Our Final day in Rarotonga

Our final lovely day in Paradise.
After our usual lovely breakfasted up our picnic gear and our swimming gear, packed it all into the convertible and headed out for the day. We had seen a Tropical gardens Café as we drove along the coast road, so today we just stopped and went in for a coffee, we didn’t bother with a muffin even though they looked delicious, but we had not long finished our breakfast, so settled for just the coffee. To get to the little Café we had to walk in through part of the gardens, over a rustic bridge where there were masses of colourful fish swimming in the creek/pond. This was a man made pond, apparently this land was once just a swamp, and the couple worked really hard to drain the land and grow all the great plants.
There was a nice welcome water feature with Hibiscus flowers floating in it.
Near the table we sat at was an old native out-rigger canoe. Which I had to photograph, while I did so the owners offered to take a photo of us both enjoying our coffee.

While driving on the inland road we discovered a Prison, so even in Paradise there is crime. But the prison is quite small and didn't look very high security.


We wandered around for a while then left to find a great picnic place, at Avo harbour, we watched a small fishing boat come in and then set about cleaning and filleting a big Tuna fish, we were surprised how dark red the flesh was, this is not a fish that is caught around the area we live in. The locals trawl for these fish, just outside the reef.
We sat on the grass in the sun and enjoyed our picnic and watched the boats on the lagoon, before driving further along the coast for a swim and snorkel among the little fish and coral.
Drove back to the Resort and quickly had another nice swim, while in the sea I was amazed to spot what looked like a black and white checkerboard like sea snake! It was quite close to the shore too, so I alerted the families with small children to move away from the ‘snake’ and told the activities men about it. They were certain it must be a conger eel, which is a blotchy brown and white colour, oh no that was not what it looked like at all. They tried to tell us that it couldn’t be a snake, but a man came over to me and whispered that there was indeed some sea snakes around Rarotonga but they were not at all aggressive and wouldn’t harm anyone unless in danger themselves, but he said they were very venomous and best left alone.
We decided a quick dip in the pool would be good after that.
For our last night we decided to have a good meal at the resort, we have mostly avoided expensive meals, but as a grand finale it was wonderful, well cooked well served, after we had enjoyed a wonderful cocktail watching the sun go down.
I got my very best heavenly sunset photos at this time. It hardly look real, but, it and all of my photos are completely untouched.
Tomorrow morn early we will be picked up and taken to the airport and we shall leave for home, taking lovely memories with us and the knowledge that we will return.

Lazy Day of Fun in Rarotonga

Lazy day in Rarotonga
While we were feeding the fish in the lagoon at Edgewater, we were told of how there have been fish fed for many years at the Rarotongan Beach Resort and Spa, so we thought we might go visit the big Rarotongan during the morning. In preparation we gathered up some of the bread crusts from the breakfast buffet for the fish and some small cup cake/muffins for us to nibble on.
The Rarotongan is about 15 minutes drive away from our resort, a pleasant journey along the coast or slightly longer if you drive along the inland road, through the countryside and all the small farms and gardens.
We arrived at the Rarotongan, and just walked ion as if we were residents straight though the dining room and out onto the balcony which is built out over the water so the fish can swim beneath it and hide waiting for their feast of bread to be thrown to them. We hurled some bread in and other people who had biscuits to feed them tossed their offerings, all at once the sea just boiled with thee threshing of all the really big fish all determined to be the one to get the food, they fought over the scraps even. These fish were a different variety to the smaller fish we had been feeding at Edgewater, and very much bigger since this part of the lagoon has been a reserve and fish sanctuary for a long time and the fish have been able to grow to full size. One day the fish at Edgewater might well grow nearly as big, but I wouldn’t like to be in swimming with them then!

We drove on along the coast road looking for a nice spot for a picnic, we had bought a long cheese roll to fill with lettuce, tomatoes and ham and a local banana Pickle, along with a banana each and a bag of the cup cake/muffins and a bottle of water. But as we drove along we passed a private home with a small sign at the gate advertising Choc Mousse, trifle and Pineapple Pie. We couldn’t resist the Pineapple pie, so we stopped and were about to go through the gate when a lovely lady ran out and welcomed us to her property with a big hug and a kiss on each cheek. She drew us inside to proudly show us the Pineapple pie. It was so delicious looking we just had to buy some; half was all we could reasonable expect to be able to eat, as it was quite large and covered with big piles of golden meringue on top of the pineapple custardy mixture in a pastry case. Only cost us $9 for this wonder creation, which we could hardly wait to eat, once we found a good picnic spot, it got us all sticky with juice that dribbled down our chins and arms, but we just loved it. Had to go for a quick swim to wash off the stickiness! And use up some of those excess calories!
There was a native out-rigger canoe sitting on the shore, we would have loved to have pushed this out into the water and had a spin around the lagoon, but we didn’t do anything as naughty as that. I sat in it for a moment and Erle took my photo, or was it the photo of the convertible! If you enlarge the photo you can see an white aura around my head, amazing, or is it the spirit of the owner of the canoe? The native people frequently where a ring of flowers on their head, both men and women, it looks so nice, but I was not wearing any flowers on my head at that time, later Erle gave me a flower for my hair but that was back at the apartment.(It was surprise to see this when we got home.)

Later when we got back to our room we sat out on the balcony in the sun,with a glass of wine, and wrote up lots of postcards to all our friends encouraging them all to come to this fabulous holiday destination.
Tonight there is a crab race held beside the swimming pool, we were surprised how many holidaymakers turned out to watch and bet on the poor Hermit crabs. You could only bet $2 on the race and it was winner takes all. A big bucket of Hermit crabs was brought out, everyone was numbered and ready to race. When the bucket was overturned onto a dish and pretty soon a few leapt out of the dish and headed of in all directions quite fast too, one of them much faster and soon a winner was declared. A happy winning punter beamed as he took his winnings but the hapless crab was put back into the bucket for the next race!
The races were interrupted from time to time by a call of “Whales” when everyone quickly turned and gazed out to sea, crab race forgotten, to catch the slow graceful arch of the whale back and tail flip before it dived under water again.
There was a couple of young girls watching with a huge bucket size glass of a extremely heady cocktail, I asked them about it and was told each of them had cost $50 and probable had nearly a bottle of mixed alcohol in it. A suggested that they take all night to drink it,, I asked to photograph one of the glasses. Doesn’t that look nice!
We then drove our cute little convertible to the Big Game Fishing Club for our nightly round of drinks and fresh fish and chips, with Prawn twisters, prawns wrapped in a pastry case formed into a long thin twist, absolutely yummy when dipped into chilli sauce.
I would have liked to have had a big cocktail but it looked like just too much for me. Isn't it a beauty!