Rarotonga Day 1

The flight from LAX to Raro was delightful. Air New Zealand has roomy planes and we were not crowded at all. There was enough room that Bubby snagged an entire middle row, stretched out, and slept. They served us dinner (a full blown dinner with all of the additional stuff) at 12:30 AM, and then breakfast (again, full blown) at about 5:30 AM, just before we landed in Raro. Bubby says that flying Air New Zealand, you don't feel like cattle. They treated us very, very well.

We arrived on Raro about 6:00 AM and after passing through customs, we were on our way. I did stop and take a couple of photos of our arrival, including the airplane and the welcome sign at the Cook Islands International Airport.



The guy was there singing to greet us upon arrival, somethings just don't change.



Of course, I couldn't wait to get out fishing. It was just the way I remembered it and I caught trumpet fish cast after cast. Of course that only occurred after a quick nap in our lodgings.

Bubby was catching fish like crazy using a crappie jig, however, we are having trouble with her reel, and unless I can replace it, her fishing might be over. She says it is just fun using her jig to lure the fish to her location so she can look at them.



We decided to walk to the rental place to get our bike, but we went the wrong direction. After about a 2 mile walk, Bubby started developing blisters, so we stopped and asked some directions. We waited for the bus and let them deliver us to our car rental location (about a block from Lagoon Lodges!).

We rented our motor bike (Bubby is sure we must be quite a sight going down the highway) and found a nice super market to buy a few supplies. We decided to buy a piece of fresh tuna for our dinner. Here I am searing the tuna, which we ate with some rice and a salad. A very lovely dinner. The tuna cost us $21 (NZ) per kilogram, which translates to about $6.00 per pound. It was super fresh and fabulous. Bubby kept talking about the wonderful dinner we had.





This photo has become a tradition of our trips. We love this place, and our stay this time has been wonderful. There is breakfast available at our lodgings everyday, and although it is little more than tea, toast, and cold cereal, it is all we want.



Finally, just to let you know that we have arrived, here is the sunset from our beach the first night on the island. Sunsets in the South Pacific are not to be missed. We will be looking at lots of them while we are here.

Buboppy