MERRY KIRITIMITI FROM RAROTONGA IN THE COOK ISLANDS

December 22, 2019

The Church employees were supposed to take the week off to begin the holidays. However, instead, it seemed like everyone was trying to work the whole week and dump as much stuff on me to review for next year, on my desk and off theirs.  But I went in early each day and stayed late, and by Dec. 20 Friday noon I had reviewed and returned everything.  I skipped out of the office, went home, and Mom, Gpa Keith and Gma Janet (who had just returned from a cruise and train ride) and I loaded our luggage into our waiting shuttle and went to the airport to catch our 4 pm flight to Rarotonga. (This is to be a working vacation).  Actually the plane was an hour late departing.  Because our 4 hour flight crossed the international dateline, we actually arrived in Avarua, the capital city of the island of Rarotonga and of the country of Cook Islands, the day before, on Thursday Dec.19, at 9 p.m. Carl Hunter, our host at his home Grand View Lodge was there at the tiny airport waiting to pick us up.  It was dark by this time, but we got to see the large colored bulbs/Christmas lights the locals had strung across their  main street, the one road that circles the entire island, about 50 kilometers long. 

Friday morning I awoke early. Not only was our “home” large and spacious, but it was the last house up the side of the mountain with a beautiful view of the lagoon and ocean!  I guess that’s why Carl named his home the “Grand View”. I took an early morning walk down to the beach, and admired the green lagoon water. After a breakfast of oatmeal, we picked up our rental car and drove the loop around the island. It felt like we were in a 3rd world Hawaii.  All the vegetation and mountains looked the same, but it was like going back 70 years in time, small humble homes and lots of little shops and bakeries lining the road. There are only about 17,000 people in the entire country, with about 10,000 living on the island of Rarotonga.  We drove by their Parliament building, it was about the size of Visalia’s city hall with about the same amount of gravamen.  In town we stopped by 2 grocery stores to buy our food supplies for the week.  Supplies in the grocery stores were low because of the storms and rough seas, and thus the supply ship hadn’t been able to get into the harbor this week.  The first store was completely out of eggs and at the 2nd grocery store we bought 2 of the last 3 dozen eggs they had!  Then we drove around town trying to find a little cafe or restaurant for lunch.  Finally we stumbled upon Trader Jack’s, which was right on the beach/harbor area.  It turned out to be quite good, I had a huge fish sandwich which they said was fresh Mahi Mahi caught that morning, and chips.  We drove back to Grand View and unpacked our supplies. We mainly visited and read for the late afternoon and evening, and barbecued hamburgers for dinner.

Saturday morning we had a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, fresh papaya, toast and juice. Then we drove into town to attend the Saturday farmers market.  That was a lot of fun.  It was packed with booths full of local produce, flowers, food vendors, artists, and more.  As we shopped we were stopped by a number of local Church  members who saw our name tags and wanted to visit, some of whom actually gave us free fruit or discounts.  We purchased fresh papayas, pineapple, passion fruit, tomatoes, star fruit, cucumbers, a cd of Cook Island music, and a couple of pieces of artwork from a local artist.  We spent a few hours just walking the outdoor market.  We relaxed in the afternoon then in the evening went out to Te Vara Nui Village for a buffet “luau” and a Polynesian dance show.  They had their own little lake and put on quite the show,  it reminded me of a smaller version of the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It finished around 10 p.m. and we were quickly home again since our house was just down the road from it. 

I should mention that the weather has been rainy and overcast, with a little sunshine.  It is still shirt sleeve weather. But the locals say as soon as the rains leave it will be hot and humid again.  Also, as in Hawaii, there are wild chickens everywhere here in the country, and the roosters like to wake us up. And many plumeria trees, although the locals wear a different white flower (with 6 or 7 pedals) behind an ear, or a full crown of flowers (which I bought one for Mom at the farmers market).

Today was Sunday.  We attended the little branch of the Church just down the road from our house. The members were very welcoming, and were enthusiastic, beautiful singers of the Christmas hymns.  We had a pleasant Sacrament meeting with a Christmas theme, then adjourned to the small cultural hall for food.  The locals had brought an assortment of desserts, rice, noodles and shell fish.  I particularly enjoyed the latter.  We visited for about an hour with the members, then returned to our house with the Atteburys and the K’s, both senior couples serving missions here.  We visited with them some for a while to hear of their mission experiences and to learn more about this funny little country in the middle of the ocean.  Also, today was our 38th wedding anniversary. Since it is Sunday, we’ll celebrate tomorrow night by going out to dinner at supposedly the best restaurant on the island by the ocean with a view of the sunset.

Finally I mention the WiFi situation here.  There is only one provider here, Blue Sky, which thus has a monopoly.  It is not very good service and is quite expensive.  Of course, even though our house was advertised with WiFi, there was none here.  I ended up paying $49 for a SIM card with 300 texts, 30 minutes calling time and 3 gigs of data. I’ve been trying to dole it out, with Mom and Gpa Keith constantly borrowing my phone to check their messages!