Dog Whisperer

Our last day in the Cook Islands. I thought i should devote a moment to the plant life. On our walkway from the main road to the house there is hibiscus in 5 different colours, fragipani in yellow and pink (that's what they make the flower necklaces out of in the Cook Islands), coconuts and the above plant (which i think must be related to a bird of paradise).

Anyhoo onto the subject of this particular blog entry. We dropped the chariot off around 1pm and headed back to the beach house. We had put 300km on that thing, the island is only 36km round so we drove it a few times. It had been a lazy morning and the early afternoon was also quite lazy but finally we decided we shouldn't waste our last day so we decided to walk across to the little islets we could see from the house.


We waded across the water to the first islet and upon arriving were greeted by two very friendly pooches wearing collars. Shrugging our shoulders (dogs in the Cooks are pretty relaxed and free wandering) we headed to the back of the islet to see how close we could get to the reef edge breaking on the lagoon. As you can see we got pretty close to the thing.


We decided to cross the three islets and return to the Muri beach spot where Blaise had been launching kites. Our furry friends had followed us the whole time we were walking and when we started to cross to the next islet they followed us. Now the water was not deep, chest high at best and the distance wasn't that great. To my knowledge dogs are good swimmers, see doggy paddle, so much to our surprise we found our doggy friends were not the best of swimmers. You would think that dogs living on an island would be swimmers. Anyways we had nicknamed them Shorty and Stubby, Shorty kept trying to climb onto Stubby or me and Blaise and Stubby didn't like his ears getting wet, he kept shaking his head to get the water out which made him sink.

At one point we found them a rock they could climb up onto.

We gave them a chance to rest and Shorty (the black one) had a real hard time coming off the rock, he only hopped down when we got far enough away from him, and even then he kept trying to climb on top of one of us. We arrived on the 2nd islet and as we walked down the shore we were joined by a third dog and then a fourth one. All wearing collars and friendly thought the 4th one looked a little skinny.

It was by this point we started our theory. Local dogs followed the tourists out to the islets during low tide as they went exploring but then got stuck there and couldn't get back even during low tide. So when we showed up they came out of the trees with the hopes they could follow us home. So with 4 of them in tow we started our walk across the water to the third islet. One of them broke off leaving us with three. Stubby and Shorty did their thing, shaking his ears or trying to climb onto us. By this point we getting very amused with our collection. On the third islet we could spot the Muri beach resorts so we headed to the crossing. Now here was definitely deeper; it came up to about my neck, not a far distance though. So we set out, Stubby, Shorty, the new skinny one and Blaise and I. I was carrying the backpack on my head and things started off well. Blaise got across with the skinny dog. He took off at a run as soon as he got ashore, guess he was eager to get home.

Stubby (the ear shaking one) was hanging back with Shorty who was doing his jumping onto Stubby trick. As we got further away from them Shorty lost his nerve and turned back to the islet, got there and started to howl. Stubby also turned around and headed back to join him. I looked at Blaise, he looked at me, took the bag and smirked and headed to the resorts. I turned around and headed back to the dogs.

Both got up to see me when i got ashore back on the islet, Stubby was happy to see me and dove back into the water but Shorty just wouldn't do it. I petted, called, coaxed and nada so I headed back with Stubby in tow figuring someone else would rescue Shorty. Half way across with Stubby I heard a yelp and Shorty had launched into the water after us. He reached us and then panicked. He jumped on Stubby who was trying to desperately keep his ears dry. His shaking his head was sinking him and then Shorty jumped on him, they both went under, doggie panic ensued.

Having enough of this I grabbed one under each arm like a footballer, after an initial struggle they realized that they were not drowning anymore and they calmed down.

By this point Blaise and a couple of other tourists were standing on the shore enjoying the show of me carrying two dogs and Blaise had the camera out.

Shorty made a break for shore as we got close enough and headed off home (we assume) but Stubby needed a little more help. Then he followed us...everywhere...he followed us up the path to the road, he followed us down the road, up our driveway, up the stairs of the house...we had a problem. We went inside and Stubby stayed on the deck resting. "Well at least we'll leave tonight," I said, "He'll head off when he realizes he won't get fed."
He spent an hour on the deck before standing up and stretching and heading off down the driveway. And that is the saga of Shorty and Stubby.

No diving...to much wind...boo!

Due to the high winds, which Blaise likes, the boat from the dive shop had to be taken out of the water. I was waiting for the pick-up which seemed to be running late, I walked back up to the house and gave them a call. For future reference leave a phone number so they can call me for cancellations.

So we had a morning now to kill. I was already wearing contacts, seemed a waste to take them out so we decided to go snorkeling again. We had to find a new spot today as the wind was churning up the water enough to make it hard to see anything (and the fish were hiding). So we headed further south looking for a more protected, windless side. The south coast turned out to be much calmer but still we plowed on. The west coast though was amazingly calm. We pulled up to a nice beach with lots of coral visible and the water surface relatively calm. Three small Cook Island kids (the oldest had to be 4, 5 tops) were playing in the water. They were friendly and ran over to say "hi". We put down our gear on the sand and waded out. We snorkeled and once again were blown away by the fish life. Blaise again had a cluster of fishie friends, we saw the Picasso Triggerfish, tonnes of wrasse and of course the butterfly fish. There was a needlefish (similar to the cornet fish i saw the day before but smaller), big bluefin trevally and scissortail sergeants. Basically a whole new set of fish. The odd thing was that we saw completely different fish species. For example on the east side of the island there was tonnes of threadfin butterfly. On the west side of the island I saw very few of threadfin butterfly but tonnes of racoon butterfly fish.

A cute little wrasse (threespot or sunset, not sure which subspecies) came up to me. I mean right in front of my mask, just hovering there was a cute little fish. So in my excitement I bubbled "Blaise" and pointed at the fishie. The cute little fishie ...BIT ME! I mean it wasn't hard or anything, it was just surprising. Blaise who had been looking at this spectacle the whole time was laughing at me. Turns out they enjoy eating a banana out of tourist's hand so maybe he thought finger = banana.

We got back out of the water to sit on the sand for a while. Blaise took a nap for a bit and I hauled out my little 2 string stunt kite he had bought me. The wind just took the kite and it whipped back and forth. The three children immediately came running over squealing with delight. The oldest one, a girl, was delighted and hooked and stood in front of me holding onto the strings. Blaise at one point wanted his turn so my young friend and I took over the job of launching it. Then the young lady demanded her go "by herself". Blaise agreed spot her which turned out to be a good thing. She was capable of holding onto the strings even though they pulled quite hard but she did sort of launch out of the water from the pull (I know that experience) at which point Blaise grabbed her and held her down. She flew the kite until her auntie called her "to stop bothering the tourists and time to go". I took one more turn and managed to put it into a palm tree. Blaise's exact quote was "man i'm glad you did that to your kite and not me". We got it out with a bit of strategic pulling and a lucky wind gust.

When we returned home Blaise called me in a loud urgent tone, he had discovered a rather large cockroachy friend. No sorry thats wrong, it was a large cockroach.

Minutes later we saw a baby house gecko, the type that eat insects...I really hope he was a smart little baby because I'm pretty sure that cockroach could have eaten it. If you squint you can see it below the speaker's left corner, tiny green thing. Click on the pictures to get the full size version.


I begged for a sunset takeaway dinner. We stopped at the takeaway we had seen each time we went through town, grabbed 2 burgers and a chip and headed to the north-west shore to watch a sunset. We were a bit late for the red clouds but it was pretty nonetheless with light streaming through the clouds. It was a great end to the day that didn't have scuba ^^bb

The Best Waffle Ever!

Strange thing about travelling you find the weirdest things; in this case we found the best waffle in the world at the Nui Market in Rarotonga.

After my dives that day we hung out on the beach for a bit.


The wind picked up a little so we attempted to get Blaise's 14m kite up (I'll let him tell that story) but even with the female kite surfing world champ (I'm serious) who happened to walk by and try and help launch it just didn't go.

We had been very good about eating at home the last few days, breakfast, lunch and dinner so we headed into town on our chariot to find some dinner. We passed a little harbour of wooden boats so of course we had to stop and take a photo of them for my folks.

Note the storage box for fish.

We had been told about a $10 steak that was mind blowing so we were planning to do that but as we drove in the open air market was packed full of people and bbqs. Curious we stopped for a look. The Pacific Mini Games had finished and the closing ceremonies were to be held tomorrow but tonight was a large cook out. There was about 15-20 food bbq/stalls set up, all selling $10 plates which included some combination of pork chops, chicken, beef, Rice, Taro, chow mein, salad and potato salad. A hurried conversation and steak was off the menu, we each grabbed $10 and headed to a different bbq person. I was delighted with mine and I loved the taro, kind of like a super dense bread, tasteless with a spongy texture. Blaise did not like his taro (or mine, he did try both) so I got all the taro in exchange for a pork chop and some rice. I'm pretty sure I got the better end of the deal.

After dinner we kept walking around looking at the the stalls selling things and happened to walk by one vendor that was advertising waffles. In a moment of psychic linkage we agreed on waffles and walked over to the vendor. A very friendly couple made us a waffle using a fancy waffle iron that spun and twisted into the heat. It made the best, i repeat the best waffle we had ever had. So good that we went back to a) compliment them and b) ask if they would be there tomorrow so we could have another.

Sadly they would be gone tomorrow, it was their wedding anniversary and we couldn't begrudge them that, but hey we got to enjoy one that night. We finished the evening with a giant pink cotton candy (which they call Fairy Floss here). Awesome end to the day.

Dive Rarotonga - 2nd day

Another awesome day with the awesome guys at Dive Rarotona, Charles again was my personal dive master. I had been worried because yesterday the weather was so awful. Its not like rain affects you scuba diving but the lack of sun reduces your visibility and the waves can cause currents underwater you have to swim against and animals tend to stay hidden.

But worry not my diving listeners, by lunch it was again tropical, warm and sunny, not a cloud in the sky, the scuba gods were with me again!

My personal chauffeur came to get me, we packed up my gear and headed off to the boat. I was told that we were going to be going back to Edna's Anchor for the 2nd dive because an older couple was coming out to experience scuba diving. They spend an afternoon in the pool learning the gear, then each has an instructor beside them as they swim in the ocean no deeper than 12 meters. Anyhoo Charles and I were going to have to be at Edna's Anchor for the 2nd dive but the first dive we went to a place called Mushroom Forest. Massive strange coloured corals and of course ....FISHIES!!!

There was another Triggerfish that hung out with us for an urchin lunch. We saw a Spanish dancer that was actually floating/flying in the air like it was supposed to as opposed to that lazy one from the other day. A massively huge Napoleon Maori Wrass that made Charles look excited and the best part...a school of 200 Convict Surgeon fish. It was a sparkling ribbon of fish and swimming with them was a single large cornet fish. I figure he was pretty safe hanging with them, any predator was more likely to get one of the convict surgeons than him.

We headed back ashore to do our surface interval and wait for the other two people to show up. We headed back out to Edna's Anchor and Charles and I headed off in the other direction from last time. This time was just as cool, I saw a moray eel swimming by and pointed him out to Charles (i got a double okay symbol on that one) and at one point I looked back and saw 4 huge, long white fish swimming above us. They looked quite long and toothy, I knew not shark but I wasn't sure what, quickly swimming over to Charles and grabbing his leg I pointed up to show him what I had seen. Again I got 2 Okay symbols. Turns out what I had spotted was some barracuda which Charles called Big Eyed barracuda. Not to be outdone Tommy the Triggerfish, the big one from my first dive in Cook Islands showed up demanding his urchin lunch. As he was meal was being prepared I looked back and there was the huge school of convict surgeon fish swimming by us. I knew it was the same group...how do I know you say, the same dang cornetfish was hanging with them and we weren't too far away from that earlier dive sight. I was torn between going to pet Tommy or watching the silvery school, I managed to do both. Not to be outdone by my awesome fish spotting skills Charles managed to find under a beautiful rock formation some Spotfin Lionfish which were pinkier and "fluffier" looking than the spikey lionfish of two days ago. There were two just hanging out but this was a definite no touch fish (highly toxic venom in their spines).

Again awesome dive, can't do it just justice in a blog description but simply amazing.

Tropical Thunder Storm

Small island, large mountain peaks and a massive thunderstorm. This storm, every time it thundered the house rumbled and shook. There was an hour period where it seemed like an earthquake was happening with disturbing regularity. On the plus side there seems to be a lot of wind at the moment. If the lightning stops Blaise might get a chance to get his kite up.