Rarotonga Pictures

Hey, does anyone remember when I went to Rarotonga in February? No? Me neither. So much has happened since then that these pictures don’t even really make sense, two months later, but whatever, let’s look at them anyway.

This is what I saw every morning when I woke up, sat up in bed, and looked out the window. It was pretty overcast the day I took this, actually; when it got sunnier I went snorkeling on the opposite side of the island a couple of times and saw gigantic puffer fish with big weird cow eyes.

I was there for ten days total, and for the first half of that time I was with some friends from Wellington who came over with me. Here we all are–Danica, Danica’s brother Raukura, Raukura’s friend Shan, and his friend Ta’i Boy–getting ready for a night out in Rarotonga’s bustling metropolis of Avarua, to which you can get to from Muri Beach via two buses: one going clockwise around the island and one going anti-clockwise. I think this is the night that we got stuck in town at midnight (because everything closes then for the Sabbath, including the bus) in the rain and we ended up running into some people Raukura knew from when he went to school there and we bought them Raro Fried Chicken and then squeezed into a car with eight other people and MIRACULOUSLY didn’t die on the way home. I don’t have a picture of that part, sorry.

And here Dan and I are on the beach.

I went to the Saturday market a couple of times while I was there; we’d buy fruit and coconut rolls and tiny eetsy beetsy donuts. When I wasn’t eating I took some photo of the phallus-tastic statues Tangaroa which is the Cook Island Maori sea god (who is also on the Cook Island two-dollar coin) and some cool wall murals.

Raro is a pretty chill place. Since I was staying on the beach I spent most of my time there, wandering around looking at flora and fauna, which I found very reminiscent of Miami, which totally makes sense as most of that tropical Florida stuff isn’t actually native but from, well, the Pacific Islands. It was funny to feel so at home (in terms of landscape, at least) on the other side of the world.

I just like these tree roots.

I also really like hermit crabs, and Muri Beach was, literally, crawling with them. I picked them up and let them tumble off my hand pretty much all day every day, but I could never get it so that one of them was actually out of the shell when I wanted to take a picture. This guy never came out of the shell at all, sadly.

This one kind of did but then my picture-taking hand got all shaky (hermit crabs tickle!) and so it came out sort of blurry. This is really not a fitting tribute to my all-encompassing hermit crab love. Hermit crab! I love you! Please come out of your shell and play with me!

And here is a lovely blue starfish. I saw lots of cool creatures when I went snorkeling and on my dives, but this guy was shot just from ankle-deep water. How awesome is that?

I was randomly walking along the beach (LIKE I DID EVERY DAY WOO) when I saw this nice carved-up coconut.

It was right next to this very nice impromptu sea urchin-coconut sculpture.

Speaking of coconut, Shan got really into coconuts on this trip, like we’d all be sitting around talking about the practicalities of owning and operating a RealDoll or something and out of nowhere she would say in this totally serious voice “I just…I just love coconuts,” and we’d kind of look at her and blink and go back to considering how awkward would it be, really, to introduce a RealDoll as your boyfriend at a party (Raukura: “You would just have to tell people he’s shy,”) and Shan would be all “Coconuts are so good,” totally ignoring the rest of us. To be fair, coconuts, when eaten right off the tree, are really good, so no argument from me. Here’s she is attempting to husk one before she devours it whole.

And here I am, getting in on the sweet coconut action.

One day there was a rugby game down at the end of the beach so I went along to that. I still don’t understand rugby though so I got restless pretty fast and never learned whether the guys in the solid shirts or the guys in the stripey shirts won. I felt a little funny about taking pictures so I hid in some bushes to take this one.

And here Raukura and I are about to act like locals (wearing jandals and NO HELMETS) and and go for a spin on a motorbike, which is the primary mode of transport on Raro. I couldn’t take the no-helmet thing and only did this a few times.

The New Zealanders left midweek and so I got to know some of the other backpackers on the beach for the second half of my time there, many of whom are depicted here dedicating themselves to lounging about on the deck and neglecting to apply sunscreen to their delicate European skins.

We spent the last five days pretty much doing the same thing; walking on the beach, reading trashy novels, swimming and snorkeling, flirting, taking the bus into town to buy extremely expensive UHB milk (FOUR DOLLARS A LITRE CAN YOU BELIEVE IT NO ME NEITHER), eating our weight at the buffet night at the hotel down the beach, gossiping, and crashing a wedding (long story). Here are all the people in my room on the night I was heading back to Wellington–everyone hugged and kissed me and said they’d miss me and it was all very sweet and wonderful. It feels a long time ago and a long way away, but it really was a great trip. I felt free and easy and fun there, in my little blue beach dress and with flowers in my hair–not a bad way to feel, not at all.