Midnight in Auckland- cook Island superpost part 1

Hello all, We have made it out of Rarotonga after our first hiccup of the trip. Our flight out last night was canceled, and todays was delayed for 5 hours. We had to book into a hostel in Auckland for a night and will pick up our campervan and set out tomorrow, but we spent the day drinking on Rebel Billionaire Richard Bransons' dime (the flight was Virgin Australia and they gave us $40 in vouchers plus a meal) so it wasn't all bad. Rarotonga was unreal and will be hard to top. The gauntlet has been thrown down rest of the world. Below is part one of a roundup of our time in Raro with pics and video to follow soon. We love and miss you guys and should be able to update more frequently as the wifi is way better here in new Zealand.


10.7.13: Rarotonga, Cook Islands Arrived after 30+ hours in transit from Raleigh to Raro. Typing this at 4:29 local, but it seems like we have been here longer than that. Smooth transfer to the Vara’s beach resort from the airport. $40ish dollars per night for a clean room with a queen bed and a single that were using to throw our junk on. Wish it had fan and more hooks to hang stuff. We got here before the staff but our driver pointed us to our room, or more precisely a random empty room super shady travel style, and we found the beach where I played with some beach dogs. Basically just getting acclimated today but things went well. Got a nice cup of coffee just over $4 from a shop on the road out front of the hotel owned by a friendly couple from new Zealand. The issue about when we depart remains in the air but we took a nice walk and found “the mooring” restaurant and had hands down the best fish sandwich I’ve ever eaten in my life (crumbled mahi mahi, the F.O.B $10). Staff was super friendly there as well. Then we caught the “anti-clockwise” bus (cause it’s just a big circle) into town which was easy, just stand on the road and flag it down, to try and get food/booze at the supermarket and map out the week. Kicking ourselves for not getting the $25 9gallon jug of gin at the duty free in LAX but we made things work and had a beer at “trader Jacks” right on the water and then tasted the local beer Mutatu –pale which had a hint of coffee flavor and didn’t blow us away. Sticker shock on some of the prices here but I suppose that’s what you get out in the middle of nowhere. Drinking a gin and sean-ic as I type this so things have naturally worked out. We pushed through the desire for a jet lag nap and went for a swim in the ocean instead. Totally the right call. Beach is protected by an island and an offshore reef so the water is calm but there are lots of sea slugs who generally stay out of your way. Now we will do an earlyish Thai dinner and go back to the hotel beach to check out the stars. Super pumped for that. Also tash got a hilarious sunburn.

Kaite we did a "vision board"

Layin' in LAX

Crossing the Equator

Sunrise

Left turn to land

on the tarmac

Kia Orana

1st beach dogs

Lagoon off our hotel

lagoon off our hotel

Dogs on Blogs

Can I keep him?

 

 

The F.O.B

 beachside dining

 this ones for you birdhead

 1st beach bar bear of the trip

 random crab

 random chickens

 local beer

 on the deck at our hotel

 the local coffee has a distinctive flavor

 then I found a wolf

 Browns fans brushin teeth

 

 

Rad 666….. ..Was the license plate for our moped, it wasn’t a vanity plate, but it turned out to be a totally appropriate name on two levels. Rad because getting a moped is an absolutely awesome way to explore the island. Rarotonga is ringed by a 36K road and the bike allows you to try out all the beaches, bars, and other cool stuff at your own pace, which is of course totally rad. 666 because it was “one of the older bikes” which apparently translates as rusty, cracked up, fluid leaking death trap, and because we had to use said death trap to out run a snarling pack of wild dogs in full on attack mode movie motorcycle chase style, more on that later. After picking up the bike we went to a beautiful beach called “fruits of Rarotonga” for a swim then drove to “the number 3 beach bar in the world” as per the guy who rented us the bike. It was at the Aro’a beachside inn and apparently bike rental guy has a very discerning eye for beach bars because this place was ridiculous. Check out the video below. Were heading back Thursday to watch the sunset. From there we went looking for a waterfall which was on an “unfinished” road leading up to the mountains. We found what looked to me to be an unfinished road, picture two kind of gravely kind of rocky tire tracks with grass in the middle and headed up the hill. On the left side of the road was a farm with 5 or 6 “mountain dogs” who unlike “beach dogs” are vicious snarling jerks. They started barking at and chasing us so I gassed it up the hill to safe…no wait its another barking dog pack. At this point I was pretty sure that we were on the wrong road and even if Niagara falls was up the hill we were turning around and getting out of there. The problem was that we had to go past the 2 dog packs who had at this point combined forces into one even jerk-ier superpack. My plan was to drive past at an even pace, maintain eye contact, have a confident posture and otherwise dog-whisper my way past these guys and back onto the road. That plan instantly devolved into a “run for your life” kind of thing when we drove through the pack and a big german-shepard werewolf mix was barking and snapping near tash’s legs. I gassed it and when I hit 40k I was thinking, rad 666 was probably not built for high speed off roading, man these dogs are fast, I wish we were wearing helmets and something other than flip flops, and I hope they stop before I hit the main road so I don’t have to re-enter the flow of traffic at high speed in the wrong lane. Lucky for us I’m a bad-ass man nurse and therefore prepared for this and every situation, so I eventually outran them and got back onto the road but it was pretty dicey for a minute there. 20 yards up the road was the actual “unfinished road” and the waterfall which was just ok as it had not rained recently and the dog pack was a tough act to follow. From there we cruised around, went swimming a few times and fed frozen vegetables to the fish, got buzzed by a 767 wayne’s world style and generally bopped around the island having a great time. The night ended with gin and sean-ic’s on an empty beach with my baby….and a beach dog. Not too bad at all.

 

 our first "home cooked meal" about as good as it looks.

 self explanatory

 same

 a beach we found

 their money is better than ours

 when the queen was coming to Rarotonga, prince Charles said "where the (heck) is that. So now its a tradition to wear the fox hat (say it fast in a British accent)

 Aro'a beach bar

 same

 the "just ok" waterfall

 is a gold medal like a blue ribbon?

 mer-tash

 black rock

 our own private beach

 same

 

 wait till you see the video

 an entry for the "p. chichi cats corner" for my friend who hates dogs. That's right internet, he likes cats more than dogs

 beachside dining

 can I have some fish please?

 fish and chips

 cant beat the view

 rarotonga Island map

 fish and chips spot

 how brown am I?

 cool graffiti art

 dogs on blogs

 tash doesn't like him

 but I do

 now they're friends.

 

 

Stay tuned for part II coming soon.