Roratonga, Cook Islands

We had planned to meet up with anyone who wanted to share a boat for snorkeling again but I woke with a migraine so told Mel to go ahead without me. The seas were very rough, so everyone decided to forget the boat and just go ashore. By 8:30 I was up and dressed and ready to go....the wonders of modern medicine! We were on the 2nd tender to go ashore, quite a bumpy ride. The small pier was protected by a breakwall, so landing was fine.

 

Once on shore, there were several small buses waiting. The ship had no planned excursions because of the island's small infrastructure, so everyone was on their own. We hopped on a bus. For $10 per person we got a tour all around the island. It ended up being about 1 1/2 hrs, so a great deal. We stopped at a beach and several other places along the way. They had had rain for 3 weeks before our arrival, everything was very green. The driver pointed out all the crops. Everything grows well there so no one was going hungry on that island. They export a number of their crops to New Zealand and Australia such as papaya. The driver pointed out several natural lagoons that would be good for snorkeling so when we were back at the pier, we found a taxi to take us to the beach.

 

We left our bags in front of a nice hotel. Used their chairs too. The beach was beautiful, with several small islands just off shore. The water was shallow so we could walk to the islands. A cute dog came up to us before we went into the water so I gave him a piece of bread. Once in the water, he followed us all the way to the island (he had to swim), around the island and back to shore. Very cute. He was rewarded with more bread and even some ham Mel had brought along for lunch. Probably the best meal he'd had in ages.

The water wasn't as clear as in Bora Bora, but there was a lot of coral as well as many colorful fish. What was amazing were all the sea cucumbers! They looked like giant turds all over the sea floor. We'd never seen them in the wild like that before. We have eaten them in Chinatown many times though. Mel picked one up just to see what it was like. It spurted water when brought out in the air. The sea side of the island was covered with large chunks of dead coral, quite beautiful in a way. There was a reef further out, but we didn't feel like we had time to go out any more. Our taxi was returning for us in 1 1/2 hrs, and was right on time.

 

We were dropped at one of the few stores that was open on a Sunday. Not the best day to be in port. We shopped there then walked the short distance back to the pier. A market was set up near there also, so we were able to shop. We headed back to the ship at about 2. The tender ride was quite fun, with very rough seas. Shortly after we were safely back on board, they announced the tender service was stopped for going ashore, they would only be bringing people back to the ship because of the roughness of the sea.

The Lido was closed by the time we'd showered and dressed so we ate at the grill. I had a hamburger which was great. We ended up eating in the Lido for dinner since we'd had such a late lunch. Kind of nice not having to wait for our table mates to eat their 3 or 4 starters before dinner. I skipped the show also, so had a nice, open evening. I got online pretty quickly while everyone was either at late dinner or at the show. Once that was over, it was impossible to get back online. The Internet Mgr explained that there is only a certain amount of bandwidth that everyone shares. If someone is uploading a lot of pics or something, they could be using the majority of the bandwidth, so others wouldn't be able to get online. Interesting but frustrating!

 

When loading the tenders, they encountered problems with one of the winches. The Capt announced that they were sending the tender back to the pier so they had a safe place to wait while it was fixed. We were supposed to leave Roratonga at 5 but sat in the harbor until almost 8 before we finally set sail for Alofi, Niue. (Has anyone heard of that place!!!???)