Well what can I say, I must say I am a bit disappointed about my week on Cook Islands. I stayed in a backpackers hostel which I found dirty and disgusting. I had a tiny little room, the kitchen was badly equipped and constantly dirty, I can't figure out how in some hostels people wash up after them selves and clean up, and yet in this hostel they didn't seem to care. The staff were lovely, but there was something about the people staying at this place that made it difficult to get any contact with them, except towards the end I must say when I met a few lovely people. However most of the week, there were either couples or very cliquey groups, but enough of this moaning.
I did rent a bicycle for the first 3 days and cycled around and spent a lot of time on these beautiful beaches. One day I went to this lovely Saturday market in Raratonga where there were a lot of local crafts and food being sold and some live music and dancing, this was really nice. Unfortunately it rained for six out of my nine days on Cook Islands. Towards the end of my visit on Cook Islands I decided to fly to another island called Aitataki. I am glad I did this, firstly to get away from the backpackers place but also because Aitataki is often described as Utopia, and it really was. It had a completely different feel to it, the people seemed more friendly and approachable. The water was a constant change of blue colours, mostly turquoise. Unfortunately it absolutely poured down with rain almost every minute of the day I had on this island, so my lagoon trip was cancelled. Instead I rented a car so at least I could drive around this tiny island, although this only took me approximately 30 minutes. I had some lovely food on both the islands, a lot of fresh and yummy fish, one of my favourites were Ika Mika, which is a raw yellow fin tuna marinated in coconut milk and spices, this was so nice.
When I flew back from Aitataki, while waiting for my plane, I saw this beautiful elderly lady with lots of garlands around her neck and in her hair made out of beautiful flowers, so I asked if i could take a picture of her. All her friends also wanted to be in the picture, then I was handed addresses to send the pictures to. When I was about to sit in my seat on the plane, the elderly lady came and put one of her flower garland in my hair and kissed my cheek, it made me feel much better and I almost changed my view on Raratonga.
