Rarotongan Rain Storms

Hey there Bloggy Pals!!!

Welcome back!!
I have so much to fill you in on!!
So our Rarotongan holiday has been and gone and I am still reminiscing over the picturesque landscape with the coconut tree strewn shores, gorgeous golden sand, unreal blue water all over looked by the "mountains" running through the spine of the 32km wide island.
If you have never been I would very much recommend it has a low to medium ranged budget friendly holiday! This blog is mainly going to consist of travel details so if you came here for crafts skip down to the bottom of this posts and you can learn how to decorate ceramics :)

We managed to pack quite a lot into our 5 day visit and something that we were constantly blown away with was the incredible island hospitality especially from one of the ladies serving at the breakfast buffet in the resort we stayed at The edgewater resort she was always so sweet and had an uncanny ability to recognize us (perhaps that's because we were always the first down at 7am to get the freshest goodies) we fondly referred to her as "Auntie" for the duration of our visit. We put it down to the location for such friendliness, seriously how can you be sour when you are constantly surrounded by this sort of beauty:

 The reason for our trip was a very special one for both Josh and I as it was for the union of two of our very best friends. The gathering of their family and a handful of close friends for their Wedding which both Josh and I were lucky enough to be asked to be apart of their wedding party. Their wedding was held on the third day of our trip and it really was a magical event which I will elaborate on shortly.

The first day of our trip was crazy in all sense of the word.
Our flight arrived at 1am and we found out that the package deal we had booked didn't include an early check in or shuttle to the resort and that check in wasn't until 2pm! So we decided that we would just walk around the island until the sun came up then would form a plan. We started walking immediately getting plagued with exhaustion as we had already spend the entire previous day traveling and a lovely local man in his van pulled over and asked where we were heading and offed us a ride to our resort which we gratefully accepted (which thinking back on it would have seemed very unsafe in any other country)
We ended up paying for the extra night and getting a few hours rest before an early wake up call at 6.30am to the very loud crowing of roosters a sound which I oddly adore.
So we headed to the resort restaurant to make the most of the continental breakfast which we ate outside on the beach front seating under cute little beach hut things:

 After breakfast we made it our mission to  rent out a scooter which is the preferred method of transport for tourist and locals alike.
Hiring the scooter was a very simple process with very little paper work. Josh was the designated driver for the week so it was as easy as him handing over his drivers license signing an insurance paper and sitting a driving test. The driving test was him circling a parked car and weaving a few coconut trees. The hire costs for the scooter which we fondly named "Cynthia" was $67nzd which included a temporary license to get us to the local police station to get a permanent license.

Josh looking handsome on his crowned glory "Cynthia"

 
 We circled the island looking for the local police station which was in the center of the main township "Avarua" a quint little town which has a New Zealand small beach town feel about it. The permanent license cost $20 and only required Josh to fill out an application  form, hand over his temporary license and supply his passport and they printed off his new Rarotongan license right there in front of him which is valid for one year. Upon our circling of the island we saw so many exciting and slightly upsetting things.
Dogs roaming is not an uncommon thing in Raro. Its something as a doting "dog mum" I found hard to wrap my head around these dogs were free to roam the island  as none of the houses have fences but I also got the feeling none of them really had "owners" they were all very unkempt with matted coats and covered in fleas looking quite thin (some were the exception looking a little to well fed but still very straggly) they were everywhere but they were all quite friendly obviously knowing how to score a free dinner. There were also chickens galore. hundreds of them crossing the roads with their gorgeous little chicks in tow:

  There were also a few horses, cows and heaps of goats all tied to different things because of the lack of fences:

One of the prettiest cows I have ever seen!

The scenery was just breathtaking and also very unusual, the houses where all very tiny and a vast majority of them looking in need of some T.L.C as I imagine there isn't a huge amount of money going around aside from tourism but as I said earlier the locals all seem like very lovely and content people. There was also plenty of abandoned houses as a lot of the people of Rarotonga move to New Zealand in fact some one was saying in Auckland alone there is more Islanders than there is in Rarotonga!! It looks as If they just up and left in many of the places such as this one:

We went to visit the bride and groom in their resort they stayed at The palm grove which was a fifteen minute scooter ride away from our resort. They stayed in a gorgeous beachfront bungalow and from their balcony we sighted the first of many whales!! It just so happened to be the time of year in which they migrate to warmer waters for mating season! We were all very hysterical over the beautiful sight as they breached in front of us for several minutes! (unfortunately I didn't take any photos as I was way to excited to even consider photos)

After whale watching we decided to give snorkeling a shot and I very quickly discovered the snorkel I had brought over with me leaked and the water was much to cold for my likings so it was a very short lived experience but I gladly wrapped up in a towel and watched the others from the comforts of the balcony.

That evening we all gathered at the Edgewater resort restaurant for dinner which was very delicious and reasonably priced. Josh had a chicken burger that cost around $17 and I had the vegetarian quesadilla which came with a side of salad for only $13!
After dinner we went to pick up our other best friend and her partner from the airport who were also staying at our resort. By 10pm we were ready for bed and slept like logs.

The next day was just as much of an adventure as the first. We had all made a plan to meet at palm grove at 10am to go explore the abandoned Sheraton resort which has been abandoned 20+ years after being 75% complete had the towel chucked in for completion after funds ran dry. The resort was to be the islands first 5 star resort with a golf course. According to locals it was built on cursed land dooming it from the start, but it makes for some pretty darn amazing photo opportunities which I will now spam you with:

Conga lines of explorers

A hauntingly sad and beautiful sight.

 Right after our exploring missions the sky delivered a very angry tropical rain storm so we boosted our way back to Palm grove and waited for a break in the weather. Of course the break in the weather didn't last very long and on our way back scootering to our resort we got blasted by a fresh hit of rain heavier than the first. The rain hit us like bullets it was so painful but also hilarious. We arrived back in mostly once piece and had hot showers to make us feel like humans again and of course once we were dry and dressed it fined up. Dinner was at Trader Jacks, a cute little bar and restaurant that is on the waterfront next to the port. The restaurant has a beachy theme and a relaxed vibe and the food was pretty good and fairly reasonably priced, Josh had the crumbed fish and chips which cost $19 he thought it was really nice fresh fish and I ordered wok tossed vegetables on a bed of rice which were two side dishes as I didn't feel like a heavy meal and that cost $9 we also split an apple pie for desert which also cost $9.

The next day was the day of the wedding. The whole day was incredible and very relaxed which exactly how a beach wedding should be. The weather was perfect and there were many laughs and tears exchanged between family and friends. I honestly don't imagine the day could have got any better it was just perfect (I cried way to much but that's OK! )

Us admiring the gorgeous bride!

My all time favourite picture of my favourite people.

The  boys getting sassy.

After the ceremony we all piled on to a bus and headed to highland Paradise where they put on a second sort of wedding it was a traditional Cook Island wedding that included the bride walking over the "tribesmen" backs and being wrapped in a blanket:

The tribesman let me hold his spear haha

After a tour of the highland paradise which is a demonstrative village of how life used to be in Rarotonga we headed to the main building and had a dinner buffet of traditional Island food and watched a performance of traditional island dancing. Over all it was a beautiful day and an amazing night. By the time we got back to our room we were exhausted.

The next day was fairly cruisey for us we spent the day just hanging out and circling the island again looking at the local stores and all the pretty beach spots.

Preston getting cosy with the locals

That night we headed to High tide bar and restaurant where its was $3 happy hour and free pool with all you can eat pizza, pasta and salad for $20pp. Josh and Jake (the groom) challenged themselves to an all you can eat pizza duel. It was disgusting and impressive all at once. Jake ate 18 pieces of pizza and 2 pieces of garlic bread and Josh managed 17 pieces of pizza and 2 pieces of garlic bread! Josh vomited when we got back to our room.

The next day was our final day on the island and we had to hand back our scooter keys at 9am so we just spent the day around our resort. We went snorkeling (I hired out one which didn't leak thankfully) and it was GORGEOUS! the fish were so amazing and friendly. It was so beautiful and colourful but unfortunately the tide was very strong so it was a fairly quick swim as the current was hitting us into the coral.
For dinner we went to the Spaghetti house for dinner which was at the end of the driveway to our resort. It was a cute Italian inspired restaurant  which we very excitedly discovered that our table cloth was a big piece of paper and each table also had crayons so we got to draw on our table while we waited for our food. Josh had the chicken fettuccine which cost $18 and I ordered the vegetable pasta which was $13.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and felt super blessed to be a part of Jacob and Jennifer's wedding so a huge thank you to them for inviting us!


Thanks for your patience if you read that big spiel I also have one more thing to share with you that is craft related.
A little while ago I made it my mission to create some personalized coffee mugs so that is exactly what I did and now you can too!!
All you need is:

• Set of mugs (I brought a set of 4 for $12)
• High quality permanent markers (this is important as I used cheap markers and it pretty much came off after I washed them.
• oven

• A design idea.

To start have all your equipment ready and preheat your oven to 180c:

 Draw on your designs and allow the pen to dry so you don't smudge anything when you transfer them to the oven. Bake your mugs for 40 minutes and carefully remove from the oven and allow to cool. You may wish to wash them before using them, I did and that is when I realized high quality markers are the way to go.

My mugs obviously didn't want to live as all but one have been dropped or broken but I will definitely attempt these again with better pens. They would make awesome gifts :)

I also have one quick little recipe to share with you and I cannot tell you how amazing it is!
It is a bit of a sneaky cheat desert but I think you need one of those every now and then and this one only takes 1 minute. Literally. How amazing is that and you cook it in a mug and can eat it right out of it with a generous plop of ice cream!!

       1 Minute Microwave chocolate pudding!!

 Ingredients:

•  1 heaped tablespoon of self raising flour
• 1heaped tablespoon cocoa
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of milk

Topping:

• 1 teaspoon cocoa
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon hot water.

Method

1. Mix together flour,cocoa,sugar and milk in mug.
2. Sprinkle on top extra cocoa and brown sugar and very carefully pour on the hot water.
3. Cook in microwave on medium for 1 minute.
4. Add a blob of ice cream and enjoy :)

 This is the perfect little something when you feel like a little bit of pudding without feeling the need to make a large pudding and either waste the rest or eat the lot!  

Well thats it until next time folks.
Stay safe and happy!
xx