Back Home

Well we made it back home finally. The last day on the island, the 18th we went to CINVAS (Cook Islands National Visual Art Society) and got tattoos by a girl named 'Stormy'. She is the niece of the famous tatoo guy Te on the island and like her uncle who trained her, she specializes in free hand polynesian designs. We went there with no idea what we were getting. Anyway, the end result was pretty cool. You basically tell her your story and she designs something around you and it is yours. You cannot go there and look at her art and say I want that one. Each tattoo belongs to only one person.

After that we headed over to the Blue Note Cafe and I had the Tuna burger and Marsha had the Parrot Fish and chips. Parrot fish is a blue colored lagoon fish by the way. We also had our last two Cooks Lagers and then headed back to our villa for the last time.

For supper we went up to Dougies once more and had a toasty (toasted sandwich) and a thick shake before heading off.

Went to the airport around 9:45 pm and left at 11:15 and 15 hours later we were back in San Francisco wishing we were back in the Cook Islands.

May 17th Cook Islands

Supper at the Tamarind was excellent. The Tamarind is located just 3 minutes from Avarua (the island center) and has an open feel to it. The yard is full of lush coconut trees with a nice breeze off the Pacific Ocean from the north. The atmosphere is great there, there is a piano player there while you are eating and the food is very very good. For appetizers we had sashimi (raw tuna in this case) and then I had shrimp, game fish, New Zealand mussels, and calamari in a coconut cream sauce with rice. Marsha had a thai peanut crusted fish with rice and veggies. For desert we had a cheese board with grapes and crackers and lettuce. We also bought the cook book that the owner wrote. She used to manage the flame tree where we ate last week but came out of retirement by popular demand and started the tamarind. The restaurant is called this because there used to be a tamarind tree growing on the property that all the local kids would eat the tamarind fruit from.

This morning we went on Pa’s cross-island trek. We started at 8 and we were done at 12. Lunch was provided and it was a hard but excellent excursion to do. Pa is a colorful character pushing 70 years old. He has done the walk 3052 times now including today. The walk consists of a straight up hike to the base of the needle (or temple) and this part takes about 30 minutes or so with lots of opportunities for photos. Pa stops and points out all of the medicinal plants along the way as well. One plant of interest was the one from which Cialis is made (Viagra’s competitor). Apparently, you just boil the leaves and drink the tea and it does the trick. We also saw a very rare flower (one of the rarest in the world) that only grows on Rarotonga and nowhere else. When we got to the base he showed us the spot where back in 2003 he took the Dali Lama. Apparently in 1999 before the millennium followers of the Dali Lama went to Tibet and dug up one of their past Dali Lamas from 900 years ago and cremated the remains and divided up into 8 urns. The Dali Lama and his followers then traveled the world looking for places with high energy to bury the urn and they contacted Pa with a special request. He picked them up at 5 am and took the Dali Lama and 22 of his followers to the needle and place of high energy on the island and they held a 1 hr ceremony and buried the urn there at the base. Since then Pa gives a few stones from the temple to newly married couples for good luck and he did the same for us. One couple he gave the stones to just wrote him a letter to tell him they won 3.75 million dollars.

From there we started out 90-minute descent. We ate lunch at the river and continued on and ended at Wigmore falls for a quick dip. Then our bus picked us up and we were home by 12:30 pm. I highly recommend this walk. It is slippery and hard but well worth it.

May 16th Cook Islands

May 16^th Cook Islands

5pm

Rented (‘hired’) a car today. Tried to get a convertible but ended up with a Toyota Echo and it is much smaller than the North American version but a nice little car for getting around the island. It is hard to stay on the left hand side of the road as well but they have a big reminder sticker on the dashboard for you…”Keep Left!”

Drove around the entire island today, went to the hospital and took some pictures and then went to the prison to see if they had an ukuleles for sell. They will have one tomorrow for us. After that we went to town and did a bit of souvenir shopping and talked about how much we don’t want to leave. I really do not want to have to work on Sunday, but I have to. Sunday the real world comes back to bite me in the ass. I will probably be working in the trauma room or something and we will probably get some guy that was shot, stabbed or beaten up or whatever and I will think…man people in North America do not know how to treat each other. If the whole world was like the Cook Islands, it would be a much more peaceful place.

Anyway, we are going out for supper tonight at a place called Tamarind that is supposed to be awesome.

May 15th Cook Islands

May 15^th 2006 Cook Islands

Did not do too much yesterday. Went up by the church to record the singing then biked up to the botanical gardens and took a bunch of photos. It was closed but you could still go in to see it they had an honor box there with a $3 charge. Then we brought our bikes back and went for a 4 km kayak around the islands and saw an octopus.

Later in the night, the irish couple we met dropped over for a bit to see our wedding photos and they were heading out today to New Zealand for a 11 days and then off to Sydney before heading back to Ireland.

Today we got up bright and early to catch our bus to the airport. We took Air Rarotonga to Aitutaki. Apparently, it was the English version of survivor that was filmed there (it is called ‘Shipwrecked’) and it is currently running over in the UK now.

When we got to Aitutaki our guide (who was also a dancer in the Island night we went to on Saturday – people do a little bit of everything here) took us around the town on the bus and then we went to our boat and began the lagoon cruise. We went to Shark Island, one of the islands the Brits are currently watching if they are a fan of Shipwreck, the other show was named Tiger. It was cool; we got to see their tribal council area, etc. Apparently they were all pretty much useless. The could not figure out how to open a coconut (which every island is full of). They also stocked the islands with chickens and pigs and they could not bring themselves to kill any of them. Pretty lame survivors.

From here we went snorkeling and saw loads of fish and some giant clams. By the way if you are dumb enough to touch a big clam and get an extremity stuck in it when it closes up quickly, you will not be able to free yourself and you will probably drown.

After snorkeling came the barbecued fish meal and then we were off to one-foot island where there is a little post office that opens up only with the tour boat. Here for $2.50 they will stamp your passport as well.

Finally we headed home and bet on some crab races along the way and stopped in the bar for a beer before going to the airport and heading back to Rarotonga. It was a great day. Aitutaki is a must see if visiting the Cook Islands. It is much quieter and slower than Rarotonga with population of just 1700.

May 13th Cook Islands

May 13^th, 2006 Cook Islands

Well we have settled into married life (ha ha). Actually, there was no adjustment to be made as we were pretty much married anyway, now it is legal that’s all. Yesterday we went to town, got a Cook Islands driver’s license ($10 and a cool souvenir) so that we can rent a car and a copy of the marriage entry certificate (doesn’t hurt to have a copy-not like we can just get one quickly once we are back if we need it for any reason).

When we got home we ran up to the butcher and got a massive tuna steak and barbecued it along with some bananas. We washed it all down with a Steinlager beer. For desert we had some paw paw. Went for a long walk afterwards.

Today we got up early took the bus into town, it was packed. Went to the market and ate some really good food, there was a cruise ship in so it was busy there. Finally got home around 3 and then went kayaking out to the shipwreck off muri beach. We pulled up along the perimeter of the lagoon and walked around perhaps 100 meters from where the open ocean is breaking on the coral reef (wouldn’t go any further than that).

Tonight we are going to an ‘island night’ which involves a feast that they cook the traditional way using hot rocks and leaves and burying it in an underground oven. There will also be a drumming and dancing show.

Too bad our time here is nearing an end. All good things must come to an end I guess. Tomorrow we will probably just relax and perhaps rent a sailboat or take some pictures from the kayaks. Monday we are off to Aitutaki for a day trip, leaving at 8 am and back at 5:30 pm. It is only a 30-minute flight. The lagoon up there is supposed to be one of the nicest in the world. The trip includes a day of snorkeling, a glass bottom boat lagoon cruise and food. On Tuesday, we plan to rent a car and take in any sights, shops we might have missed. Wednesday, we are going to do an organized walk with Pa, well known local character that does the trek 3 times a week for travelers. It takes about 4 hours to go just 2 km. Thursday is our last day here and we check out of Sokala at 6pm and our flight leaves at 11:30 pm (Rarotonga - Papeete, Tahiti – Los Angeles – San Francisco). Two weeks from now this will all seem like a very pleasant dream. Since we so have history here now though, I think we will be back here again from time to time throughout our lives.

Got our professional photos back yesterday, 56 prints, negatives and a73 pics on a cd. They are very nice and we will put them on flickr when we get home.

Wedding Pics (in no particular order)

These are not our official pictures, these are ones that Lawrence the owner/manager of Sokala Villas took with my digital camera and also ones that Marsha and I took ourselves and using our tripod. The catered meal we had afterwards was awesome. For starters we had prawns with aspargus, then a tropical salad followed by a margarita each. Then the main course was a ribeye steak on a bed of garlic mashed potatos, oyster mushrooms and cheese. After than we had a plate of New Zealand Cheeses, dried fruit, nuts and handmade chocolate with a bottle of New Zealand pinot noir wine. Excellent and all of this under the full south pacific moon.





















More pics of course to follow later.

More Pics

Pic 1 is Marsha holding up a traditional meal that we got at the Cultural Village tour
Pic 2 is the dog that visits us everynight. In the pic he is hunting for fish and crabs.
Pic 3 is of a modern day outrigger canoe.
Pic 4 is nice pic I took on an overcast day when we went to the waterfall.
Pic 5 is of another day when it was rainy but I thought this made a nice picture.
Pic 6 is of me standing in front of the Landrover that we took on the 4x4 tour of the island. The Cook Islands flag looks a lot like Australia's and New Zealands except that there are 15 stars one for each island.

Going to get married in one hour from now. Talk to everyone soon!

Jamie

More pics

Marsha and I at the market drinking from a Coconut. This was on May 6th Saturday.

May 11th, Cook Islands, Wedding Day

Well it looks like it will be a nice day but it is too soon to tell. It is hot here today and the sun is out and sky is blue with big puffy clouds so that is a good sign. I know it can turn on a dime however.

Photo above taken a couple of days ago of one of the peaks on the island (the only volcanic island of the Cook Islands, the rest are coral Atolls). Some of the islands of the northern group are so low to the water they highest point is only 5 m and during a cyclone, waves can wash over the entire island. The higest peak in Rarotonga is like 690 m or something.

The other picture on top is a sunset we got from the north side (near the airport) one night when we got stuck up there betwee then period of 4pm to 6pm when the bus is not running.

The Pic of me and Marsha is during the Safari tour when we stopped by Wigmore's falls the only waterfall on the island.

May 10th Cook Islands

Today it did not rain yet. Imagine that. Got everything sorted for the wedding. This morning we went on the cultural village tour and it was really interesting with a great lunch and dancing/singing show at the end. Sorry for the lack of pictures but it really is hard to upload them from here and it really chews into you internet time. After the show we came home and vegged out. Marsha went up to talk to the lady about the flowers and then we laid on the beach for a bet and our dog friend was off in the water catching crabs or doing whatever it is he does in the water all day. Great life for a dog. I found a coconut on the beach (they are everywhere actually) and now that I know the different stages I knew this was a ripe one so we broke it apart to get at the nut which we split and drank the juice and now we have the flesh in the fridge. The green coconuts are the best for drinking and they are younger, the darker ones are better for the cream. Anyway that is all for now. Just at Dougie's now having a thick shake (coconut and paw paw/and chocolate and coconut).

PHONE NUMBER FOR VILLA

Hey everyone the phone number that gets you directly to our villa is

011-682-29504.

May 9th, 2006 Cook Islands

May 9^th, 2006 Cook Islands

Got up early today to be on the main road for 8:30 am to get picked up by Raro Tours. This tour consisted of three Land Rover vehicles that took us all over the island and in the mountains. It was an awesome tour and very informative. We learned how the Cook Islands used to be THE orange producer for the pacific, but lost the market to competing countries and the same thing happened with pineapples. Right now the biggest crop is Paw Paw or Papaya and they are supposedly the best. New Zealand can’t get enough and they sell for like $5.50 NZD in Auckland at the grocers.

We also got to see the site of the $120 million scandal were the Sheraton hotel was supposed to be built. The politicians at the time were involved and they basically got in with an Italian company without checking them out well enough and the Italian company turned out to be a front for the Italian mafia and the island was taken advantage of. Finally, a Cook Islander developer living in New Zealand is very close to bringing the project into reality. It will be awesome it is goes ahead, they are actually going to divert the road and dig up the existing road and bring the lagoon right into each villa’s deck area.

There are no big hotels or resorts here (which is a good thing in my book). No building here is taller than a palm tree. What makes this place so unique is its lack of commerciality and friendliness of its people. Can you imagine a stranger in the USA stopping to pick you up? Better yet, would you be crazy enough to get in the car with a stranger in the USA or Toronto, Canada? It would be a good way to end up in the trunk of someone’s car. People here mean you no harm and trust is a given. People do not fear their neighbors here, xenophobia is not an issue.

Got to see where the prison is located as well. They only have 18 prisoners and 2 are maximum security for murder. The prison is cheapest place to buy a ukulele as the prisoners make them ($40 vs. $80 in the stores). Prisoners can also be rented out for the day to do any type of work you want them to. The state charges $28.50 and of that the prisoner get $5 deposited into their savings account. The maximum sentence here is 14 years and you only serve 1/3 if you are well behaved.

Like Newfoundland, out-migration is an issue. This island used to be 22,000 in population in the 90’s now it is only 12,000. Cook Islanders have New Zealand passports and thus are entitled to live and work in New Zealand and Australia. Many leave for school, many do not return to live. It is sad as this place is about as perfect as you can get.

Anyway the day ended with a barbecue on the beach of swordfish steaks, barbecued bananas, salad and fruit. It was very nice and tasty. The couple just married from Ireland that we met when we first got here was on this excursion with us. They are off to Aitutaki today for 4 days. We are doing a day trip there on Monday. It is only a 30-minute flight. It should be great.

5:00pm

Went to the store just now on our mountain bikes. One 6 pack of beer, one papaya, three bananas, one bag of chips and a piece of banana bread $25 NZD. Got caught in yet another downpour on the way back but seems to have stopped now. Also dropped a CD full of Newfoundland music to Dougie’s. Not sure if he will like it or not but he collects music and books from all the backpackers that go in and out of his place.

6:30

Going to the Flame Tree restaurant tonight for supper at 8:00pm. Should be good.

May 8th Cook Islands

May 8^th, 2006

It continued to rain heavily today right up until 1pm or so and then gradually the sun came out. So we got the marriage license. It was funny because on it Marsha is classed as a spinster (don’t think it has the same negative meaning here as in Canada).

From there we went to the Internet café and I tried to upload my pics but was only able to put on about 6. The Internet here is painfully slow; even though it is broadband it is only 256kbs/s at best (5 times faster than dialup). I have decided to only add a couple of pictures here and there on my blog and upload the works of them to Flickr when I get home to my own computer. The internet cafes here are pricey, $10 NZD for 1 hour (but you can sign out and come back later and use your remaining time) at Dougies and $12 for 90 minutes at the post office. The villa here charges about $6/hr for dial up service. It takes me 10-20 minutes to upload just 6 pictures at the Internet cafes.

We took a lot of cool pictures again and ended up eating at the Fish and Chips place next to the main wharf. $14 for two huge pieces of marlin, two deep-fried battered sausages and some chips. Not bad, I was full afterwards. Then we had to wait a long time for the bus as there is no bus from 4pm to 6pm and then the bus only goes in one direction for the rest of the night, clockwise. Roratonga is round island so during the day there is a clockwise bus and a counterclockwise bus. To quote the locals, if you ask them when the next bus is they say “when it comes”. Usually it is every hour though give or take 10-15 minutes.

We also extended the rental of our mountain bikes today for a week as they come in quite handy for getting around cheaply.

When we got home around 7pm it was already dark and the dog we have named “creampuff” was there to great us as usual and he followed us to our balcony and flaked out for 10 minutes before leaving. Going to bed now as we have a tour book for tomorrow. A lot of people here are using skype to call home, it is a phone over the internet service that ebay owns. Perhaps I will try it sometime, it must be cheaper than the $20 NZD/6 minutes I get with a prepaid calling card.

May 7th Cook Islands

May 7, 2006

Some facts about the Cook Islands Geography

Total land area: 241 sq km (about 25% as big a Rhode Island)

This area is chopped up in 15 islands divided into a Northern and Southern group and then scattered over 2 million sq km of sea (area the size of Western Europe)

Roratonga is 3447 km from Auckland, New Zealand. That is isolation.

12:30pm

Got up and went to church today. First time I stepped foot in a church in years (considering I don’t really think of myself as Christian). Anyway it `1 was really nice, all the men and women were dressed in white and the women all had hats on. Most of the sermon was in Maori and a little in English. Man these people can sing!!! After the service all the tourists were invited over to the minister’s house where they had coffee, tea, biscuits and sandwiches. We stuck around and chatted for 30 minutes or so with a nice Cook Island lady from New Zealand that is in the process of moving back to Aitutaki (as a side note, the new season of survivor is being filmed there now). We also met a nice backpacker couple; the guy was from Slovenia and the girl from the Netherlands. She is actually moving to Walnut Creek (in the San Fran bay area) this Thursday, as this is where her parents live now. Small world. Probably going to rent some bikes today and go around.

9:30 am May 8^th, 2006

So we ended up renting bikes (bicycles) today and we will probably keep them all week. They are a great way to get around without having to worry about gas or getting the motorcycle license which is necessary if you are renting a scooter. We biked about 8 km each way to get to this really nice waterfall where we swam with the locals and actually got to meet PA, the guy who we are going to do the cross island trek with at some point.

After spending the day riding around, we went the to internet café but I had trouble uploading more photos (will try again today). Dougie, the owner invited us to his place to cook up some food so we ended up going there and we had a bunch of sausages, lamb chops, salad, beer etc with a bunch of people from New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK. It was a good time. Anyway, got lots of stuff to take of today (marriage licenses and stuff).

May 6th, 2006 Cook Islands

May 6^th, 2006

9:30am

Got up early today to go to the market but it is pissing down outside so we are waiting for it to let off a little before we venture out into it. Caught a lizard today as well.

8:25pm

Had a great day at the markets despite the heavy rain. Bought a few souvenirs for us and a toy for Jake, sorry Susan-it is noisy. We got a lot of really cool pictures as well. For lunch we paid $10 NZD and got a huge platter of lamb chops, chicken, arrowroot (not the cookie), a banana-like thing and some creamed spinach with a coffee of course. We poked around at the local stores and saw someone getting an island tattoo and thought…umm that looks cool maybe we will get a traditional tattoo while we are here as a permanent souvenir.

We ended up buying some cheap speakers and a radio, as the portable speaker I brought here cannot be recharged with the 240-volt current and what not. They only have one radio station here and it is really funny as they seem to play all the modern hits only they are all re-done with an island twist by the locals I guess (ukuleles and stuff).

We went back to Trader Jacks for another Cook’s Lager of course, watched some dude snorkeling with a spear gun looking for fish and bunch of people going out in Polynesian canoes. We managed to find another grocery store with more reasonable prices. When we got home we went up to Dougie’s Internet café (not Doug Harris) and had more coffee and uploaded some pics. This guy is really cool, originally from Wellington, NZ, then he moved to London, now lives here.

For supper (they say ‘supper’ here not like in the USA where it is Lunch and dinner) we had a barbecue of chicken sausage, garlic and onions, garlic cheese bread and baked potatoes. There is only one barbecue here for everyone to use but Lawrence said as long as no one else requests it he will just keep it on our deck.

Anyway going for a walk up the beach now. We have a safari tour booked for Tuesday which should be cool (www.rarosafaritours.co.ck ) . We are also planning to do the Cultural Village tour (www.cookislandsculturalvillage.com) hopefully on Monday or Wednesday. The other things we want to do include PA’s mountain walk which takes you across the island’s center, a day or day/night trip to the island of Aitutaki (45 minute flight), rent (hire) a car for the day and go everywhere we can to take pictures. We also need to take in an ‘island night’ kind of like a Hawaiian Luau (not sure I spelled that right) but a hell of a lot cheaper (probably go to the Edgewater resort).

By the way everyone here rides a scooter (I guess it is cheap with the gas (petrol) prices). As ludicrous as this might sound, the Cook Islands does have a lot in common with Newfoundland…they are losing people to New Zealand like we lose people to mainland Canada at a rate of 1.4 per day. Everything here costs a little more due to the isolation of being an island. They really know isolation here. Imagine taking Newfoundland and breaking it up into a bunch of islands and then putting those islands hundreds on miles apart…that is the Cook Islands. Imagine if we were a thousand miles from mainland Canada how much things would cost.

Also there are many many dogs here that people own but they are all off leash kind of like Newfoundland in the old days but they are all friendly.

9:03pm

Speaking of animals we just had a cat come to the door that went away after we played with it and now there was a dog we named ‘creampuff’ here at our door wagging his tail so we let him into our villa he now he is passed out asleep on our floor. He is very well behaved though.

That’s all for now.

May 5th, Cook Islands

May 5^th, 2006

Got up today around 10am to the sound of birds. It was awesome sleeping last night with all the windows open to the island breeze off the Pacific Ocean. I slept like a rock. Last night we discovered that we have a little friend in our villa, ‘Gary’ the gecko. He is usually on the ceiling, but who cares…he eats the bugs. Also found a baby crab in the bathroom, they are all over the place outside, guess he got in when we left the door open.

After some breakfast of fruit, cereal and coffee we went to catch the bus into the town but missed it and to our surprise this old lady driving a Kia blew her horn at us and asked if we needed a ride so we said yes and she took us right to the courthouse to get our marriage license. People are friendly like that here. I think she is the mother of the guy that runs the villas, Lawrence.

In town after we got our license application done, we walked around and grabbed a bite to eat at Trader Jacks and Marsha had the best Sashimi (raw fish, tuna in this case-blackened on the outside) I have ever tasted. It literally melted in your mouth. I had the fish and chips and we both continued our practice of ordering Cooks Lager beer on tap wherever we go. Great beer but it varies in taste depending on where you get it (very inconsistent but always good). I also bought a colorful Island shirt so I don’t look too much like a tourist (everyone here wears flowery shirts).

The groceries here are very expensive. It cost $6.50 for a big bag of chips and $7.00 for a box of cereal. Meals are not provided at the villa so you have to buy groceries and use your kitchenette as eating out all the time will quickly take a bite out of your money.

After we got home we went snorkeling up past the last island. It is really shallow and you can actually stand up (but all the coral makes it hard to do so) if you get tired but there are lots and lots of fish. They all look like the kind you find in really nice aquariums at Doctors offices, etc. Finding Nemo type of fish.

Just had some stir fry beef with garlic, onions, peppers and a Cook Island Sweet Potato. It was really good. Now we are drinking the champagne that came with the villa. Anyway, it gets dark early here (around 6:30 pm). This is because it is so close to the equator. There is not much to do at night as the place pretty much shuts down at 4pm except for restaurants and a few grocery stores. The view of the night sky is amazing though and you see all the stars you don’t see if you live anywhere near a populated area.

Tomorrow we are heading back into town to check out the Saturday markets and Sunday we are going to the church to listen to the people sing (supposed to be a must according to all the travel books).

We will keep you posted. By the way called home today and a $20 phone card gets you 6 whole minutes of talk time to Canada.

Day one Cook Islands

Well we made it here in one piece, two earthquakes off the coast of Tonga later. On the way here we stopped in Tahiti, very beautiful. Picture the rocky mountains rising from the sea and covered in green, that's Tahiti. They speak French there (I think they are actuall French Citizens or something).

We finally made it to Roratonga at about 3 pm NFLD time or 0730 local time. Since we have been here we have met with the wedding planner, paid for the wedding, met the local guy that owns the internet cafe, kayaked the length of the lagoon to look at fish got caught in a thunderstorm that was very cool and refreshing in this heat. Tomorrow we go into town to apply for the marriage license. For more pics keep checking jamiestone.com and click on photos. Stay tuned for more.

By the way, we don't have a TV in our room but we do have access to the internet (dial up mind you but hey it is better than nothing).

Sitting in LA

Well after a 3 hr delay in San Fran due to mechanical problems with the plane we finally made it to LA around 530pm but had to check through security again. It was crazy in SFO, e had to go through secondary security and get tested for chemical dust by this big machine by GE and all of our stuff got swabbed. It took 10 minutes and of course I was beltless and barefoot (you have to take you belt and shoes off-everyone does). Anyway the next leg og the trip goes from LA to Papeete, French Polynesia and then on the Roratonga, CI.

Until then

Leaving

Well Nico is in Santa Cruz at Doggie Camp. She did not want us to leave, this is the longest we have ever left her. She will have a good time though, she always does. We are leaving for the airport in 1 hr, Brian is coming over to drive us there in the TOR TOR (taurus). We should get to the Cook Islands by 5pm NFLD time on Thursday or 12:30pm California/BC time. We will keep you updated as long as we kind find internet access. Hopefully, no more Tsunami warnings!