During our time in the Cook Islands, that has been a common theme, the kindness of strangers. It appears that everywhere we go, people are always willing to give a helping hand.
Just Meeting Up Some Brothers
A couple of goals for this around the world trip was to volunteer and intermittently meet up with different Brothers from the Congregation of Christian Brothers. We weren’t too successful volunteering here in the Cook Islands, but we were able to meet the three Brothers living in Rarotonga, Brothers John, Vincent, and Ben. We shared dinner with them twice, and Brother Ben, in his mid-80’s shared some funny stories when he was studying to become a Brother back in the late 1930’s. This guy has been around the block a time or twenty. It was great to meet them.
J & N with Christian Bros Cook Islands
There’s Something Friendly Cooking Here
I’ve mentioned this before, but the Cook Islanders are very welcoming and generous. A few times around the islands, we were approached by locals asking if we needed help or wanted a ride somewhere. So if you see a Cook Islander, pat them on the back and thank them on our behalf me for their kindness.
N walking to the Aitutaki International Airport in the dark
Cross Island Hike
Our last week in the Cook Islands was characterized with a bit of lounging by the beach, reading, lying by the pool, and reading a bit more. The life of a traveler is TOUGH!
There is one activity we did do, a cross island hike. This hike crossed the island from north to south, and we had looked for a chance to do it. We were lucky enough to catch three consecutive days of sun, which was the first time in our time in the Pacific Ocean region. We quickly jumped out of bed, laced up our running shoes, and headed downtown to begin our “epic” hike. This hike turned out to be one of the most unique and challenging hikes that we had ever attempted. We were following what we thought was the trail to the trailhead until the path was no longer visible. We walked down a couple hundred yards to a road, and three locals said that we were going the correct direction. So we went back to where we stopped, and poked our head into the brush, and there the hike continued. From there on, our hike was under a canopy of trees. Our ascent was full of walking on top of tree roots, grabbing tree branches, until we finally we reached the summit.
Top of cross-island hike
The Needle
From one of the highest point on Rarotonga, we had a panoramic view of the northern and southern beaches and the famous “Needle.” The Needle is a large rock sticking out at the top of the mountain. The hike down was twice as tough as the ascent. The southern side receives less sun and less hikers, and as a result was muddier mixed with steep and sleek. Nadine caught herself several times from falling by grabbing a tree branches. It was a challenge. Nadine and I don’t have any great desire to do it again, but we felt proud to have climbed it.
Our time in the Cook Islands has ended. We are now in Auckland, New Zealand. Heavy fog diverted our flight to Wellington before eventually landing in Auckland 6 hours later. Yes. Rain followed us here. New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere and rather than enjoying the heat of a Texas summer, it is winter and cold. We have four weeks to explore the North and South islands. Let’s see what the Kiwis have to offer.
Peace out all y’all!
JW
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[…] two groups of islands. The northern group, hardly inhabited, and the southern group which contains Rarotonga and Aitutaki, the two islands we are visiting. We picked these set of islands over Fiji and Tahiti […]
[…] and I have physically and mentally made the successful journey from the Cook Islands, a warm climate, to New Zealand, a cold, damp climate. To make it perfectly clear, we are in New […]