Wayne Kerr’s Rarotonga Run
The Cook Islands have a good reputation in the Pacific for pretty girls, black pearls, and the very laid back locals. I’m doing a bit of work out there these days so did a quick run down to the main island of Rarotonga to get feel for the lay of the land. Bloody small place of about 15,000 people … liked it so much I’ve booked myself a follow-up trip and will bung a few more pics up then.
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^ About as far away from it all as it gets :)
Rarotonga - the Cook Islands
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^ About 30 minutes drive around the sucker (or 32km round). Bordered by fringing coral reef with good surf breaks, the inshore lagoon is spectacular and full of fish, offshore of the reef is more than 4,500 metres deep … the locals call that the deep end of the pool :)
Downtown Rarotinga - the Cook Islands
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^ Downtown Rarotonga … not too many cars or other things to worry about
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^ They’ve even got themselves a cinema in Raro … pretty good going for the Pacific
Rarotonga Pub - the Cook Islands
Rarotonga - the Cook Islands
A few random pics
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^ These two are of a place called Muri lagoon … tanning salon for the rich and infamous apparently
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^ This is the main water supply for the township … the locals have had to be a bit creative with respect to farming their crops … here they’re doing Taro like the terraced rice paddies of Asia … little wonder the town water supply is a bit muddy
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^ No tour of Raro would be complete without a visit to the local rugby ground … they get every rugby game possible live on their single TV channel … oh and rugby takes priority over the nightly news … man these guys have got their shit together
Rarotonga Recycling Centre
One of the guys I was visiting had set up Raro’s recycling centre so I had to check it out … getting rubbish off the Island is a big job and goes by ship to NZ … they’re doing a bloody good job at keeping the joint clean and green
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^ Mostly getting rid of plastics and cans at this stage and will start on glass and other stuff soon ... good on em I say :)