We woke early, the Sun rising above the endless Pacific ocean, scattered with puffs of clouds as far as the eye could see. The crew brought round a slightly soggy but undeniably tasty ham and cheese croissant, served with tea, orange juice and a yoghurt.
We landed on Rarotonga – the main land mass in the Cook Islands – one hour late at 0700. The bags took a while to unload and with an 0800 flight to Aitutaki we were getting a little worried. In fact there was no need – the Air Rarotonga flight is primarily there to serve the passengers of our connecting flight and once we were all checked in, we had a brief wait at the thatched bench that served as a waiting room.
The flight north to Aitutaki was short and the tea and coffee served was a nice surprise. On landing at the tiny Aitutaki ‘terminal’ we found noone there to meet us. Laura enquired at the little souvenir stand and the fellow running it was more than happy to both get in touch with our accommodation and book us in to Tupuna’s restaurant for Wednesday.
Not much later, our friendly host Sydney pulled up in his van and drove us to a local supermarket for supplies. We loaded up on bread, sardines, pasta, cheese, eggs, papaya and wine. Yes we were going to live like kings on that desert island!
We then stopped at Sydney’s mother’s office (she is the Minister of Internal Affairs for Aitutaki!) and then down to her house to pick up bananas and mangoes before driving on to his boat for a slow 20 minute chug across to the island of Akaiami.
The lagoon was pure turquoise, the sky pure blue and a turtle popped up his head as we crossed the lagoon – pure picture postcard perfection!
At the beach on Akaiami we were greeted by Sydney’s dad before being walked to the large lodge house. The lodge was huge inside, with two large beds and a big open living area. The kitchen was adequate – not exactly modern but better than you might expect on an island with only two or three houses.
Laura prepped a mango and we showered and freshened up. We learnt our first lesson about mosquitos – I was bitten within minutes of sitting down in the shade outside. These are worse on Akaiami than on the main island, but they were never a problem. Coils burning around the lodge and a few sprays of DEET meant that they never really bothered us again.
Sydney had advised us that the south tip of the island provided the best snorkelling and rather than take the canoe out, we then packed up our swimming things, grabbed the provided snorkelling gear and tramped across the island before following the shore south.
We snorkelled for a bit – spotting blue starfish and lots of other bright fish – before deciding it would be a good idea to pop the flippers on. Unfortunately flippers + 6 inches of water + razor sharp coral + Robert proved a dangerous combination. Falling as I tried to wade in, I found myself with quite a gash on my knee – Laura dismissed… but then the blood started flowing and before long my whole lower leg was covered.
What a great start to our travels! Indeed I am quite the adventurer.
Quick thinking Laura grabbed her sarong and wrapped it around the leg to reduce the bleeding and we began a walk around the west shoreline back up to the lodge. Once there, Laura cleaned up the wound with TCP and closed the wound with a couple of plasters. Thank goodness we were so well prepared for clumsiness! To both of our relief, the bleeding stopped quite quickly and we relaxed to put our sore and swollen feet up for the afternoon – both suffering ‘cankles’ from the effects of the long flight.
We also noticed that Laura had slightly grazed her knee on coral too. So I was not the only eejit. Just the biggest.
After a bit of relaxing, we then launched the two person kayak and attempted to paddle up and down the curve of the beach. Together, we were useless, but individually we managed to get up some speed! The lagoon was perfectly still and clear – like kayaking on a swimming pool.
We then took a walk up the beach before Laura whipped up a pasta dinner and we enjoyed a glass of wine while watching the sun set. We spend a bit of time taking photos and trying to draw with our LED torch (see tomorrow) before Laura headed inside while I played around with trying to take pictures of the beautiful starry sky.
We headed to bed at 2100, long after the Sun had disappeared and found ourselves in complete darkness. The night was filled with plenty of scuffles and shuffles around the lodge, and coconuts falling from the palm trees beyond – I ventured to the loo in the night and spotted a few lizards and cockroaches about the place. I was relieved to climb back under the mosquito net and hide until morning.
