Around Rarotonga

When we arrived in Raotonga, our driver took us the long way along the coastal road to our cottage, so we had only part of the circuit to see. The buses run hourly, one in a clockwise direction and the other anti-clockwise. The windows slide open so that there is air in the bus and passengers can take photos.  These buses have seen better days, but they get you around and they stop if hailed and drop you off wherever you want to go.  

Our driver was very obliging and, seeing that John was trying to take photos, stopped at what he, the driver, thought to be the best view of the mountains.

This is a typical house along the road snapped from the bus.

All along the road, one can see signs to Tsunami evacuation areas which will take people away from the coast and to higher ground.

We wanted to get to the biggest town on the island, Avarua, which is the capital of the Cook Islands and is close to the airport.  As a capital, it is very small scale! This is the Court House on the main street.

The Catholic cathedral - there are churches everywhere on the island of many different Christian denominations.

A typical scene on any road - people on scooters without helmets but traveling slowly and with no two stroke engines. Oh that France and Broadstairs were like here. 

We stopped for lunch by the sea and watched children playing in the water at one of the town's two ports.

After lunch we walked inland in the hope of getting better photos of the mountains, but with electricity wires everywhere it wasn't easy. This is the sort of countryside close to a capital city. 

We did see people working in the fields growing crops we didn't recognise - it turned out to be Taro or arrowroot (in the foreground) which is the local staple carbohydrate. It makes good teeth breaking chips.

This banana tree still had flowers

We returned to the cottage by bus and, after our usual rest, took the bus in the opposite direction to 'Fruits of Rarotonga', a shop, which previous guests in our cottage said was the best place to snorkel.  John managed to see a few Zebra fish and a large blue starfish but he forgot the camera.

Afterwards, we walked back, noting the many graves along the road in people's gardens and the chickens that roam freely and race across the road all the time. Here we have both together with chickens standing on the graves. 

In the evening we went down to the night market in Muri which sells hot food.  We ate fish curry and drank the local beer.

When we returned to the cottage, we saw this scary looking land hermit crab In the garden.