Cook Islands

...or a refrigerator full of papayas and coconuts

ATTENTION!!! If you suffer from sunlight deprivation or autumn depression, you should get your favorite cuddly toy before looking at the following pictures! Or a cocktail.

When you enter the Cook Islands on Google Maps, small islands surrounded by reefs appear. Behind them, the Pacific drops steeply to a depth of more than 3000 meters. It is only when you zoom out repeatedly that you can see where they actually are. Northeast of New Zealand, far out in the Pacific. In the last daylight, we landed on Rarotonga and waited on a dark road for a bus that runs once an hour. When exactly? On island time! So sometime, just not according to plan. An inconspicuous taxi responded to our hitchhiking thumb and took us for a third of the actual price. In the hostel, we were greeted by Norwegians, Swedes, and a Danish guy who offered us Heineken. The world is small.

We were woken up every morning by loud crowing roosters. Our rooster was already hoarse, but should he stop talking? Never! We hiked the Rarotonga Crossing Trail with the Scandinavians, which, as the name suggests, crosses the island. The trail leads through hilly jungle from north to south. The highlight is a steep rock pinnacle "The Needle" in the middle of the jungle, from where you have an excellent view of the island. You can see the Pacific in almost all directions. The wild chickens not only clucked in front of our room, but also walked around in the jungle as well as under palm trees on the beach with their 5-8 chicks!

Already on the hike, the dog "Melo" (written on his dog tag) joined us and walked along the beach with us. Almost all dogs here wear collars, look healthy, and explore the area on their own.

Finally, we snorkeled in the turquoise blue ocean!

The bus runs hourly in every direction and according to the schedule, it was already 40 minutes late. We decided to hitchhike and after a while, a pickup truck picked us up on its cargo bed. The bus suddenly was three cars behind us. Of course. One kilometer before our destination, we were dropped off and had the opportunity to drink from a coconut just a stone's throw away. We were led to the last corner of the property and were allowed to remove the thick husk from the actual coconut using a pointed iron rod. I started, Marius took over and peeled one as well. Make a hole, put a straw in and enjoy the cool coconut water. Delicious! We took the coconuts with us and snacked on the fresh flesh in the evening while playing cards with the Scandinavians. It really tastes fresh like a nut and is hardly sweet.

Kikierikiööööhhii! Kia Orana (hello in the Maori language). We waited for the bus again and eventually hitchhiked to Muri Beach. The lagoon was waiting with fantastic colors. Snorkeling was a bit mediocre. Many sea cucumbers, but nothing else.

The next morning, there was low tide on our beach. Behind the reef edge, we could see whale spouts rising high! Equipped with flip flops, Cerina approached the reef edge a few meters. The whale (or two?) waved with its huge fins and even with its fluke. Mega cool!

In the afternoon, we flew to Aitutaki. Jenny (our host for the next 7 nights) welcomed us with flower necklaces and fresh papayas and passion fruits from her garden. Our bungalow was simply furnished and 1-2 cats often waited on the terrace for some caresses. Wild chickens woke us up every morning.

the fancy bungalow on the right was ours

We drove around the entire island on a scooter, from the highest hill (124 m) to the furthest tip in the north.

Grocery shopping was difficult. We knew that food is difficult to import and therefore bought oatmeal, noodles, and other dry goods in New Zealand. But the bigger problem was the selection. Even at the daily market, there were only coconuts, papayas, bananas, potatoes, onions, and eggs. No garlic, no ginger, no vegetables. Butter cost 7 euros. So we had muesli with powdered milk for breakfast and noodles/rice with soy sauce, etc. in the evenings. We always had papayas and coconuts, freshly picked and peeled. And iced tea.

Marius had smuggled a large package of Kinder chocolate to the island for my birthday! Mmmh...

We treated ourselves to a luxury evening in a hotel restaurant. It was island night. Buffet, drum music (incredibly loud), and traditional dances, with the tassels of the clothes flying all around.

Marius accompanied me on the first of three dives. The dive guide fed the Napoleon fish with coconut, we saw colorful fish, corals of various shapes, and turtles. I was in my element! On the other dives, we went down to 27m and besides Napoleon and turtles, we saw eagle rays.

We went on two boat trips with Roro, the husband of our host. The first one went to Akaiami Island, where seaplanes of the "Coral Line" landed in the 1950s. By the way, Roro told us that the island belongs to him. His parents were in charge of the island back then. Then we went to One Foot Island. The epitome of the South Seas! Turquoise lagoon, white sandy beach, palm trees everywhere. And there were only a handful of other tourists! We snorkeled and the underwater world was as paradisiacal as the island itself. On the boat trip, a black jack even bit. Roro gave it to his neighbor as a gift.

The second trip took us to Honeymoon Island. The colors of this lagoon... we couldn't get enough of them! The water was turquoise and crystal clear down to the ground in shallow depths. Off into the water and start snorkeling! We were alone on the beach of Honeymoon Island. Roro's timing was perfect again. The other tourists only arrived when we left again.

Marius met a French woman again, whom he had helped the day before when docking at the harbor. Spontaneously, she invited us to her partner's catamaran in the evening. With coconuts and papayas as gifts, we drove to the harbor on the scooter. Olivier ferried us across with the dinghy and we drank homemade banana-vanilla-rum and beer together with Mathilde. They told us about their sailing trip. From France across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal, past the Galapagos Islands to French Polynesia and finally to Aitutaki. 17 days from Panama to Galapagos, only the ocean and no sight of another ship. How small one must feel there. There we sat on their catamaran L'Argo. The sun sank into the ocean, the bright full moon was already shining on the opposite side of the island. A beautiful farewell evening on Aitutaki!

We spent two more days in our hammocks on Rarotonga, then it was time to end the vacation and travel again.

We really liked the Cook Islands. We rarely did nothing here, but it is simply wonderful to hang in a hammock on the beach under palm trees. The water temperature and color made it even more beautiful. It really is a South Sea paradise.

But now it's time to travel again.

New Zealand, here we come!

PS: We are actually already in New Zealand, we just rarely have a good Wi-Fi connection to upload photos. We have already slept in our bus Jimbo for 4 nights and covered 400 km. But we'll talk about it in the next blog post :)