Homeward Fri 10th Jan

Today was our last day in Rarotonga. We were lucky enough to have a late checkout, which allowed us to make the most of our day before heading to the airport for a (supposedly) 9pm flight. We had a couple of things on our "not-yet-done" list, as well as one "must-do-again" on some individual lists.

First stop was the Cook Islands National Museum, which is a wonderful collection of cultural and historic artefacts. Most have little descriptions explaining what they are and where they came from and they make an interesting collection. We agreed that a combination of the words-heavy Te Ara Museum, and the artefacts-heavy National Museum would be pretty much ideal. Between the two, we certainly gained an interesting education about the history of the Islands.

We then popped in one last time to Te Aponga Uira (Cook Islands Electricity Company) to try to touch base with the daughter of a school friend of my dad, who we had been trying to track down. Unfortunately she wasn't in the office so we continued with our to-do list. At least I have a name if Dad wants to make contact down the track.

Next up was the Tivaevae shop, which had some beautiful (if pricey) handcrafts and kits for sale. Alyssa and I both picked up a sew-your-own tivaevae cushion cover kit and there were also some cards and teatowels purchased - as we all realised it was the last chance for purchasing souvenirs today. Shopping doesn't seem to be a national pastime in Rarotonga as it is in New Zealand, so we haven't spent a great deal of time buying things other than food.

After such an efficient and productive morning, we paused at the market for coffee and to plan our afternoon. We headed back to the house for lunch and then headed out for our afternoon activities. Peter had kindly agreed to be driver as there were two activities on offer. As it turned out, we split along gender lines, the boys heading to visit Maire Nui Botanical Gardens and the girls having a second visit to Paws and Claws cat sanctuary. Peter did a few errands including refilling the van and finding the beach where the fiddler crabs hang out (incredible video below). At the appointed time, he came and collected us and we returned to the house (via one more souvenir shop and the fiddler crab beach) for our last pack up and clean up - actually very easily done with eight adults.

We planned to have fish and chips on the beach but the weather wasn't too keen on us doing that, so we had fish and chips at a shop from where you could see the beach. We drove around to Black Rock for one last group shot in Rarotonga. The van was duly returned as per the instructions (park it in a park and leave the keys in it) and then we proceeded with all our airport formalities. The inbound flight was slightly late but things were looking good for a relatively on-time departure. However, we sat on the tarmac for maybe an hour before our flight crew announced that we were delayed because operational requirements meant they had to carry extra fuel and therefore they'd had to 'sacrifice some passengers' - and were therefore unloading a bunch of bags from the aircraft. I was trying to imagine how that conversation would have gone down with the unsuspecting passengers - having checked in AND had their bags loaded - that they were in fact not leaving Rarotonga today. I have no idea what plans, if any, were made for them, but it was by now 10pm, and the next Jetstar flight out was three days away. I suspect Jetstar gave them a $5 meal voucher and said something like, "Sorry we can't do anything more". The main cabin crew person had a particularly 'hate-my-job' style of interacting with everyone, including the classic, "If you're not in your seat, you won't get your food." Accurate, I guess, and efficient on word count.

We finally - all - left Rarotonga about 90 minutes late, and the flight was longer than expected, so it was a very groggy crew that arrived into Auckland a little after 2am local time (which felt like 3am to us). After customs, we had big beds in tiny rooms at the Ibis Budget to fall into for far too few hours.

One last funny, only-happens-to-us story over breakfast: we went to the restaurant attached to the hotel for one more meal together ahead of all heading to our various homes. I wasn't feeling 100% and couldn't quite face the full breakfast options on the menu. I asked the waitress if I could please adapt the $20 bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, onion, roquette and lemon oil, to just have bagel with cream cheese. She looked quite confused that I had asked for something so complex and went off to ask the chef. They had a good decent meeting about it, and then she came back to say that yes, they could do a bagel with just cream cheese, but it would cost $7 extra. And that was their policy. Ironically, such a request would have not been any kind of problem anywhere in Rarotonga. Needless to say, I just went with a cup of tea for breakfast. Alyssa had planned to order the bacon, avocado and baby spinach bagel without the bacon, but decided that would also be out of scope for the waitress. :) Good times or good stories!

Caelan, Shannon, Kat and Amelie were all delivered safely to the airport for Christchurch-bound flights, Alyssa and Callum headed north to their home in Whangarei, and Peter and I have a few more days with my mum and dad.

Peter and I both agree that one of the biggest highlights of the trip has been the opportunity to spend time together as a family - the beautiful island, lovely accommodation and fantastic activities have all just added to the experience. Rarotonga was not what I expected - I expected a lot more tourist-focused activity, big flashing lights, fancy resorts etc, but actually most of the island appears to be Islanders going about their everyday life, which is somehow far more appealing.