Image above: Spending my afternoon relaxing on the beach outside my room and enjoying the sunny weather. [Wednesday 09 September] / [View all photos]
My third and final day on the Cook Islands, here’s the photo set of the 4×4 tour I took around Rarotonga before catching my flight onwards to Wellington.
The day started brightly enough walking out of my room to a blue sky and a rainbow. Unfortunately, it then completely poured down with rain shortly afterwards and I was very glad that I had taken the hotel’s advice to go on the 4×4 tour rather than the hiking tour!
The first third of the tour was a bit of a washout (literally!) and freezing cold so all of us were in these completely oversized ponchos trying to stay dry and warm. A hilarious sight, really. Then, thankfully, the sun started to return and the rest of the tour was a lot more fun getting thrown all over the place in the back of the jeeps as we negotiated our way up and down through the mountainous interior.
My guide / driver was a good laugh. He must’ve delivered this tour countless times but he still made it sound fresh intermixing jokes with commentary as we whizzed along. Also got to meet one of the local kids who was fascinated with my camera and would then go running around photographing everything and everyone – hugely adorable! And when we finally got to the top, the panoramic views from the top were amazing and made the whole journey worth it.
After lunch, just finished packing my stuff and relaxed on the beach by my hotel before heading to an “island night”. I almost didn’t make it because the venue forgot to pick us up but, in true Cook Island fashion, the receptionist just popped me into the hotel minivan and drove us up there herself. Have to confess that it was a bit too touristy for my liking with the food being quite sub-par though it was fun watching the various traditional dances.
Then it was off to catch my 02:10 (yep, that’s 02:10 in the morning!) flight the next day to Wellington for the next stage of my adventure.
Travel Stats:
- 5 days travelled of 29
- 3 places visited in 2 countries in 2 continents
- 22 hours spent in 4 planes
- 16,829 km travelled
- 10 time zones crossed
- RTW – Los Angeles – Part 1
- RTW – Los Angeles – Part 2
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 1
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 2
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 3
- RTW – Wellington – Part 1
- RTW – Wellington – Part 2
- RTW – Wellington – Part 3
- RTW – Wellington – Part 4
- RTW – Wellington to Melbourne
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 1
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 2
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 3
- RTW – Melbourne to Perth
- RTW – Perth – Part 1
- RTW – Perth – Part 2
- RTW – Singapore
- RTW – Hong Kong
- RTW – Macau
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 1
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 2
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 3
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 4
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 5
- RTW – Phnom Penh – Part 1
- RTW – Phnom Penh – Part 2
- RTW – Hong Kong
