a wooden boat, or a pinky/orange drink, along with spring rolls (Colin has had withdrawal symptoms for these since leaving Thailand) and samosas. The difference in the drinks was that the green one was heavily laced with alcohol and the other was purely a fruit juice mix. Needless to say we had several green concoctions each – I think the alcohol was rum – and were glad of the nibbles to keep us sober. We met an older Irish couple who were traveling to the US later tonight, but who had been traveling since September, in much the same way as us. There were not many people at this party – and, in fact, the hotel is not very full – quite a few Australian families taking advantage of an early start to their summer holidays, a few New Zealanders and a couple of Asian families (but I think they probably came from Australia or New Zealand too). We seem to be the only Brits.

We had another reconnoitre around the hotel before dinner. Every night there is a themed buffet in the main restaurant – tonight it was fire dancers, with standard buffet fare – but we have eaten so many buffets in the last few weeks, we decided to visit “Captain Andy’s”, their á la carte dinery where we both chose the yellow fin tuna. This was a huge steak of fish with a caramelized lemon crust, perched on top of roasted vegetables. We were glad we had skipped entrées and even declined desserts. Although not late in finishing our meal, lack of sleep from yesterday (or is that today) meant we were tired. There is a good range of films shown on the television in the room – about nine or ten to suit all tastes – but we were even too tired to watch one of these. Our bed beckoned.