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islands in the sun
Published in the July-September 2010 issue.
From tall tales to blue lagoons and an encounter with Captain Awesome, Lee Mylne explores the delights of the Cook Islands.
Captain Peaches is a man of many talents. As he deftly guides our boat across the calm and impossibly blue Aitutaki lagoon, he has the air of a man with no worries. He is simultaneously steering the boat and strumming a ukulele. His long black hair catches the breeze and he sings with a smile on his face.
His sidekick is introduced as ‘Captain Awesome’. I’m pretty sure that these are names they have given themselves – or each other. Captain Awesome is the storyteller, well practiced in the art. As we head across the lagoon, Captain Awesome tells us that soon, we’ll be meeting Captain Cook. It seems fitting, as we’re in the Cook Islands, and none of the passengers seem surprised at all.
Captain Cook, it turns out, is not the British explorer who sailed into these islands in the 1770s but the man in charge of the barbecue lunch that’s waiting for us when we reach our destination.
And so, with all the introductions taken care of and an exhortation that “the bar is open”, we head for One Foot Island.
It is, naturally, another piece of paradise in the 15 islands strung across 2.2 million square kilometres of ocean that make up the Cooks.
On my first day, a Saturday, I head to the Punanga Nui community markets in downtown Avarua, on the main island of Rarotonga. Around an open grassy area, stalls are selling fruit and vegetables, sarongs, t-shirts, black pearls, shell jewellery, straw hats, carvings and more. On a stage at one end of the park, a group of schoolgirl dancers wearing coconut bras swing their hips to the music provided by a group of men lined up behind them. They’re raising money for a trip to New Zealand to perform in a competition.
My eye is caught by a t-shirt that proclaims: “How to live on the island of Rarotonga”. Each idea seems like a good one: throw away your shoes, forget your worries, be on island time, eat fresh fruit from the trees, let the trade winds blow through your hair... the list goes on, and I feel myself relaxing as I contemplate each one.
The t-shirt is hanging on a stall dedicated to Rarotonga’s whale-watching, run by a blonde American researcher called Nan Hauser who is among the founders of an international satellite whale-tracking program that operates from here. I’m soon caught up in Nan’s descriptions of her life and work: her enthusiasm bubbles out. When I ask if commercial whale watching tours run, she roars with laughter. “We don’t need to!” she says. “They come so close we can just stand on the beach and watch them.”
The whales come by on their annual migration between June and November. The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) – an area of 1.8 million square kilometres – has been declared a whale sanctuary, and Nan has established a Whale Education Centre on Rarotonga, in part to teach young islanders about this magnificent creature that shares their home. I immediately decide I’ll be coming back to see the whales.
On Sunday morning, we head to church. It seems every village here has its own coral-and-limestone Cook Islands Christian Church, hand-built during the island group’s missionary days. We are warned to dress up – no shorts or long pants for women – and one church I see later even has a sign on the outside exhorting women to “Wear a proper dress to church!”.
Christianity still plays an important part in everyday life in the Cooks; many resorts warn guests that the usual daily room cleaning won’t be done on Sundays because the staff will all be at church. Here, Sunday is a day for worship, families, celebration and singing.
In the pews in front of me, the women’s heads are adorned with elegant rito hats, made of hand-woven coconut fibre and adorned with shells, their simplicity belying the hours of work put into making them. Fans flutter to combat the heat and the doors and windows are open to catch any available breeze.
But it is when the congregation raises its collective voice in song that we feel the power of their culture and their strong connection to it. The service is conducted largely in Cook Islands Maori – each island has its own dialect, as do the hymns, which are sung in parts by men and women.
After the service, I ask an elderly woman about her lovely hat. Repeka Newman, like most Cook Islanders I meet, is happy to chat and share her story with visitors; this is one of the most heart-warming things about visiting these islands.
In keeping with this philosophy of life, a group of islanders has begun holding progressive dinners for tourists – an invitation to meet the locals in their own homes. And that’s exactly what you get: the feeling of truly being a guest.
Our first stop on the Cook Islands Tours Progressive Dinner is at Danny and Jayne Kelly’s house. After pouring drinks, Danny leads us on a tour of his extensive garden, filling us in on his family and life story as we go, and introducing the less familiar plants. There are bay trees, guavas, tamarinds, passionfruit, star fruit, coconuts and mangoes, alongside thriving tomato plants and neat rows of vegetables.
When we return to the house, the grandchildren have emerged to say hello, along with Danny and Jayne’s son and daughter-in-law, who live on the property too.
Our entrees are traditional Cook Islands dishes – ika mata (marinated raw fish) and pawpaw salad – and Danny brings out the ukulele for a few songs. When we move on to our main course destination, he hops aboard the bus and comes along.
Our next hosts, Mary and Charlie, welcome us to their home and seat us at candlelit tables around their wide verandah. We serve ourselves from large plates of chicken, fish, and dishes such as reukau (taro leaves with garlic, onion and sweet chilli) and kumara salad with coconut and crushed pineapple.
As we talk, we learn that Mary was once one of Rarotonga’s most accomplished traditional dancers, and she and her teenage daughter are persuaded to dance for us. It’s a performance without fuss – just women in their own home, moving to the beat of a skin drum that has emerged from somewhere, two ukuleles and the voices of Mary’s husband and friends.
For dessert, we stop at Lorraine and Tom Masters’ home. Tom’s family is one of the Cook Islands’ best known and he regales us with tales of his famous ancestor William Masters, who created his own dynasty with three wives on the island of Palmerston. There are more songs before we head back to our hotels, feeling as if we have made genuine new friends.
Once you’ve set your mind to ‘island time’, you’ll find that a few days pass and you haven’t seen everything. To get a fast-track look at the whole of Rarotonga’s 32-kilometre circumference, jump aboard the island bus, which does a loop of it – and jump off wherever a beach or village takes your fancy. The bus will come around again an hour later. Or take a leaf out of the locals’ book and hire a scooter on which to free-wheel around the island.
From Rarotonga, we head to the island of Aitutaki, around 220 kilometres or about a 45-minute flight north. We approach in the late afternoon, and the electric blue of the lagoon below us turns slowly to gold and pink as we fly into one of the Cook Islands’ glorious sunsets.
Reputedly one of the world’s most spectacular lagoons, Aitutaki felt the force of Cyclone Pat in February this year but, despite some damage to homes, vegetation and inevitably, the reef, the lagoon retains its magic. The triangular-shaped reef protects 15 islets, most of them made of coral.
It is across this lagoon that we cruise with Captain Peaches and Captain Awesome, bound for One Foot Island. On the way, we stop to snorkel off a vast sandbank, a dazzling white beach looming out of the aqua lagoon.
One Foot Island, or Tapuaetai, is a tiny uninhabited islet that claims the world’s smallest post office – and, after lunch, Captain Peaches plays postmaster, wielding a rubber stamp with which to imprint postcards and passports. The stamp, unsurprisingly, is in the shape of a foot.
We walk around One Foot Island slowly, stopping to pick up coconuts, explore the shallows – where bright blue starfish and thick black sea slugs adorn the sands – and dive in for a swim. Circumnavigating it, even at a dawdle, takes only about half an hour.
When I leave Rarotonga, I mentally review the list from Nan Hauser’s t-shirt and find that while I cannot tick off everything (no tattoos, no sailing on a vaka), I have done more than a few of them. Besides, there has to be something left for my return visit to these beguiling islands.
Meanwhile, I have laughed with the locals, enjoyed sand between my toes, listened to the voice of the ocean, dived into the clear blue water, listened to the wind, watched the sunset and felt blessed; this latter, just for being here. •
Photography by Lee Mylne.
TRAVEL FACTS
getting there
where to stay
where to eat
- Sails Restaurant and Bar, Muri Beach, Rarotonga, phone +682 27349 or visit www.sailsrestaurant.co.ck
- Whatever Bar & Grill, Avarua, Rarotonga, phone +682 22 299 .
- Cafe Tupuna, Tautu Road, Aitutaki, phone +682 31678.
whattodo
- Bishops Cruises runs tours of the Aitutaki Lagoon, including One Foot Island. Phone +682 31009 or visit
www.bishopscruises.com
- Progressive Dinner tours cost AU$61 (NZ$79) per person and can be booked through Cook Island Tours. Phone +682 20639.
further information
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