Episode 4: In Which Jay Arrives in Rarotonga and Makes Friends

Last time on Keep Calm and Joust On:

Jay figured out that the automatic posting function does not work the way he thought it did, went bowling, and made a music video for a German third wave ska band named "Skankshot".

You Can Dance if You Want To. You Can Leave Your Friends Behind.

As an IES abroad student we have several group trips through the semester, and our big one is to Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands. Because our group is so small, only three of us, we joined up with the Aukland IES program for a much larger trip. Three of us became eighteen of us. And that was pretty awesome.

Day 1: After a restless night we woke up to catch our 4:30am taxi to the Christchurch airport for a one hour flight into Auckland. We hopped off the plane and wandered the airport, I was pretty familiar with it after all the time I spent there entering the country in July. Our small group met the Auklanders and we tried remember each others names. Check in. Customs. Security. A quick stop at the duty free shop and we were off. A three and a half hour flight was made easy by a hot meal and the movie Drive. Which was pretty sweet. I was able to grab an hour of shut eye in between watching a large older gentleman practically die of laughter as he watched Anchorman. A pleasant flight and we arrived in Rarotonga. Let me paint a picture real quick: ocean, ocean, ocean, ocean, oh shit why are we defending there's nothing but ocean! We decended so close to the water is was bit terrifying. The runway of Rarotonga airport begins a grand total of ten feet from the shoreline. Coming by sky, the island seems to jump up underneath you out of nowhere. Then you walk out of the plane onto the one, singular runway, and realize: holy fuck I'm on an island. All you can see is beach and jungle covered mountains. Oh, and it was damn nice weather. The actual airport is tiny, two customs officers, one luggage belt, and the whole thing is open air. For the first time in my life, I arrived by plane on-time, got my luggage, and got through customs without a single hitch. Best flight of my life.

We moved into our accommodations: girls in beach-side bungalows and guys in cabins up the road. From the balcony of the cabin we had the most stunning view of the lagoon, beach, and mini-islands nearby. Talk about paradise. The one thing that just floored me was that when we looked out at the ocean horizon, there was just nothing there. I realized I was on this tiny, 6 mile wide, speck in the middle of the entire Pacific ocean. No feeling like it. We dined at Mama's Cafe, Maddie was forced to dance for her birthday, apparently customary. Later we tried to go down to the beach, making friends as we went, but were thwarted by the tide receding too far out. Why not just walk out to the water? Sea slug mine field. In the dark they look like rocks and they were everywhere - some as big as my forearm - and that is not pleasant to walk through. We chilled and turned in for the night.

Day 2: Wake up. Its fucking beautiful. We just sat on the balcony looking out, just stunned by our first tropical sunrise. We headed off to the saturday market, a touristy affair but filled with awesome food, music, dancing, and local goods. Sadly, I didn't bring much money with me, not expecting it, and had to pass up some great souvenirs. The craziest thing was the black pearls, the Cook Islands' claim to fame. They are really something else to just see in the tropical setting. It is one thing to see a pearl under glass in a shop, but to see one about 200 meters from where it was found? A whole new perspective.

After the market we headed off to our coordinators place to learn some local culture. Using coconut tree palms we constructed woven plates and ceremonial accessories. We used inks to dye sarongs and learned islander dances and the local haka. We sat and ate traditionally prepared mangaian food (cooked underground in a giant makeshift oven) off of the plates we made. The food was awesome, it generally was everywhere on the island - even if taro is pretty bland. Following the dinner was a sweet dance competition where we had to get on stage and try to dance the islander dances, which, honestly, are incredibly difficult and we generally just flopped around looking like fools. The dance for guys consists of wildly swing your knees apart and together again while lifting your feet up and down to the beat of wood drums. Oh, and you can't look down at your feet while you do it. Oh, and the beat is breakneck fast. Go ahead, give it try if you think you can.

We wrapped the night with saying our goodbyes and heading back to the cabins. Naturally played cards and swapped stories and generally got to know each other better before turning in, exhausted.

To Be Continued....(7 day trip, this is only the first 2 days 0.o)

- Jay