Surviving Aitutaki

Hold a true friend with both your hands.
-Nigerian Proverb

Our first two weeks here in the Cook Islands have been great. A week ago, we took a short early morning flight from the main island of Rarotonga north to the small island of Aitutaki. We thought that the lagoon surrounding Rarotonga was nice, the one surrounding Aitutaki was superb.

The highlight for both of us on this trip so far, even though we just started was the lagoon cruise that we took midweek. We woke up quite early to make reservations for a cruise to Honeymoon Island and the motu Maina. Nadine and I were accompanied by our two English friends, Sarah and Jason. I am able to communicate in Spanish and French, but this English English takes a little getting used to. We got a ride up to the wharf where our barge was set to depart. Upon our sea-going vessel, we had tables with chairs all around it so we could eat, drink, be merry, and watch the blue water as we sailed on by. Along the way, we stopped to snorkle in 20 foot deep water as we sailed over puffer fish and clams the size of a scooter. These were the biggest clams I have ever seen. I am now identical to Jeremy Pepper in that when I went to pick the clam's nose, it shut, chopped my finger off, and I now only have 9 fingers. It makes it easier to swim in circles now. Mom, I was just joking about that.

We followed our snorkeling with a huge lunch of fruit and yellow fin tuna. This tuna rivals all of the salmon I have had in my life, good eating! We then visited Honeymoon Island which houses the rare red beak bird. I killed one to take home with me and show everyone back in the States. Another joke mom. We finished off our motu visiting with Maina. Here we were able to learn how to effectively open a coconut, get our passport stamped again, and do a bit more snorkeling along with some of the bread that I took from lunch. It was great just watching fish fly by.

On our way back to the wharf, Nadine, Jason, Sarah, and I were part of a sarong wearing demonstration. I think that this was because we were the youngest folks on the boat. The rest were folks coming from the main island for the day, thus they were all blue hairs. The entire day proved to be the highlight of our trip so far.

The people of Aitutaki have to be some of the warmest, most welcoming people we have met so far. They are Polenesian Texans. Anytime that we were walking around the island, several people would stop and offer to give us a ride. One evening, I stopped, chatted with a local guy whose name I couldn't understand. He chopped down a few coconuts, pulled a few bananas, showed me his land crabs (ladies beware!), and I played soccer between four coconut trees with him and his two kids and a young girl from next door. I helped him bring his boat ashore. This type of experience reaffirms your faith in humankind and the joy and blessing of being able to travel. Everyone should try it!

After we booked our flight for our around the world trip, we learned that Survivor was going to be filming at the exact same time that we were going to be there. The entire island of Aitutaki seems to be geared for the show. There are several parts of the island that we can't actually get to because of filming. One day, Nadine and I went over to a part of the lagoon which houses a luxury resort. As we were standing there, I looked over and there was Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor. I went over immediately and told him he needs to replace one of the current Survivor contestants with me. Actually, Nadine and I talked with him for a good 5 minutes. He seems to be a pretty good guy from the Midwest. It was nice to meet him and talk with him for a bit. I told him that I would run into again in about a year and a half when I'm on the show.

One of the more amusing things to happen to us so far is renting a scooter to explore the island. The fun part is that neither Nadine nor I have actually driven a scooter and everyone here drives on the left side of the road. That provided for two challenging obstacles. Fortunately we started with an automatic little gray crotch rocket. Initially I had an ackward time getting used to driving it as Nadine continually laughed and yelled at me to drive on the left side of the road, not the right as we're accustomed to. No animals, humans, or plants were injured during this expedition. Actually, a few Cook Islanders were laughing pretty hard when they saw me have a hell of a time trying to turn the scooter but really just driving onto peoples' yards. We are not quite sure the condition of their spleen at this time.

We are currently have another week here in Rarotonga and the Cook Islands before we continue on to New Zealand on July 17th where they have been having quite a bit of snow.

We are having a great time and wish everyone continued health. [/i]Akeeta! [i]

We hope to add many of our great photos in the next week.

Peace from the Cook Islands!

John and Nadine

You learn alot while traveling, butt nuggets of information.
- Sarah (our British traveling partner in the Cooks)