Friday Night and Saturday

Today's posting will not be chronological. I will mix and match our activities over Friday and Saturday, just because the photos seem to make more sense that way. I am writing this from Wigmore's Supermarket and Bubby thought you all ought to see what that looks like. It seems to be our favorite island grocery stop, partly because they have such interesting local "fast food" for sale. We love to look around and see what is new. Yesterday, Bubby found some prepared rukau (taro tops), still warm from the kitchen. There are lots of neat things to see.



This is me at my outside office, carrying on both monkey and
dean's business from the privacy of my laptop. We get lots of curious stares because most people here cannot relate to wireless and what we might be doing. I bought a wireless card for $36 NZ which allows me to traffic 150 MB. I haven't yet used 50 MB, so I decided to load larger photos for our audience. The wifi signal is pretty steady and although it isn't as fast as my T1 line at work, we get by.



This morning we went to the open air market in downtown Avarua. The thing started at 6:30 AM and we were there by 7:20. There was a lot of local produce for sale, everything from the Maori garden. Of course there was also local festival foods, including Bubby's coconut cream glazed roll and my cream-filled doughnut. Our major purpose in going to the market was finding pareau clothing for the grands. We saw more island patterns, in more varieties, than you can imagine.



Bubby has been so impressed with the produce and when she saw this bunch of basil, she went nuts. We have rarely seen more beautiful stuff and we had to get a photo so we could admire it. The little old man who grew it indicated that there really is no market for basil in Rarotonga, but, like me, he just loves to have it growing in his garden. It smelled wonderful, and we visited with him for about 10 minutes about organic gardening and what he markets. His produce was beautiful.



I had to include this photo of an anatomically correct Tangaroa, God of the Seas. There are carvings of him everywhere, and they all show the least appropriate part of this anatomy. That seems to be on everyone's minds down here. The statue was carved in basalt, so it is also of geological interest.



Yesterday afternoon, we went down to the lagoon for some sun and fishing. I had a great time, caught a few fish, and generally enjoyed the overcast weather. Bubby was reading and doing a little sunning herself. She wanted me to include this photo of a cobalt blue starfish. They are all over the lagoon, and make such a striking color contrast with the grays of the coral and white sand of the bottom.



At sunset, we went down to the beach again and did some walking, hoping for a glimpse of the sun as it set. Things were pretty cloudy yesterday, and there was not a lot to work with, but I offer the best of what we got.



It was so cloudy, there was not chance of seeing the stars come out, so we had to settle for a walk home in the dark.



I experimented with my flash, and got the most dramatic of the photos while I had the flash on. Enjoy!

Buboppy

PS. Bubby and I went back to the lagoon at high tide today for more fishing. In about two hours, I caught 40 of what I now call "snakes" (I think they are trumpet fish) and I cast and hooked another 10 for Bubby to reel in. They were everywhere. I keep hoping to catch something else, but these things won't let anything else get the fly.