World Cook Islands Avarua

Born To Travel's Big Trip

Sport fishing May 18, 2008

I met up with Jake whom I met on the Stray bus and decided to go fishing. I phoned around a few operators but most were full or out already. Wasn't as easy as we thought to get on a boat. Didn't think the island was all that busy but note for future, this activity is popular no matter the time of year.

After not getting anything sorted over the phone, we tried to find the operators down at the harbour. No success there either so back to the phones. Called back one guy who had previously said we could only go the next day but then when I asked if we could go that afternoon he said that would be fine. After mucking around for so long we had 45 mins to get to the boat which he assured me would leave at 1pm on the dot. We jumped on the bus, unfortunately for us the clockwise one i.e. it was going in the wrong direction for us to get there quickly. To add to the farce this was turning into, the driver was even coming up with new stops on the route.Feck! Anyway we reached the place where the boat was but the driver went right past it until I ran up and got him to stop. "Jeez" I thought to myself. Yeh right!

Unbelievably the boat was still there. Clearly we had a captain trully running on island time. Not sure what the owner would have thought but we were thankful.

Off we went then with 4 others.

It was soon time to get the tops off and top up the tan as it turned out to be a hot afternoon, in the minority for the time I spent in the Cook Islands. After a while we saw the sight we all wanted, that being one of the rods bent double. One of the other guys was given the task of reeling the fish in. Turned out to be a huge looking Woo Hoo. It turned out to be the last time we would perform such an act even although we circumnavigated the whole island. The previous day they had caught 6 such fish and larger ones at that. Saying that, there was plenty for everyone to take for dinner and also provide some of the locals with theirs too.

Jake and I not having any transport tried to hitch a lift. Clearly we needed some female company in the party as not one islander took pity on us! So much for "they just stop because they are just like that" quote unquote Lonely Planet. Instead we stopped off for some of Victoria's finest Bitter and waited on the bus, this time one that was going in the right direction for us. Thankfully the shift had also changed and we had a decent driver. We headed back to Jake's backpakers and cooked ourselves up a fine meal with "our" catch of the day.

Jake, being a new arrival to the island, wished to see some bars, so never one to disappoint a fellow traveller I volunteered to show him around. I AM just like that...

Being a Monday, the revellers amounted to a few groups of people who clearly had been on it for most of the day and not many more. We did a short tour anyway, just in the interest of research of course. One place sounded promising, the "BC", if the volume of music was anything to go by. Alas, the DJ was playing to an empty dancefloor. He came over to chat and told me his great grandfather was from Scotland. Mental! He also said the reason no-one was here was because the locals would all be under their duvets due to it being too cold for them. It was like a very pleasant Spring evening in Europe!

Jake and I made some plans to go snorkeling the next day and headed home as the night clearly was not going to pick up. It was then another farce for the day began. I got a call from reception after I was already in bed. They told me I was due to check out that night and the bus to the airport was due in 10 minutes! I disagreed with them saying it was the next night but they assured me my flight was that night. Giving in I packed my stuff in the quickest time yet and legged it to the reception to find the bus driver there already. The bus was early!! To add to the farce the receptionist did not have the code for the security box where I had my passport and ticket etc, you know, kind of important stuff required to travel! He had to phone some manager whilst operating the Visa machine so I could clear my bills from the week. Ridiculous. Anyway I got on the bus head down as the bus was full with people waiting to get to their planes!

In the end, we were all at the airport in plenty of time as it was a short drive and ended up waiting around as usual.Still, not many had got the day wrong for their flight. The dateline is confusing don't you think??? Thought so...:))