12.1.13

Sleep in for all, then a lazy breakfast. Larry turned up with some fresh tomatoes and lettuce for us, and a bag of Aitu Coffee claiming that he felt bad about a coffee connoisseur drinking Nescafe. Atiu coffee is grown on the island of Atiu, at sea level, which is unusual as most coffee is grown at altitude. It tastes good. We went around to Koru for a coffee prior to a walk on the beach to looks for shells.

A downpour lead to us running to take shelter in Koru. Ordered coffee and hot chocolates and then bumped into Andrew Mitchell an old class mate of mine who I haven’t seen for about 18 years, and his wife Deidre. They live in Darwin now, Andrew being an anaesthetist, and both seem pretty happy with life. Andrew was always a keen hunter and clearly still is from his description of life. They are here chasing bonefish, as this is a world famous bone-fishing destination. He hasn’t changed one bit, and is in good form.

Spent the next few hours wandering the beach looking for shells, had lunch on the beach and eventually wondered home for a swim. Sophie and I went for a run in the evening, almost 9km around the north end of the island. While we were away Ben caught a fish with his hands and was holding it under the water to show me and must have had it held for about one hour then lost his grip just as we rode down the road. He was mortified and very upset, as he really wanted to show me. Dinner and cards.

10.1.13

Packed up, Di to the hospital for her ear wash out and then off for lunch at the Whale research center. We had an interesting time looking at the exhibitions and seeing the live crabs and fish. Saw a stone fish in the tank, possibly the ugliest fish ever, and it hurts if you stand on one also. They say that it will not kill you but you will wish that it did. Out to the airport to drop off the car (same arrangements as the pick up, unlocked and key under the mat) and then checked in for the Aitutaki flight. Saw David Bond and family at the airport as they are back to NZ. The flight was good and relatively smooth which was a relief as the last time I flew to Aitutaki it was the roughest flight I have ever experienced (this from a man that flys to Wellington every week!). Arrived to a welcome from Richard Story who had floral Ei’e to go around everyones necks and loaded us into a van to go to our Villa in Ootu. This must be paradise. The newish Villa is bright and breezie and the living area opens onto a deck that looks out onto the soft white sand of the Aitutaki lagoon that is about 20m across some grass. The kids wasted no time getting into the cool water which is a stay in all day temp of about 29 degrees I would guess. We got a briefing from Richard who is also a local Marine biologist who is working at restocking the lagoon with clams, the clams are threatened due to overfishing, and his partner Rima. After a good cool down we walked around the corner to the Boat Shed restaurant and bar, that coincedentally was set up by the same people that set up the boat shed in Nelson apparently. This is an interesting place with an impressive array of memorabilia from the Bounty that stopped here just prior to the mutiny, and the US airfield days. One of the locals, Ian, proudly showed us the pet Coconut Crab which is kept in a glass cage in the bar, describing it as a beautiful creature, some Kiwi Asians in the next table kept asking what they taste like and where can you get them, and did not seem to pick up on the fact that this was a Pet to Ian and not on the menu. They are endangered apparently and you should not eat them. They are tough and have an almighty pinch if you are silly enough to let them grab you. They eat coconuts and any animal that can husk a coconut with its bare pinchers is likely to have a powerful bite.

We met Larry Richards, an expat US school teacher and IT consultant that has lived here for the last 16 years. Larry was very friendly and was telling me all about the best places to buy food for the family and then said that it would really be best if he just shows us tomorrow. We organized for Larry to pick us up at 9am for the island tour. By the time we had finished dinner, it had started to pour with rain. As we were leaving Ian the guy who had been showing us the coconut crab offered to drop us home in his van. First impressions are that they are a great bunch of people here.

9.1.13

Run in the morning on my own, then we headed into town for some shopping. Sophie and I found some cooler running gear. After lunch we decided to head inland and walk up the across island walking track to the Needle. This is a steep walk that is advised to have sturdy walking or running shoes for, not jandals said the sign. We only had jandals on more than half of the feet in our crew. We thought we would have a look anyway. The Mosquito population kept us moving steadily and we enjoyed the bush/jungle scenery for a change. The track took a right hand turn and headed up the ridge steeply. It was a relatively slippery and tree rooted track going fairly steeply up the terrain, which reflected the step topography of the inner island. Olivia started to loose interest and so Di and Olivia headed back down while the other kids and I continued for a bit. We got to a point where we could see the Needle, which is a rock pinnacle at the peak of this part of the island, and is presumably a volcanic core that has become exposed with erosion over the millennia. Eventually we got to the final push up to the top and the kids were very pleased to make the top but left us in the predicament of being at the top of some pretty steep country in jandals. After a bit of gazing at the view and taking photos, I instructed the kids to hand over the Jandals and proceed bare footed, which I figured would be safer. Luckily they are all pretty accustomed to being bare footed and have tough feet, so it was no drama. Saw some interesting lizards on the way down. Back to the car after some territorial disputes over the camera. Di looked pleased to see us as she had spent a fair while fighting off mozzies. Headed home for a quiet night in. Sophie and I went for a run in the evening with the new cool clothes, which are helping with the major challenge for me in this climate – thermoregulation.

7.1.13

Slow start, again. After breakfast we headed into Avarua to try to find some post cards and the kids seemed determined to go to a gift shop on the edge of town that we have passed a few times. Bought a book and wooden spoons, but no post cards to be found. Cruised to a Café called “the café” next to an art gallery for a look at some art and a cool  drink for the crew and a coffee for me. Rested from our busy time gift shopping we headed to Muri for a swim.

Sophie is still feeling sick and seems tired and exhausted. She was not keen on swimming and to be fair just really wanted to be at home sleeping, but we dragged her to the beach thinking the fresh air would do her good.

Once again there were a lot of dogs on Muri beach roaming up and down the beach looking a bit frisky. I think this should be renamed dog beach. We mozzied down the beach a few hundred metres to a point near the end Island to snorkel. Sophie settled under a tree (not a coconut one to avoid any unexpected missiles) and lay down on a towel to sleep. The rest of us wondered along another 100m or so to a good place to snorkel out to the island. We were getting the snorkel gear fitted to the kids. Ben was off without delay, with a rooster tail of sea foam off the exhaust of his flippers. Then Di said, with alarm in her voice “What is that dog doing to Sophie!” I looked back and Sophie was on her feet with a Dog jumping up at her and appearing to bite at her, as she fought it off. I was out of the water in a flash a sprinting up the beach (a soft sand paced sprint, frustratingly) The dog must have sensed that I was about to initiate the “Beach attack- rabid K9” combat sequence (the BARK sequence). Perhaps the intention of this protective father was given away by the blood curdling battle cry emmitted as I was about 2 metres away. No mongrel attacks my girl on the beach and gets away with it. BARK is a carefully worked out combat sequence first developed by the SAS, and laboriously practiced and trained (through visualization) just for this type of situation. It is a sequence of certain death for the dog. There is over 80% success for the human with this sequence, which is increased to 85% if there are coconut trees in the immediate vicinity. The thing about BARK is, once initiated there is no stopping until there is a mortally wounded tetrapod taking its last breath on the sand, covered with coconut shaped concavities, and a middle aged man (likely with several dripping flesh wounds) standing on the beach, one foot on the defeated animal, looking to the skies, beating his chest and crying at full volume, a Tarzan like “ARGH! ArrrUarrr! ARRrrgh!” The dog made a lucky escape by recognizing the pre-sequence maneuvers. He accelerated away with extra vigour and a yelp when my ballistic fins hit him in the hind quarters as I pursued the cowardly carnivore down the beach at an ever dwindling pace. Sophie was understandably upset by this attack, and the whole event has made this beach drop to our least favourite swimming beach in Raro. The snorkeling was mediocre, as the water was not so clear today, to add insult to injury. Sophie had a few scratch marks from fending the dog off but otherwise seems uninjured. Clearly she inherited her old mans quick hands for fending off unfriendlies, or perhaps her Mothers intuition and book throwing accuracy for attacking furry foe.

Had some late lunch at the Sails restaurant, Pacific fish Brucietta for me and a Prawn Waldorf salad for Di - delicious. Nuggets and chips for the kids, not that tropical. Sophie is still not eating.

Headed home via the supermarket for a stock up. We got home, then performed a full on search of the entire property including the bags, looking for the yeast. Finally found it hiding behind the whiskey. We baked some bread to have with dinner. Quiet night with tired kids and a cool bottle of chardonnay.

8.1.13

Te vara nui, was the big Island night across the water. We were picked up at 4pm from the corner store and travelled around to Muri to the Te Vara Nui, village that is a tourist village set up in the name of Vara a successful and internationally influential pacific dancer who took pacific dancing to the world in the 70s. She returned to the Cooks to bring up her children and after the divorce of her marriage she set up a successful backpackers and went on to develop the Te Vara Nui village for tourists. We were welcomed in to the village in a traditional way with a challenge from a warrior and address in a typically intimidating way from the chief. Our elected or volunteered representative Wally from Adelaide accepted the challenge and handed over our club to the chief and we were given permission to enter. We had a series of demonstrations and presentations, on the history of the Cook Islands, Medicine, Marae etiquette, Fishing, Textiles, and finally the coconut. Came out with our heads full of information about the culture and history and some handy skills with coconuts. Most importantly we came out with a big hunger. Conveniently we straight on to the Island night buffet dinner. The meal was a western island fusion dinner, which was very good but disappointingly was mostly western. The reason became apparent as clearly the tourists have restricted tastes, as the small volume and number of local dishes were ignored it seemed. Di and I did our best to make up for this and focused our efforts at the plate on the Pacific food. Excellent Ikamata (marinated fresh fish salad), pawpaw salad, baked banana and coconut, local spinach, and various fish dishes. Di and I both enjoyed a Pina Colada with our meal, which would keep you going for a week on its own.

The dance show was a triumph of story telling, choreography and athletic dance, to the beat of tachyphylactic Cook Islands drum band, and a complimentary light show. There was a central stage surrounded by a moat like pond with two large food areas either side of the pond looking on to the show. Overall very impressive, informative and thoroughly enjoyable afternoon and evening. After the show the desert was served and we did our best to have at least a couple of goes at this as instructed by the emcee. A breezy trip home in the Te Vara Nui truck to finish the evening.