We finally gave in and went to an Island Night. They're definitely the main tourist attraction here, providing an evening of local food and traditional dancing. It very much seems like a case of putting on a silly show for the tourists. I get the same feeling as when I look around at all the decorations people put up for visiting cruise ships - seeing the before and after is like watching props being made for the theater. It's all fake. You can almost hear the locals giggling as the tourists throw money at them. I think I probably got this idea because almost all of the Island Nights are held at resorts. There are two stand alone shows that are supposed to be less touristy and more traditional, but they cost $100 per person. Which is definitely out of our price range. I love island food, so rather than not go at all we opted for one of the cheaper ones ($49 each for dinner and the show). We could have just gone to watch the dancing for $10, but I wanted food. Of course I wanted food.
It was actually spectacular. I was expecting a cookie cutter show with nice dancing, and a half decent meal. It far and away exceeded my expectations. We chose to go to the Islander hotel, mostly because it listed everything on the menu instead of just saying 'island food,' and it was a short walk from the boat. We got there early for happy hour and actually had a really lovely evening together just talking and being a normal married couple. There was very little boat talk. No epoxy, sanding or problem solving. No route planning, which is our go to conversational topic after we move past ways of fixing things. We just talked about life and the universe while drinking ridiculously fancy cocktails at half price. It was lovely. We had waterfront views of the magnificent storm raging outside and the pool had awesome blue lights in it. It was nice to drink something with flowers in it next to a beach and a glowing blue pool. They even had a live band going. This must be what it's like for normal people when they go on holiday.
Then there was the food. It was fabulous. Much better than I was expecting from a resort buffet. They had all the traditional dishes covered, except they served pork belly in lieu of sacrificing a whole pig every night. Which is fair enough. I reached the point were I definitely couldn't eat another bite, which was when they chose to bring out cake and a huge Bombe Alaska. So I was happy. I'd already had a great night.
The dancing started the second everybody had finished scoffing down dessert. The dance troupe were just magnificent. There was a drumming group to provide the music and they were fabulous enough to have handled the entertainment all on their own. They instantly filled the whole hotel with multiple levels of sound, transporting us to another place and time. The ambience was amazing. Then there were the dancers. They told a loose story, with the drummers narrating in between acts. There was a dance to represent each island in the Cook Islands and they were all very unique. The girls moved in a similar way to belly dancers, in that their hips seemed to have a mind of their own. They wore the most beautiful costumes and for the faster dances the girls had a solid ledge of feathers sticking out behind them which you couldn't even really focus on because they were moving so fast.
By the end the dancers were all dripping in sweat and visibly exhausted. It was obviously hard work. I was absolutely delighted by the whole thing. I've seen traditional dances before, but this really was incomparable to anything else. So again, one of the highlights of our trip was a food experience. I shall refrain from pointing this out to Garth.
The list of island nights held on Rarotonga is massive, with almost every big hotel putting on a show. We originally decided to go to the Staircase bar in town, who put on a basic show twice a week. I'd read that the food was really average so it was better to just turn up for the $5 show. We got all gussied up on a Friday night and ventured into town, only to find that they were closed for a private function. Rude. So we wandered into Trader Jacks, which is the old cruisers bar before a cyclone washed away the harbour along with all the cruisers. Then we actually sat down and had a drink like normal people.
That was how we met Sarah and Yvette, on their last and first night in Raro respectively. They were both lovely, and thus began a really fun night of drinking, dancing and Rarotongan night life. We had an absolute blast! The drinks weren't that cheap once we left the pub environment, but they were ridiculously strong. I suspect this is because juice and soft drink costs so much here its cheaper to fill half the glass with vodka. Because it was Yvette's first night in town, we then had a familiar face floating around for the next week. It was actually pretty cool being parked in the middle of town - she could zip past on her scooter and just yell out to see if we were home.
The fishes loved Yvette
I wanted to go snorkelling again, so we spent a day at the beach together when Garth didn't feel like doing much. Which was fabulous. We headed to the same spot as before on Aro'a beach, but the journey was much more fun from the back of a scooter. I can see why everybody cruises around on them! Slightly nerve wracking with no helmets or protective clothing, but that's definitely the norm here. We went to the dive shop at Aro'a, who were really rude to me when I went in to ask about the cost of scuba diving a few days before. The younger people were really lovely and I'm guessing they're the ones actually doing the diving. But the lady they directed me to for a price enquiry was ridiculously rude. I just wanted two prices - the intro dive and the three day course. She sat me down and insisted on giving me a huge long spiel, which I sat through patiently. But every non-rehearsed word she said to me came across as rude and arrogant. She even got huffy at me when she asked what day we were leaving and my answer was 'probably later this week.' If I could have read her mind I would have found out that you're not supposed to fly for a few days after diving, and would have let her know we weren't flying anywhere. Unfortunately I can't mind read, and she snapped at me for withholding valuable information. If they were the only dive shop on the island (there's many others) and I really wanted to go diving, I still wouldn't give them any money after being spoken to so consistently rudely. She could have just been having a bad day. But worst customer service I've ever encountered. In conclusion, there are other dive shops.
Straight out the front of their shop is supposed to be the best snorkeling on the island, so Yvette handed over a few bucks for snorkel hire and we headed out. There's apparantly octopuses lurking out there but I suspect photoshop was involved in the octopus pictures posted in the dive shop, because we found none. There were lots of interesting fish though. The highlights were a weird boxy spotted guy and an angry eel. We even managed to get selfies in amongst all the fishes. They all seemed to be eating this time, which must be related to the tide. We chased big schools of fish that were jumping from one bit of coral to another, swarming around it and gorging themselves before rushing off to the next one. It was a lot of fun!
When I was there with Garth we found heaps of interesting fish as well, including another eel. He didn't seem to enjoy having a gopro pole stuck in his face and eventually ran away into some coral. Garth chased him and watched as he went through one hole after another, ending up wound all through the coral at once.
We also found a puffer fish, who made me very happy. He was hiding under a rock peeking out at me. You could see his little spikes all flattened down and I swear he was smiling. Happiest puffer fish ever! The coral was pretty average but the fish there are awesome. There was one weird looking guy who we kept trying to chase. He looked kind of like a Wrasse, but he swam with fins on his top and bottom instead of using the little ones on his sides. We also came across a crazy feathered fish hiding in the rocks. It was really hard to get a picture, but I tried anyway.
There were thousands of yellow and white stripey fish that were just everywhere. As always, they followed Garth. Everything follows Garth. I've even got a sequence of pictures where they're minding their own business, he swims past, and they all turn to watch him before trailing along behind. They were all milling around us and were so much fun to play with.
When I stand up to fix my mask or look for Garth, I always check the ground to make sure I'm not going to stand on coral. Then I drop the gopro, which is attached to my wrist and just hangs down near the ground. When we were going through the pictures I found these. I'd obviously just stood up, but this fish was so well camouflaged I didn't even notice him next to my feet. I have no idea what it was, but it's totally flat with one eye on top looking up to the world above. I saw another one when I was swimming with Yvette and watching them move was hilarious - they ripple along the bottom like a weird kind of stingray.
So Aro'a beach is the place to go snorkeling in Rarotonga.
It's costing us a fortune to stay here - $2.70 per metre per day for the parking space. I'm assuming they're going to round us up to 11m. Plus the food is really expensive. Although I have found a few low hanging coconut trees on public property that I can climb easily, so at least there's coconuts. They're selling them cut open with straws stuck in for $4 at the markets, about 20m away from the trees. No thanks. The markets here are really expensive and seem to just be a big tourist attraction instead of a place to buy veges. It's a big affair on Saturday morning, with food vans and souvenirs and a huge assortment of other things. A lot of the shops in town seem to have stalls there, so in a way it's a nice compact little sampling of everything in Rarotonga. They do have a few veges though, and we found some green oranges after Jerry told us they were amazing. They were amazing. And after getting some on the first Saturday we were here, I can't find any more anywhere. I should have bought more and just gorged myself!
I think we'll head out tomorrow, en route for delicious French foods in Bora Bora.
Xxx Monique
It was actually spectacular. I was expecting a cookie cutter show with nice dancing, and a half decent meal. It far and away exceeded my expectations. We chose to go to the Islander hotel, mostly because it listed everything on the menu instead of just saying 'island food,' and it was a short walk from the boat. We got there early for happy hour and actually had a really lovely evening together just talking and being a normal married couple. There was very little boat talk. No epoxy, sanding or problem solving. No route planning, which is our go to conversational topic after we move past ways of fixing things. We just talked about life and the universe while drinking ridiculously fancy cocktails at half price. It was lovely. We had waterfront views of the magnificent storm raging outside and the pool had awesome blue lights in it. It was nice to drink something with flowers in it next to a beach and a glowing blue pool. They even had a live band going. This must be what it's like for normal people when they go on holiday.
Then there was the food. It was fabulous. Much better than I was expecting from a resort buffet. They had all the traditional dishes covered, except they served pork belly in lieu of sacrificing a whole pig every night. Which is fair enough. I reached the point were I definitely couldn't eat another bite, which was when they chose to bring out cake and a huge Bombe Alaska. So I was happy. I'd already had a great night.
The dancing started the second everybody had finished scoffing down dessert. The dance troupe were just magnificent. There was a drumming group to provide the music and they were fabulous enough to have handled the entertainment all on their own. They instantly filled the whole hotel with multiple levels of sound, transporting us to another place and time. The ambience was amazing. Then there were the dancers. They told a loose story, with the drummers narrating in between acts. There was a dance to represent each island in the Cook Islands and they were all very unique. The girls moved in a similar way to belly dancers, in that their hips seemed to have a mind of their own. They wore the most beautiful costumes and for the faster dances the girls had a solid ledge of feathers sticking out behind them which you couldn't even really focus on because they were moving so fast.
By the end the dancers were all dripping in sweat and visibly exhausted. It was obviously hard work. I was absolutely delighted by the whole thing. I've seen traditional dances before, but this really was incomparable to anything else. So again, one of the highlights of our trip was a food experience. I shall refrain from pointing this out to Garth.
The list of island nights held on Rarotonga is massive, with almost every big hotel putting on a show. We originally decided to go to the Staircase bar in town, who put on a basic show twice a week. I'd read that the food was really average so it was better to just turn up for the $5 show. We got all gussied up on a Friday night and ventured into town, only to find that they were closed for a private function. Rude. So we wandered into Trader Jacks, which is the old cruisers bar before a cyclone washed away the harbour along with all the cruisers. Then we actually sat down and had a drink like normal people.
That was how we met Sarah and Yvette, on their last and first night in Raro respectively. They were both lovely, and thus began a really fun night of drinking, dancing and Rarotongan night life. We had an absolute blast! The drinks weren't that cheap once we left the pub environment, but they were ridiculously strong. I suspect this is because juice and soft drink costs so much here its cheaper to fill half the glass with vodka. Because it was Yvette's first night in town, we then had a familiar face floating around for the next week. It was actually pretty cool being parked in the middle of town - she could zip past on her scooter and just yell out to see if we were home.
I wanted to go snorkelling again, so we spent a day at the beach together when Garth didn't feel like doing much. Which was fabulous. We headed to the same spot as before on Aro'a beach, but the journey was much more fun from the back of a scooter. I can see why everybody cruises around on them! Slightly nerve wracking with no helmets or protective clothing, but that's definitely the norm here. We went to the dive shop at Aro'a, who were really rude to me when I went in to ask about the cost of scuba diving a few days before. The younger people were really lovely and I'm guessing they're the ones actually doing the diving. But the lady they directed me to for a price enquiry was ridiculously rude. I just wanted two prices - the intro dive and the three day course. She sat me down and insisted on giving me a huge long spiel, which I sat through patiently. But every non-rehearsed word she said to me came across as rude and arrogant. She even got huffy at me when she asked what day we were leaving and my answer was 'probably later this week.' If I could have read her mind I would have found out that you're not supposed to fly for a few days after diving, and would have let her know we weren't flying anywhere. Unfortunately I can't mind read, and she snapped at me for withholding valuable information. If they were the only dive shop on the island (there's many others) and I really wanted to go diving, I still wouldn't give them any money after being spoken to so consistently rudely. She could have just been having a bad day. But worst customer service I've ever encountered. In conclusion, there are other dive shops.
Straight out the front of their shop is supposed to be the best snorkeling on the island, so Yvette handed over a few bucks for snorkel hire and we headed out. There's apparantly octopuses lurking out there but I suspect photoshop was involved in the octopus pictures posted in the dive shop, because we found none. There were lots of interesting fish though. The highlights were a weird boxy spotted guy and an angry eel. We even managed to get selfies in amongst all the fishes. They all seemed to be eating this time, which must be related to the tide. We chased big schools of fish that were jumping from one bit of coral to another, swarming around it and gorging themselves before rushing off to the next one. It was a lot of fun!
When I was there with Garth we found heaps of interesting fish as well, including another eel. He didn't seem to enjoy having a gopro pole stuck in his face and eventually ran away into some coral. Garth chased him and watched as he went through one hole after another, ending up wound all through the coral at once.
We also found a puffer fish, who made me very happy. He was hiding under a rock peeking out at me. You could see his little spikes all flattened down and I swear he was smiling. Happiest puffer fish ever! The coral was pretty average but the fish there are awesome. There was one weird looking guy who we kept trying to chase. He looked kind of like a Wrasse, but he swam with fins on his top and bottom instead of using the little ones on his sides. We also came across a crazy feathered fish hiding in the rocks. It was really hard to get a picture, but I tried anyway.
There were thousands of yellow and white stripey fish that were just everywhere. As always, they followed Garth. Everything follows Garth. I've even got a sequence of pictures where they're minding their own business, he swims past, and they all turn to watch him before trailing along behind. They were all milling around us and were so much fun to play with.
When I stand up to fix my mask or look for Garth, I always check the ground to make sure I'm not going to stand on coral. Then I drop the gopro, which is attached to my wrist and just hangs down near the ground. When we were going through the pictures I found these. I'd obviously just stood up, but this fish was so well camouflaged I didn't even notice him next to my feet. I have no idea what it was, but it's totally flat with one eye on top looking up to the world above. I saw another one when I was swimming with Yvette and watching them move was hilarious - they ripple along the bottom like a weird kind of stingray.
So Aro'a beach is the place to go snorkeling in Rarotonga.
It's costing us a fortune to stay here - $2.70 per metre per day for the parking space. I'm assuming they're going to round us up to 11m. Plus the food is really expensive. Although I have found a few low hanging coconut trees on public property that I can climb easily, so at least there's coconuts. They're selling them cut open with straws stuck in for $4 at the markets, about 20m away from the trees. No thanks. The markets here are really expensive and seem to just be a big tourist attraction instead of a place to buy veges. It's a big affair on Saturday morning, with food vans and souvenirs and a huge assortment of other things. A lot of the shops in town seem to have stalls there, so in a way it's a nice compact little sampling of everything in Rarotonga. They do have a few veges though, and we found some green oranges after Jerry told us they were amazing. They were amazing. And after getting some on the first Saturday we were here, I can't find any more anywhere. I should have bought more and just gorged myself!
I think we'll head out tomorrow, en route for delicious French foods in Bora Bora.
Xxx Monique
Your feathered fish friend looks like a Lionfish. They are not cuddly, but pretty!
ReplyDeleteLove the smiling fish at the end!
ReplyDelete