I don't even know where to begin to sum up the past 6 days. Wonderful? Awesome? Experience of a lifetime? You tell me.
On Saturday we flew to Rarotonga from Auckland, but since we crossed the international dateline we went back 22 hours and got to Rarotonga about 1am on Saturday morning. We unboarded (?) the plane onto the ground, where we were immediately greeted with warmth, excessive humidity, and women standing wearing flowers around their necks and heads in eis. (leis). We got in big vans to the hotel and after being assigned rooms (they were trying to mix up with Christchurch and Auckland people, and there were 3 people to a room) and staying up until about 4am talking to the girl from Christchurch that was in my room with Nicole and I, I finally went to bed.
I've never traveled so far back in time before. Saturday, a repeat Saturday of the day before, was a very different day for me. First we went to the market which was so cool. It was extremely colorful, as there were tons of food, clothing, and accessories for sale, while in the background there was Cook Island singing and dancing from a wide range of talent and age. The roosters running around the market were surprising at first too, but after a while I got used to them. I finally caved and bought myself a dress along with goodies such as starfruit, a bagel with pesto, a papaya smoothie, and a chicken kebab. I was really tempted to buy a coconut bra but I wasn't sure where I would wear it ever, and if I did, if it would be culturally.. insensitive? wrong? to wear it as an American. Like, trying to be a Cook Islander but clearly not. So I took a picture of where they were selling them instead.
After the market we went to a house where we dyed our own pareus (sarongs), weaved flax bowls (which we ate on that night), learned the basics of Cook Island dancing (which we later performed), made leaf head things, and tried not to get eaten alive by the fire ants which were everywhere. We were in the sun the whole time which you think would be nice because it would be warm, but it was a lot of sweat and paranoia about sunburn as well as loving the sun. After that, we helped plant some taro plants, watched a guy climb up to the top of a coconut tree in less than ten seconds, drank coconut milk and learned to husk a coconut. We did it in a competition of four, and I didn't win the husking coconut but I am fairly positive that given a few more minutes I might have had it all cracked and peeled. Then we watched the men who were teaching us husk coconuts with their teeth in less than thirty seconds. If I hadn't had three years of braces I might have wanted to try too but I don't know if my teeth could have handled that.
We had a couple hours to shower and change before dinner, where we went to eat with the group that had taught us the cultural things that afternoon. On the way to dinner we stopped and watched part of a rugby game too, which was unexpected. Anyway. The food was amazing. We had different types of taro, chicken, starfruit, papaya, this gooey banana thing, potato salad, chop suey, and octopus! I will say, I think my favorite part of the meal was the octopus. So interesting. We had a few performers dance for us (and like music. Always live music) and then we showed them what we could do! They made it a competition and I [surprisingly] made it to the top four but was highly relieved when I was tapped to go sit out - my legs were killing me, and the three left were so entertaining to watch. After the woman crowned the last standing girl, the guys competed, though their dance is knee-focused, not hip focused. I can now appreciate that Pacific dance is much, much more challenging than it looks, but is extremely fun to do.
Sunday we got up and went to church. I wasn't very excited about it, but it ended up being an interesting cultural experience. Christianity is really important in the Cook Islands - apparently about 95% of Cook Islanders are Christian - and the service was actually mostly held in Cook Island Maori so I had no idea what they were saying. There were a few songs sung in English but it confused me because they weren't songs that even seemed vaguely familiar. We sat up in the balcony but we could see all the old ladies singing their hearts out with the flowers on top of their straw hats. It was cute. After the service we were given morning tea of fruit, Cook Island pancakes, hard boiled eggs, coffee, etc. I feel like it would be really difficult to go hungry in Rarotonga because they are so hospitable and always have tons of food.
Sunday afternoon we went outrigger paddling! Half the group was supposed to go snorkeling but the waves were too high so instead it turned into a day at the beach. I went outrigger paddling which was an experience but not exactly super fun? It was okay. Some people rented kayaks but I decided that I wanted to swim out to a nearby island. I found a few other people who wanted to join me and we set out down the beach to get closer to the island. The island, apparently, is haunted at night. I didn't ask why. There were some crazy strong currents on the way to the island (at one point three out of the four of us were in a chain to stay together, and we actually ended up losing one of us in the current so we had to wait for him to swim back around to get to us). The island was surrounded by rocks, and is extremely small. We walked to the middle of the island and climbed a tree; I can now say that I have climbed a tree in watershoes and a bikini. The middle of the island was a bit dense so we found our way to the outside and ended up walking the rest (3/4) of the way around the island. The view was incredible and we saw lots of crabs and shells but I obviously didn't bring my camera. It exists only in my mind.
Sunday night we went to this place called Coco Putt for dinner. It was slightly tacky because it had a mini-golf course attached to it - only played five rounds before the downpour of rain got to be too much - but the food was absolutely delicious. Describing the food would give it justice, but there was tuna, potatoes, garlic bread, salad, pasta, taro fries, curried rice, beef and veggie stir fry.. for dessert there were cream puffs, chocolate cake, and fruit. I had such a massive food baby. It was so uncomfortable, but so, so worth it.
Monday we had out first lectures. The first lecture was actually really interesting. It was on whale research in the Cook Islands, and the lecturer had tons of information and switched it up with pictures, videos, and personal stories. It gave me optimism for the lectures. And then the lecture following it put me to sleep with the overview of the Cook Islands/America sucks (pretty much). Oh well.
And then. We did the cross-island walk. In the rain. It was maybe a four-hour hike? It was only slightly raining when we started the walk, and fortunately it was barely raining when we reached the top and were taking pictures of the absolutely breathtaking surroundings, but then of course it downpoured. I think saying monsooned would be a better word. I used my raincoat and wrapped it around my backpack (my camera staying dry was more of a priority than myself) and surprisingly almost everything in my backpack stayed dry. However, once the rain was pounding on us, our guide actually had us run through this river (which had been a small stream at the beginning of the hike) because he was afraid that it would get too strong and high and people wouldn't be able to get across it. People were singing the songs from Kapa Haka and laughing a lot once it got to the point of hilarity. My entire body was soaked. I was miserable in between being wet and soaked, but once we were soaked it was just ridiculous that this happened. The end of the hike was the best though - there was a waterfall at the end. Most of us just ran in in the clothes and shoes that we'd been wearing. Good thing about the rain was that the waterfall was beautiful. That morning, we heard, it had been a pretty sad sight. I jumped off of a ledge into the waterfall several times. It was so cool. Pure joy.
Dinner that night was okay but not as good as Coco Putt. And I think this may have been the night where my roommate was trying to take a shower, and first there was a lizard in the shower (which escaped towards my Nicole's stuff and we lost it after that) and then a cockroach was coming towards the shower while she was in it. There was mass screaming and hiding. Done by me mostly, though Jacklynn was NOT having that cockroach either. My friend Meagan was in the room when this happened, and after Gael chased the cockroach around for a while, Meagan smash/killed it with her shoe. Traumatizing? Only a bit.
Tuesday we had to get up outrageously early. Breakfast was at 6:45am. I do not function that early. However, since we had to be up that early some friends and I just decided to get up at 6:15 and see the sunrise. We didn't see the sunrise from when it was dark but it was really pretty. The reason we had to be up so early is because we were going to visit a primary school and wanted to be there around 7:45am. We got a quick briefing from the principal about the school and then the assembly began. We marched in the courtyard with the children and then were settled in a classroom where they performed poems, songs, and dances for us. It was adorable. The oldest children, grades 5 and 6, danced for us, and brought some of us up to dance with them! I was sitting in the front so I was pulled up, but the little boy was dancing a little too close to me. My reaction was laughing a lot.
After the performances we had morning tea which was really more like a lunch. I tried some foods I've never had - like seagrapes. Then we did activities with the kids. I was with the grade 4 children first. Mary, the little girl I spent time with, made me an ei (lei) and a head ei. I learned that she played soccer and that people only wear eis for special occasions. She was adorable and so enthusiastic to keep making me eis. After being completely covered with flowers I left to learn to drum and dance with the grade 5 and 6s. The drumming that they use to dance is so interesting. When you hear it at first it just sounds like a mass amount of noise with little pattern but I learned that there is a correct and incorrect way to drum the beats. Who knew?
We had a lecture on Voyaging after that. It was very hot in the room and we'd been up for so long that it was a bit harder to get through. Not to mention hearing that America is killing the world and YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE gets tiring.
BUT then we were off to go snorkeling! Snorkeling was amazing. Besides the fact that my snorkel was dysfunctional and brought more water into my snorkel that there should have been so there was some panic and misery thrown into the amazingness but I survived. We saw tons and tons of marine life. There was all sorts of coral and colorful fish and plants of different shapes and sizes. We even saw a bright blue starfish and a couple moray eels. (My fears of eels from seeing Baywatch as a child were pushed aside when the guides were even bringing the eels out of hiding for us to see.) It was fun to dive down and be right next to the coral - though it wasn't deep in the first place. It was awesome. When we finished snorkeling we had some time to kill so we hung out on the beach until dinner. It was so beautiful. The water was so clear and beautifully blue.
Dinner was at Aro'a restaurant, which was awesome. We spent time eating the bizarre appetizers, walking and taking sunset pictures on the beach, and sipping on tropical drinks. (I had a Oneroa drink, which I'm not sure what the juice was but it was delicious.) It was such a simple night, such a good night. The cooks sang and danced for us at the end of the night, and a fellow IES student decided to sing for us as well.
Wednesday was a long day. We woke up for a cynical lecture on Cook Island economics followed by a medicial walk with a natural medicine man named Pa. Pa was hilarious. He gave us all of these natural remedies, some of which I believe, some less so. We walked through, with Pa telling us about shampoo plants, sugar cane, starfruit, and all sorts of other plants whose names I don't remember. It was really cool. I picked a papaya off a tree, ate starfruit and sugar cane almost straight off the trees, and was barely bothered by the immense amount of sweating I was doing. The walk ended with Pa giving us a fruit lunch of starfruit, papaya and watermelon. It was delish.
I got hot chips at a place in town and fell asleep in the sustainability talk (apparently I didn't miss much. America is a horrible place that kills everything and it is my personal fault for taking showers and not having solar panels installed to create energy). Then we had a progressive dinner! It was cool because it was at people's homes and not restaurants. Coach buses picked us up, which was a nice change from the cramped 15-person vans we'd been riding in the past five days. We started by getting a garden tour and this delicious lemon-soaked tuna, papaya salad, and sparkling wine. Besides the small child that kept trying to lift up my dress it was really fun. The second course was less impressive but tasty nonetheless. We had a Cook Island dancing performance and live music while we ate - seemingly normal for meals at this point. The home we went for dessert had a long porch for us all to sit on, and ice cream, banana cake, custard pastries with papaya, this delicious gooey yogurt-tasting fruit, and some sunrise thing with fruit and marshmallow. I had a food baby that night too. It was a vacation of food babies. That night a lot of people went to explore the nightlife for the last time but I decided to stay in and chat with some other people in my program. Successful night.
Thursday, which was our last day in Rarotonga, me and eight other people decided to rent bikes and bike around the entire island. I definitely didn't realize the task I was taking on. 31 kilometers didn't seem so far at the time. However, it has been about two years since I've been biking and I don't think there were any shock absorbers in the bike/the road was not smooth. We stopped to take pictures every so often and went swimming at the beach where we went snorkeling. Our next stop was to eat. Some people for fish and chips but I got a Oneroa burger, pineapple-banana milkshake and hot chips. So delicious. The last leg of the bike ride was difficult but one of my friends was generous and let me trade my normal bike for her electric bike which made the ride easier. However, I didn't think it was possible for the seat to be any more uncomfortable than it was until I was on the electric bike. That was rough. I feel so accomplished though for having biked the entire 31k around the island in the blistering sun and heat. Beast. And I only got burned on the tops of my hands. Sweat through both sides of my tshirt. It was awesome.
After I returned the bike I stopped in town to browse for souvenirs and window shop. I even got downpoured on walking back from the central part of Avarua (the biggest town in Rarotonga/the town nearby our hotel).
I will admit that it was sad to leave Rarotonga. The fire ants, roosters in the morning, and extreme humidity weren't the greatest but it was so beautiful there. If there was a picture of paradise in the dictionary, I'm pretty sure that it would be of Rarotonga. The people are so nice (I don't think I could ever go hungry and since 80% of their economy is based on tourism they love tourists) and I feel like I learned a lot about the culture. It was such a fabulous start to my midsemester break and I love that I spent the entire last week there.
And now I'm back in Auckland, where it's less humid and about 65 degrees F. I am legitimately freezing. I have the windows open because I'm trying to dry my laundry but the windows will probably be shutting soon. I leave tomorrow for Dunedin (we're leaving for the airport at 7:10am. How miserable.) and am so unbelieveably stoked. YAY.
I also apologize if this is really disjointed because I started to write it yesterday and am watching a movie on tv right now.
I don't think I'll post individual pictures, but if you'd like to see the pictures I have about 400 pictures uploaded on my facebook. let me know if it doesn't work though because I've never shared my albums publically! The first part of my trip is here and the second part of pictures you can see online here. Good luck going through all of them, but there's so many I'd want you all to see anyway.
Wish me luck in the frigid cold next week! I will not be updating this until [at the earliest] the 27th of April. There are five of us traveling. I also hope Christchurch doesn't have any aftershocks while I'm there as there were tonight..
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