The Cook Islands are an independent country associated with New Zealand and names to honor Captain James Cook (even though he never made it to this island). The fifteen islands in this small archipelago are spread across 770,000 sq. miles of open sea.Rarotonga is complete with miles of white sand beaches, glittering lagoons, small villages and volcanic peaks covered in lush vegetation. Well at least, that is what we understand……. Unfortunately, we were not able to land due to weather and sea conditions - 30 knot of wind and high seas. There is no protected harbour for the ship, (which was planning to “drift” all day) and so getting passengers in and out of the tenders would not be easy.
The night before, the seas started to increase and we had 50 knot of apparent wind as we headed for Rarotonga. It was not that much of a surprise in the morning when the captain made an announcement to say that unfortunately, as the safety of the passengers, crew and ship are his primary concern, we would not be able to land. Instead, he took us on a sight seeing tour around the island to see what we had missed!! We had booked to go on a snorkeling tour that day with Captain Tamas – but not to be.
At one point, I had looked at flights for Jimmy meet us in Rarotonga. We were put off by the fact that there was only one direct flight a week from USA and so he would have had to have gone via New Zealand. So instead, we decided to wait a couple more days for him to join us in Tahiti and the Society islands. – Thank Goodness!!!!
On one of the sea days, Charlotte took part in a “photo scavenger hunt” on the boat – here is one of the outfits she had to wear…..
