Cycle tour Tues 7th Jan

This morning we had a meet time of 8.15am down the road for our cycle tour. Our guide was exactly on time and we piled (literally) into the back of her ute for a very "Rarotongan"- and not entirely comfortable - driving experience. We drove about 20 minutes to our cycle tour start point on the northwest corner of the island. A few practice laps of the yard later, we were ready to begin our tour. Our guide asked us if there were particular things we were interested in - perhaps culture, history, plants, trees ? Yes, all of the above please! Over the next 4-5 hours, she took us to various locations on the western side of the island including Black Rock (local name Tuoro). It has lots of black rock (basalt) including a particularly big chunk, and it's said you can see where early Māori worked the stone to make tools back in the day. The rock is also believed to be the leaping off point for the spirits of the dead, much like Cape Reinga in New Zealand. The tour chat was wide-ranging, from the system of ariki (paramount chiefs) in the Cook Islands, the complexities of its succession system, ariki representation in the Cook Islands parliament, the thinking behind the massive graves all around the neighbourhood, to the impact of missionaries, churches, the Sheraton curse, the fish poison tree, (known locally as the 'utu' or revenge tree), politics and government and Cook Islands passports. We rode past the prison which has a lovely fence along the front - but you can walk around the end of it! Rarotongan prisoners tend to do work in the community, don't really escape because "it's a small island and where would they go", and a more common problem is people coming into the prison grounds to get the crops from the gardens! We paused to shelter from a heavy rain shower in a small art shop at someone's front gate - and purchased a few nicknacks which we duly entered into the honesty book. We were interested to learn that the islanders traditionally used to live more inland, and the inland road is known as Ara Metua, which means path of the ancestors. The missionaries encouraged the islanders to move towards the coast and built what is now the ringroad, known as Ara Tapu, the sacred path/road. Much of the tour was on the inland road which felt like the 'real' rural side of Rarotongan life. Our guide also had a broad knowledge of trees and fruits, and our tour was punctuated by breaks for passionfruit, mango, coconut, papaya, icecream beans, as well as looking at jackfruit, breadfruit, cassava and taro - plus the ginger shampoo plant and also the wild basil we rubbed on our arms and legs as an insect repellent. We found the secret waterfall and the very brave among us had a brief dip, and then we ended our tour on the beach at Titikaveka for a well-earned picnic lunch (provided), and a quick dip in the sea for the coolest kids. Then back on the ute for the much shorter ride back to our van. Once again it was the stories and the local knowledge that we particularly enjoyed about this activity. Through the afternoon there have been quite a few conversations about points that really stuck out for individuals. The cycling was very manageable, with only a few small rises. We had only one quite heavy burst of rain which was very wetting, but actually quite pleasant for cooling us down.

After we got back, it was pretty much time for naps all round, ahead of our planned return to the night market, on time, for a second go at dinner. Pauline, our accommodation host, popped in to make sure everything was going ok and to give some tips about good places to have lunch tomorrow when the forecast is for thunderstorms.

After dinner we had the compulsory cannonball swim, and then everyone started drifting off to bed after a big day in the sun.

Perfectly safe. Licensed to carry 12 she reckons.

Pegged

Beautiful girls ready for a bike ride

Black Rock. I wonder why they call it that.

Mango stop

Prison wall. So secure.

Breadfruit. Not ready for picking yet.

Cassava root. Not marijuana despite the look of the leaves.

Inland road

Inland road

I want to say dryland taro but I'm not 100% sure now. 

Little unmanned art stall

This is how you husk a coconut

Caelan showing how easy it is

Kat showing how easy it is

Callum showing it's so easy he can do it left-handed

Yum coconut milk

Yum coconut milk

Utu tree fruit. Don't eat under any circumstances. Use for vengeful purposes only.

Someone's lovely garden

I think this might be a jackfruit tree in the middle distance

These beauties are everywhere

Feeding the pigs our papaya skins. They loved it.

Wetland taro

Secret waterfall. Secret, cold waterfall.

Pegged

Well-earned picnic by the beach

Inland road scenes

Pegged

Intrepid cyclists

No fences or paddocks, but the cattle and goats are tethered

Truly not a green screen

Biker with attitude

Mass cannonbombing