Cook Islanders are called Cookies, Mon Sep 4, 2006
So here I am, on the home stretch, in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It should be a brilliant time, but the weather is terrible. Its been really windy and hasn't gotten warm at all. It's downright cold today. But I'm making the most of it, and went snorkelling yesterday amid heaps of bright blue fish, crazy blue/orange/red/yellow striped fish, a neon blue starfish, and clams with colorful insides that like to snap fingers off.
I haven't had time to write about my last 3 weeks in NZ, so I'll have to skip that for now and get it down later. Basically, we had a blast going up the North Island, walking on dunes, doing donuts in my car on 90 mile beach in the middle of the night, etc etc. It costs $8 an hour for internet, so this will be only one of two postings from here.
I was also on a mission to go sailing the other day after I saw some kids from the sailing club racing out on the water. I bugged a bunch of people and made myself conspicuous around the sailing club and finally got invited on a little 15-footer manning the jib. We went for about 45 minutes around out into the lagoon and up the beach in the clearest water I've ever seen.
So the wind hasn't been all bad, but it was blowing so hard when we landed that it just about slammed our plane into the tarmac. We were the last flight to get in that night. The rest were diverted to Tahiti (which I wish ours had done because its about 10 degrees warmer there.) I showed up in my room at 11 pm and woke up the unfortunate ladies staying there, but I was excited to learn they were Kiwis! I am still missing New Zealand, so it was good to chat with them for a while, but sadly, they had to get up at 2:30 to catch a flight back to NZ.
The next day I spotted a guy on the beach messing with some equipment and just KNEW he was going kiteboarding. I ran down to chat him up and give him a hand. Another Kiwi!! They're everywhere here. I helped mike get his gear together and helped him launch the huge kite which would drag him across the water. I waded out into the water and stood there for ages, and he finally got the kite up only to have it plummet back to earth and land into palm trees that closely line the beach. He was a bit embarrassed and didn't know how to get it down. Seeing as I'm the problem-solver/engineer, I went into the abandoned house where the tree was next to and swiped a ladder from inside. I used it to climb up to the outside patio right next to the tree and kite, found a steel bar bent like a hook hidden in the rubble, and used it to bring the kite to the roof and down to the patio. Yay! Mike offered to buy me a beer at the bar up the beach, so we met up later and I talked with him and his wife for an hour or so.
It was a Friday night (disco night in rarotonga), so after scrounging up some food (everything here is really expensive), the other backpackers convinced me to go out with them. It was really fun. We had a good mix of people from all over the world and I spent the night chatting up my English roommie, the Swedish schoolteacher, and the Irish girl (such a cute accent, but they talk fast.)
Its cold again today, so I'll grab a scooter and get my Cook Islands license and ride into town and get some groceries. Maybe I'll run around the island a few times just to see the sights. Later!
(Sun Aug 13)
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