"When you're talkin to yourself
And nobody's home
You can fool yourself
You came in this world alone"
It's now my last day in Cook Islands and in tropics before heading out to New Zealand for Christmas, New Year and most of the winter as well. This also marks the end of the 2nd leg of this journey and I am also closing in on midway mark, which means train will soon start heading back home.
Yea, been long time since last entry but there has been reason for it. First of all internet aint cheap in Cook Islands(9 dollars for hour compared to 2 dollars for hour in Auckland) and second, I have had to spend all my precious internet time in planning New Zealand and making all the necessary bookings. I'll just write down here my internet checklist for the other day so you get idea how much planning just simple 10 days takes:
- Buy Flexipass
- Reserve bus ticket to Kaitaia
- Book accomodation in Kaitaia
- Book Cape Reinga trip
- Reserve bus ticket to Paihia
- Book accomodation in Paihia
- Enquire about diving at Rainbow Warrior
- Enquire about sailing on Bay of Islands
- Reserve bus ticket to Whangarei
- Book accomodation in Whanagrei
- Enquire about diving in Poor Knights Island
...well, I guess you get the point ;) Sometimes it's handy to have travel agent but then you lose half the fun.
My last 6 days in Rarotonga was spent quietly, lot more quietly than those crazy nights at Vara's at the start of the trip. I did lot of hiking and went diving one day. On last day I wanted to catch up with Matt and Cherry at Vara's so went there to watch Matt's team succesfully defending their Cook Islands cricket trophy. Was pretty crazy night afterwards though :)
Oh, one creepy story about backpacker place I stayed my last 4 nights in Rarotonga. I woke up one morning around 6am to hear owner couple arguing. My room was right next to their office so I was propably only one hearing them. I was still kinda sleepy so slept till 8am and woke up. Got out and saw the owner lady with big swollen right eye! Ummm...ok, so I make myself brekkie and the guy comes to me: "Good morning, Tero. Did you hear us talking this morning? I was kinda loud." Ok...I immediately understood what is going on, this loser had beat up his wife and now he was making sure there was no witnesses. "No, I slept like a log", I responded. Last thing I wanted was to get involved into their mess. Entire day the guy came to me asking "Hey Tero, how are you? you good?". It was getting outright creepy since the guy wouldn't talk to me on any other days, only that day.
So how was Cook Islands?
People traveling to Cook Islands can be categorized into 2 groups: 7 out of 10 travelers are on Round-The-World ticket(RTW) and rest are basically vacationing from New Zealand. Reason for this is simple, only 2 cities with flights there are Auckland and Los Angeles. What I found weird was that nearly everyone was doing RTW from east to west, which basically means you lose a day instead of gaining a day. Well, after little chatting I found out that apparently flights are heaps cheaper that way so thats why people do it that way.
Other thing that caught my attention was that there were hardly any American tourists in Cook Islands. Reason to this is global recession and extremely weak US dollar. My divemaster in Aitutaki told me that 3-4 years ago there was 4 weekly flights from Los Angeles to Cook Islands and 2 of those planes were 747s. Now there is single 737 and they are planning to cancel that flight as well cause its always half empty.
On Cook Islands I also started to notice how my state of mind is changing. First 2-3 months on this journey I was happy doing absolutely nothing. I feel that period has passed and now I need stuff to do, sitting down and doing nothing just doesn't have the same appeal anymore. Well, I'm sure glad that I am in New Zealand at the moment because this place has the activities. Entire country is geared towards extreme activities to keep mind and body busy. I have now planned next 30 days so almost every day is has some sort of activity going on. Looking forward to it.
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