The local brewery

...and the local beer maker (they use recycled bottles and don't package their own

Our scooter

I say a restful day for Bob because I am writing the blog tonight.

Restful for both of us because we had a beautiful relaxing scooter around the island on the interior roads. These roads don’t have as much traffic and are where the locals live. This is such a beautiful island. We saw lots of farms – papayas, taro, bananas and who knows what else! So lush even though we’ve only seen it rain once. And from the interior roads the view up into the valleys are just stunning.

The other great part about the interior roads is you run across local craft shops. We wandered down one road that indicated ukuleles and crafts were available. We were treated to a tour (wander through his work shed) of the whole process. This artisan had carved ukuleles as well as coconut ukuleles and some beautiful carved bowls. He was so happy to show us the whole process.

Another road took us to an island brewery. Again, we walked right into the brewing room and were given a taste test. This brewer only sells his beer here and in Aitutaki because there are no additives or preservatives so if a shipment was held up in customs it could go bad waiting to clear. Meanwhile his sister was hand washing recycled beer bottles. She told me that they pay 80 cents a bottle. They can get the restaurants to recycle for 10 cents a bottle. A winning proposition! Don’t worry, the hand washing was just the first stage of cleaning. Bob bought 2 liters for the boat, both came in recycled containers- one an old Fanta bottle, the other an old Coke bottle.

We finally got to watch one of the big container ships turn around in this bay. We chuckle when we hear ships being directed to the “international dock” here in Raratonga. But they really are an international harbor and there are some big ships coming in. And these dock workers are amazingly quick at unloading and reloading the ships. Typically it takes two days; one to unload, one to reload. Today we watched the latest ship whip a 180 with his bow thrusters and a nudge from a tug and head out. All this less than 70 yards yards away. Very fun to watch, but sometimes closer than we would like.

And the Cook Island dinner show that we went to with Orcinius was also very fun to watch. Every island group has their take on the dancing and drumming. We were not disappointed. We got a great description of the different drums (there were about 7 different drums) and their purpose. Fascinating. This dance group included young children training to replace the older ones. One little girl was missing her front teeth but smiled all the while! And this dance troupe also contained the best male dancer in the Cook Islands- based on this year’s contest. Ironically he was blond and did not look very Polynesian. But he loved to dance and he showed it with his smile and his enthusiasm. Unfortunately we will not be able to share it with you as neither I nor Lisa from Orcinius brought a camera. Generally pictures at these dance shows don’t show much. Tonight we had front row seats and the dancers hung around to have their pictures taken with the audience. Oh well!