Rarotonga, Cook Islands

I have been to paradise - at least for a tourist on a beach. Rarotonga is a place of great natural beauty, a laid back pace, and people who have both external and internal beauty.

It was a ride to get there though! Not only was it a tender port, but also the Captain said that because of the depth of the ocean the ship’s anchor could not be used. Instead the ship’s engines would be used all day to keep her in position. There is also a very strong current around Rarotonga. So the ship was moving, the tender was moving and the swells were moving both the ship and the tender. What a job it was for the crew! But they did their work well. As we were riding in the tender to the dock, the ride was getting so wild, the person driving the tender slowed it way down. I have never been in such a wild ride, ever so briefly.

At the dock, there was a local bus waiting to transport us to the Muri Beach Hotel, where we could enjoy the beach and the amenities of the Hotel. The Hotel is on a lagoon that looks like a Hollywood version of a South Pacific beach. The colors of the water in the lagoon are a couple of shades of incredible turquoise blue. The crystal clear water is no deeper than waist high, so it is possible to walk from one side to the other. At one end of the lagoon there is an island that people kayak to. In one small area of the lagoon the waves break over the reef encircling the island. The sand is fine and white on a broad beach. We swam in the lagoon, watching fish swim around the chunks of coral and then lay on the lounges until we were hot again. I think I saw Dory and Nemo in the coral.

Of course I got hungry and Jerry didn’t, so I went to the bar on a lanai near the pool for lunch while he stayed on the beach. I saw people eating fries, but there were both French Fries and Island Fries on the menu and I didn’t know the difference. The bar tender said that the Island Fries were taro root and other local root vegetables, so that is what I ordered. I also saw someone eating fresh coconut, removing chunks of white meat from a shell, so I ordered a coconut. I watched the bar tender whack off the top of the shell and put a straw in it and bring it to me. The coconut was chilled and nothing is more refreshing than fresh chilled coconut water. I liked all of the different Island Fries except for one, which might have been the taro. After drinking the coconut milk, I asked the waiter to open the coconut for me, which he did. Then even though I ate way too much coconut, it didn’t even make a dent in what was there. I cut up lots of coconut, wrapped the pieces in a napkin and shared it with Jerry and our friends on the beach.

At 2:30 we walked out for the return ride on the local bus, which by the way was a homemade wooden box on a chassis. The seats were benches around the perimeter of the box. The driver sat on a bus driver’s seat resting on the floor of the box in front of a well for the pedals. On the ride to the hotel, the gears ground – a lot. So we walked out of the hotel to the bus only to find it broken down. Oh, oh! Last tender was scheduled to leave shore at 4:30.

No problem! There was a van there and they accepted our tickets and drove us back to town. We could have stayed on the bus and ridden a bit further to the tender dock, but we jumped off at the shopping center and walked around. We looked at Paca’s Pearls, the store we heard about from Paca in Papeete, thinking about buying black pearls. We decided against that purchase and walked to the grocery store for quinine water for Jerry. It was a little far to walk to get to the tender dock, but we kept putting one foot in front of the other and there we were. Of course, there were stalls with people selling black pearls, pareos, and other tourist treasures, so after one last browse we got on the tender and rode back to the ship.

There hasn’t been much development on the island -yet. It looks like the people live simple and happy lives. Their tradition is to bury the dead at home in above ground crypts. Someone told us, front yard for the people they like and back yard for the others.

What a fabulous place for a honeymoon! Or a wedding anniversary celebration. Or any other reason you can think of to visit one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen.