What happend to Rarotonga???

First of all the Cooks are absolutely gorgeous, very serene, quiet, friendly, and cheap (or at least it was almost 10 years ago). I had a blast staying at Vera's which was a hostel right on the lagoon. We made some friends with fellow travellers and all ventured out for our last night. Found the local hot spot and proceeded to imbibe, especially since Steinlager 40's were $2NZ, or roughly $1US, with shots running the same, and Jack was around $2US. The only problem we ran into was attempting to have a lime with our tequilla, but by that point we didn't really care. We all piled back into the cabs and ventured back to Vera's. Someone in the group decided it would be grand to go skinny dipping so off we went. As we frolicked in the lagoon, all of a sudden a huge wave (well for the lagoon it was huge, normally the maximum wave in the lagoon was an inch or two, this was a good 4-6 feet). One girl lost her bra, the other a shoe, but all in all no one was injured. The next morning we wake up and are attempting to get the bus back to the town. It's taking forever and when one finally shows up we learn that there had been a tsunami the night before and the north side of the island had to be evacuated. So now I can say that I have been in an earthquake, a tsunami, lava flow, forest fire, and I want to say there's been another one or two natural disasters. It will come to me later.

At any rate onward to Tahiti, we arrived at around 3 or 4 am -- at any rate the ungodly hour that international flights like to drop you off at. And rather than try to find a hotel at that hour we curled up on the airport seats and attempted to catch a few hours sleep. Then around 6am ventured off towards the port and caught the first boat over to Moorea. Found a place to stay and rented a "fun car" which I wish I had a picture of to post, but alas this was back in the day of print and 35mm cameras so it will have to wait until I can get one scanned. After zooming around in the car at the top speed of about 15 miles an hour with the sound of a small airplane, waving the baguette out the window as there was no room in the trunk after we stowed both camera bags there. After a few days of this, as well as swimming with the sharks, we ventured back to Papeete and flew to Bora Bora.

There I saw the most beautiful sunset of my life and narrowly avoided being arrested for attempted murder.... Just kidding, but there were defnitely homicidal thoughts running through my head as we were kayaking in the lagoon and couldn't manage to stay in a straight line to save our lives. The only thing that saved him was the fact that if I had bopped him over the head with the paddle and knocked him overboard I would of had to paddle all the way back by myself. The next day was spent biking around the island and visiting a few beaches.

We flew back to Papeete and spent 17 LOOOOOOONG hours at the airport... btw there is absolutely nothing open in Papeete on a Sunday -- just be advised. Almost got stuck there again, but managed to change flights and arrived in New Zealand almost on schedule

written by  Amber on February 9, 1999 from Papeete, French Polynesia
from the travel blog: The Day My Toothbrush Turned Blue and Other Tales from the South Pacific
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