Cook Islands - Rarotonga - do we have to leave??

Well we thought it would go fast and it did – really, really fast. The next 2 weeks flew by and with 2 weeks to go we had to make a list of things we had to do before we left and we only just fitted them all in.

The island of Rarotonga in the Cook islands is a really beautiful place, with great white sandy beaches, lagoons, coral reef and clear blue warm water with a jungle interior with mountains that are quite big for an island of this size – 32kms around it is an under 2 hour cycle ride and the road goes all the way around pretty much one house from the beach if not next to it. It has been warm almost all of the time – it started around 25 degrees and has been over 30 degrees on and off in the last week as their true summer kicks in. We have had very little rain and the water supply here is short. The water temperature has been 23 degrees and is now around 25 degrees. Cyclones only arrive when the water temp is 27 degrees so I think we are save before we leave – fingers crossed!! Also from Saturday at 12 Noon to Monday morning - all shops are closed and most restaurants on Sunday - you cannot buy alcohol on Sunday - so it forced everyone to slow down even further at the weekend, from the normally relaxed Cook islands time.

Life here has revolved around 3 things: 1) The school and the kids friends and parents; 2) the sailing club and its very welcoming crew; and 3) diving and other island activities.

The kids have pretty much enjoyed school from day one and it has really been a treat for them to enjoy it so much. If it wasn’t for the 2 hours of English school work each day after school at 2pm then they would have had an even better time! But the school Api Te Uki Ou has been very welcoming, the teachers very helpful and the other kids very friendly and allowing them all to fit in so well. The headmaster Jason and Mandy, the school manager, were very kind to arrange to let us into the school and have helped all of our kids settle in and mix well.

Sam has been in a year 7&8 school year where he has won pupil of the week; won the national Cook Islands Maths quiz with his Te Uki Ou team for his age group; reef swum; played cricket; Kayaked; Snorkelled; played football for Matavera (means “hot eyes” in English); Learnt a bit of Maori and Maori dancing; played several new sports including “Brandy” and Zumba which is a form of Italian dancing with hockey! He has also learned to sail and progressed into the Gold fleet of fibreglass optimists. A French national sailor was watching the youngsters and said of Sam, “That boy is a bit of natural and could be quite a good sailor one day as long as he keeps his eyes open – as he was hit by the boom!” Still good progress. Sam has made 3 very good friends in Sam Read, Arii and Josieh and all of them have gone around together and sailed a lot whilst Sam has been here. A stupid plan by his Dad to allow them to sleep on an island opposite the house in tents was vetoed but Sam has had a very good time here and does not want to leave!

Toby was moved up to a year 5/6 group so he found it challenging in different subjects but progressed well. Toby also participated in the same sports as Sam above but won the Table Tennis for his age group as well and was impressive on the cricket pitch. Toby also learnt to sail, starting in a 2-man boat with his Dad and then progressing to sailing on his own in a plastic optimist and mastering getting around. Toby has made good friends with Tyler, Liam and Felix. All good kids and great fun. Toby hurt his ankle and so has not played as much football as Sam but has thoroughly enjoyed all the different activities at school and with his friends. Liam and Toby have been especially good at camp fires on the beach and burning coconut leaves and bushes for toasting marshmallows.

Both Sam and Toby have integrated well into school and got on with life/kids in a different school, settling very well into their everyday lives – it has given them confidence they can do it again. We don’t think the China school integration will be as easy as this but this experience has convinced them that they can do it! Toby and Sam also both attended Churches with their friends after Saturday night sleepovers – Toby came back with a box of sweets from the annual special island church service where his mate recited a Maori poem solo! He had hit lucky and all kids got sweets – he likes church on the Cook Islands! The island is very safe and so the kids roam freely around and that has been an aspect they have really enjoyed.

Megan has been at pre-school 8-12noon each day. The teachers have been very friendly and helpful and during the Tsunami warning test where they left the school and walked up the mountain Auntie Tu had to take Megan behind a Banana bush to do a wee!! Megan’s group of friends has continued to expand with Imogen, Chloe, Jade and Mahanna from school. In addition, she met a 7-yr old called Hannah (now known as new Hannah as her best friend in England is now old Hannah) who had a pig called Tallulah and chickens – all very exciting and their parents owned the best lettuce production outfit on the island. After travelling so much Megan was desperate to enjoy the company of little girls again and all the girls have really helped Megan’s happiness in Rarotonga. Megan also went sailing with her Dad for the first time and loved it – especially the leaning out bit – so again more water babe status created!

The house we have had has been brilliant – right on the beach with a pool – one of the most idyllic spots on the island. Looking over the lagoon with 4 mini-islands (called Motu’s) in the Lagoon that you can Kayak, swim or even walk to at low tide. The islands have sandy beaches and fabulous coral and shells all around them. You can walk out over the coral to the reef where the waves break all over the island – with only a few breaks in the reef for boats to get out (4 or 5 breaks I think). We have sailed, snorkelled, swam, windsurfed, kayaked and enjoyed the island beach life. We have not tried to kite surf due to those who did it have their own and no-one rents it out – otherwise we would have had a go. There are no jet skis or motor boats inside the reef as there are coral rocks sticking up all over, which you hit occasionally with sailboats and all the centreboards and rudders are spring loaded here to bounce up and down again – motors sadly don’t do that and so no waterskiing, wakeboarding or ringoing here which was a shame. But it did mean that we did all the other things and Sheena and I ran along the beach occasionally to keep less unfit! The sailing club threw various enjoyable BBQ’s whilst we were here and we really enjoyed the life that centred around the sailing club. Run by 2 brothers, Tony and Peter, the young kids are really lucky to have somewhere so brilliant to learn (the lagoon) with warm water and enthusiastic teachers like them – so thank you to you both for all your help.

Sheena and Ian also decided to do something together and we did our PADI dive certificates. The theory and practical parts etc…. We did it at quite a leisurely pace over a few weeks meeting a range of other divers along the way. Luckily we both passed the theory and completed the 2 swimming pool sessions and 4 seawater dives at between 12 and 18m deep. We had a really good dive teacher in Steve and Greg his partner from Pacific Divers at the end of our road - both were great fun and made it very enjoyable. Taking your mask completely off underwater for 30 seconds while continuing to breathe and then replacing it whilst at 18m deep was probably the hardest task to pass but also pretending to run out of air and do an ascent on an emergency regulator was also interesting. We saw a shark and some great fish in a very clear underwater coral reef including parrotfish, a huge moray eel and a variety of other colourful and big fish. Unfortunately Toby and Sam were too young to do it and actually ended up not having enough time really to do the course. We also were able to do the cross-island walk and visit into the jungle on quad bikes through streams etc… and this was great fun. The deep-sea fishing was not fruitful (one day we’ll catch something!) and we watched the Vaka racing (big canoe with a float balancer/extension on the side) with interest during Vaka week – it was a real island spectacle. We even got a commemorative paddle of our own to take home and put on our games room wall! Although we were hoping to catch the end of the whale season here we did not actually see any ourselves although several humpbacks were seen from school and out at sea whilst we have been here! You can’t be lucky all the time. We took the kids to an Island night at the Highland Paradise cultural centre and we saw Maori history, culture and dancing. Ian was appointed one of 4 “Rautavaara’s” – a leader of one of the groups and had to wear coconut leaves around his neck and dance with a lady Maori for all to see in a competition! Needless to say the Rautavaara who was a groom that day was voted the winner! As Rarotonga is the place where the Maoris set off to discover and habitate NZ (they left just near our house) in just 7 canoes – they made it to NZ and the Cook Islands are where all the NZ Maoris are descended from – the Maoris from these 7 canoes!

Our last few days were very special with the school having their annual event day, Megan had the pre-school Xmas party and we had a small good-bye party for a few of the kids and our friends the night before we left at 1am in the morning.

The school event was actually really well done and very well attended by so many parents considering there are only 170- pupils at the school. Each class group did their own event, play or dance. Megan’s group did Hula dancing, Sam’s group did a traditional Maori dance and Toby’s group did a stick dance – which some (un) lucky parents also had to demonstrate to the audience – Yes Ian & Sheena had to do that!! All of our kids participated and did their bit well so we were very happy but overall the quality and confidence of the kids really shone through and showed how natural many of these kids were on stage. There were a couple of 7 year old girls doing a hula dance for 5 minutes in front of the whole crowd – they were supremely confident – probably cos they were so good.  After the speeches and prize giving for the kids who were leaving we had the “Umu” a traditional way of cooking chicken and pork underground. The teaching staff had been up all night digging the hole and then cooking the food – quite a committed staff! And then we all ate the Umu food for lunch in plates that the lids had made out of weaved coconut leaves – a really traditional way to end an enjoyable day. Megan’s Xmas do also went well – with all the kids having to do pair dances in front of the audience – which luckily Megan did excellently with her boy partner! Then Santa arrived and gave all the students a present each – Megan was very happy but a little confused why Santa was coming in the hot weather!

On our last afternoon we had all the kids back for a swim and a sail; Imogen & Hannah for Megan; Liam, Tyler for Toby and the famous gang of 3 (Josieh, Sam Read & Arii) for Sam. And then we had some of the parents who we had met dropped in for a drink or 2 including Dave and Mandy; Colin and Jan-Marie; Hamish and Jo; Brett and Kim; and Nancy also popped in to say goodbye. Brett was like Sheenas brother Martin – almost a twin brother in looks and mannerisms!! Kim was very like Martins wife Emma and Brett said Sheena was very like his sister!! So not sure if Dad Chisholm ever visited NZ many years ago!! We enjoyed meeting all of these guys and really enjoyed their company and hopefully we will be able to see them again sometime. It is hard for everyone in Rarotonga as the population is pretty transitory. We even met some people who had lived there for less time than we had! But al these guys made our trip in Raro truly memorable and it was great to meet you all.

We have met some lovely people and hopefully made some friends who we all will keep in contact with. As ever, it has been the colourful, fun and friendly people we have all met that has made this visit so memorable - and when you couple this with the beauty, weather and activities we undertook, Rarotonga is one of the best memories of our round the world trip so far. We certainly would love to return to this idyllic island but the key timing of the kids ages and the school will mean we will probably not come back for such a long period for quite a few years – but hopefully we will be able to visit – may be in April 2011 for a holiday. It is interesting that the island seems to work so well with locals and expat NZ’ers living here in pretty good harmony. Many tell us that this is not always the case in the South pacific – so we appreciate the recommendation from the authors of the South Pacific islands books who recommended that Rarotonga in the Cook islands would be a perfect place to visit for us – and they were absolutely right – it has been fabulous, fun and relaxing here and we will all (and now are) be sad to leave/have left. But NZ beckons and Xmas with Ians family who are all flying over to be with our NZ cousins at Lake Rotoiti in the North Island for Xmas – Ian and Sheena have not been back to NZ for 25 years or so and it will be an interesting trip to see the changes……..Good-bye Rarotonga but we hope not Adieu!!

And now we are half way exactly on our RTW trip - only 4 and a half months to go. Although we have moments of wanting to go back home we can't because of the house!! We are still very much enjoying it - but it is still sunny and summer and we are in familiar language and territories. We are all preparing ourselves for a much harder New Year in Asia when we will hit winter for the first time in early Feb in Japan - where it will be cold, unfamiliar and we will be unable to communicate with anyone!! Challenges to look forward to ..........