Aitutaki – Day 1 & 2

I like flying, for some reason, it’s something I really enjoy and something I miss, so I was actually rather excited about going on my longest plane flight. It took around 6 hours to fly from Sydney to Rarotonga, and while I usually sleep no problems on planes I didn’t sleep at all. I did get to watch 2 movies though. We flew over the international date line, so I can now add ‘time traveler’ to my resume.

The first thing I noticed once getting off the plane at Raro was that it was humid. The air was fresh but it felt like I was breating in clouds. Then I looked around and was stunned at the beauty of the mountains. I live near the Blue Mountains and they are beautiful, but I’d never seen mountains like this. Covered in jungle, jagged edges, a waterfall, it was beautiful. The sun was starting to rise and the colours were just amazing.

The flight from Raro to Aitutaki is around 50 minutes. I slept through the whole thing. My sister was worried at how I would be on a little plane (It held 12, I think, super tiny) but seeing as I slept, I don’t think I had a problem with it at all!

We arrived in Aitutaki early Saturday morning. So yes, basically I had two Saturdays. It was confusing. We spent the first day going to hire a car, and then driving around. My Sister & her Fiance have been to Aitutaki twice before, so we got a good tour around. Aitutaki is only small, well, compared to Sydney.

The first 24 hours were tough. I found it really hard and was constantly thinking “what have I done? I want to go home!”. I found it really hard to not have any connection to the outside world. No internet. No phone. No TV. I am an internet addict, and I was having some major withdrawels. I managed to push through it though.

The 2nd day I was still somewhat anxious about being internet-less, but I was able to get some very very very slow wifi at The Boat Shed. Just having the knowledge that I could still talk to the outside world helped. It also reminded me I didn’t miss dial up, and how slow the internet used to be. Seriously, I couldn’t upload photos it was THAT slow!

I took to driving a lot on the island. While I only have my L’s in Australia, I was fine to drive over there, so I’d be driving every chance I had. The speed limit was only 40km (60km on the airport road) and they don’t seem to have any of the rules we have here. People were sitting/standing in the back of utes! No helmets on the motorbikes/scooters. No seatbelts. Weiiiird!

We decided to head to the area behind the airport for a bit of a swim, and while I didn’t take my goggles, it was my first time seeing some of the reef and the animals in it. I was in awe. Its funny, one of the most common set of fish you seem to see turned out to be my favourite. These little black and white striped fish that hung out in big groups around some of the coral.

When we got back to where we were staying (Samades on the beach) we then went on a little walk about. The sand banks and easy water make for easy exploration. Though it can be a little strange looking down and seeing yourself surrounded by hundreds of fish!

By the end of day 2 I was a lot more settled. I had managed to get just a teeny bit sunburnt, but nothing bad. The food had been good, though I learnt that I don’t like the taste of Paw Paw, and that a 1.5l bottle of Pepsi was $6.