It was always Marcel’s dream to travel to one of the South Sea Islands. And because we were relatively close, we decided to fly to one of the Cook Islands, namely Rarotonga.
We left New Zealand the day after my birthday and when we arrived on the Cook Islands it was my birthday again, because we crossed the date line. Unfortunately, we both had caught a cold, so we were not really in the partying mood. We arrived in the evening and were warmly welcomed by our host Ani and the cat “Cracker”.
Public Transport on Rarotonga
We stayed in a wonderful AirBnB called “Are Pou” in Muri which was a great location with local restaurants and small cafés. The owners built it themselves and live right next door.
“Are Pou” – Guesthouse
Main house of our hosts on the left
Going around on the island is super easy with public transport with exactly two busses that are driving by the hour. Given the specific infrastructure of the island, there is no need for bus numbers; they are labeled according to the direction they are driving “clockwise” and “anti-clockwise”.
You can see the main roads on the map and that the island is almost completely surrounded by a lagoon. This looks so beautiful and the water is super warm.
You can see in the distance where the waves break and the lagoon begins
Papua Vai Marere (formerly Wigmore’s Waterfall)
After we recovered from the cold, we took the bus for a round trip and also walked to the waterfall Papua Vai Marere.
Afterwards we had a drink and some snacks at Wilson’s Bar in the Castaway Resort – which was themed by the movie. There was even a “Wilson” volleyball on the counter.
Wilson
Animals on Cook Islands
We really enjoyed our time in the guest house and also the animals that live close by. We were visited several times by the cat Cracker and fell in love with the pig Blondie who just had given birth to ten piglets. So super cute!
Cracker
We had seen in the reviews of our apartment, that someone had considered to become vegan after meeting Blondie – which we totally get. We have to say, we almost considered starting to eat meat again so that we could kill the roosters that were crowing all night long. And these are not only the neighbors’ roosters; you hear some from afar and the ones close by seem to respond to their crowing. The whole island is full of them and according to another couple we met, you hear them everywhere. Thankfully we had brought earplugs – so that worked out fine.
Roosters from hell
When strolling along the beach, you meet lots of dogs and most of them wear a dog collar. Those dogs seem to have taken up the island vibe or something – they were super relaxed and couldn’t care less about you. Sometimes they just walk alongside you or if you are stand-up paddling, they might jump on your board and enjoy the ride. Which is incredibly funny to watch!
Not so funny were the mosquito bites. Usually they are more font of me, and if I get bitten, it usually swells up a lot. After 2 days, all of the sudden they seem to have fallen in love with Marcel. That was not so much fun – but after we bought a new bottle of repellent, they left us alone.
