Erynn's Travel and Food Blog: July 2022

19 April

This post has had rather a tardy journey as we have been waiting for our 'Swimming with the Turtles’ photos to arrive and they were delayed.

Rather than the usual day-to-day ramblings that appear in my travel blogs, and as the laughter, sunrises, food, and swimming merge into one big holiday experience this missive will be a bit random as the thoughts slip back into my head.

Evening game of pass the pigs.

Sunrise

View from our backyard

Girls on tour

Our hang out spot. Muri beach.

After lunch, on our last day on Aitutaki, the weather had turned grey. In fact, on our short trip to the airport, it was pelting down. I was seriously worried that we wouldn’t be able to fly and our connection with our kids would be delayed. It was such a relief to land once again in Rarotonga at 8:30 pm to light drizzling rain. Alighting from the plane the airport was in darkness and there were no directions as to where we should be walking. Fortunately, some local people were ahead of us and we followed them into the arrivals area, a roof with poles, to meet our boys who were there to pick us up. They and their partners had arrived earlier in the day and had set things up at the house.

The House - Muri Beach Villas

The Kokocabana was a great choice made by Lance. It had a tropical vibe but was very homey with large vases of ginger and heliconia flowers. Our room opened up onto the large verandah facing the ocean. And that ocean was almost our backyard! Not having aircon was no problem as we left the wooden louvers open and the ceiling fan on. The sea breeze filtered through the flywire keeping us cool. The waves breaking over the coral reef created enough ‘white noise’ to lull us off to sleep. Not to mention the satisfaction of sun and sea to bring on restful sleep.

Path from our yard.

Kokokabana

Our days were spent snorkeling or just watching from above water to watch the tiny fish nipping in and out of the coral. It was also very easy to just sit together up to our chest chatting and laughing. And laugh we did when a wee fish had a little peck on one of Lance’s nipples. That will go down as one of the funniest holiday moments. You should have seen him jump!

Lazy days

Evening games

Sunrise

The ma in law brought them bubbles!

Just the girls

Dillon & Lou sunrise coffee.

We cooked our breakfast most mornings as we had brought bacon and sausages with us from NZ.

Two of our breakfasts out were had at the Beluga Cafe and what a great feed, in fact, the choice was so great that I ordered pancakes with bacon and bananas and banana pudding! The bananas here are so good. Every time I have been to the tropics I struggle to eat our tasteless bananas at home.

We have a small seven-seater vehicle and Dillon is the driver, which is handy as he doesn’t drink. Well he does drink otherwise he would be a raisin, but he doesn’t drink alcohol.

On our first morning, after a magnificent breaky at home, we hit the market. This market is only open on Saturday mornings and has fruit, veges, and touristy things to buy. If you are here on a Saturday you need to visit this market. Unfortunately, it was pouring, and I mean pouring, but nobody melted and we were all a bit wet, but not cold. Later in the day the sun came out and has been here ever since.

Fun at the market.

Another market not to miss is the Night Market. This market is a food caravan market and the food is varied and great. Our table managed to gather ika mata (raw fish in coconut cream), garlic prawns in a creamy sauce, chicken and beef noodles, pork belly slow-cooked in oyster sauce, a plate with a prawn skewer, lamb chop a fried egg, a sausage, rice cooked in coconut cream and a small salad to avoid the oncoming heart attack.

Night market feed

Heart attack on a plate.

Followed by a variety of crepes and churros stuffed and coated with all sorts of sweet delights. We got there at 5pm as they opened and this is recommended as when we left it was pretty full and queues were beginning snake out from the most popular stands.

On a wee adventure around the island for a little bar hop, we stopped in town for an obligatory drink at Trader Jacks on the waterfront.

Trader Jacks

Lou’ana and Sammy drinking nu

Lou'ana and Samara loved the refreshing Nu, and had one whenever they could.

It’s not a particularly beautiful spot, especially when everywhere else on the island is lovely. A couple of drinks were had before we continued our sojourn to Vaiana’s, a rustic bar and restaurant on the beach. Those who had chosen to wear sneakers missed out on the sand between their toes as they sipped. Three large dogs were sitting in the water up to their shoulders and it looked like they were old men passing the time of day. As they sat they were watching the small fish darting around; it was quite comical to watch.

Vaiana's Bar

Our last stop was for dinner at Vaima, we had booked a table outside and once again our toes were in the sand, even though it was quite an upmarket place. The food and service were outstanding, the wine list said that they had Roaring Meg pinot noir a favourite of mine, and I tried not to get too excited, which was lucky because they didn’t have any. But resilient as I am we found something else that we had never heard of and Lou’ana, Samara and I were happy. I do recommend you try this place if you are here, you will need to book.

Dinner at Vaima

It has been lovely being here as a family and it does warm my heart having us all together. Usually, when we are together it is when we are gathered around our table at home. Enjoying each other on an adventure is even better!

At the supermarket, they pretty much have everything you need and at reasonable prices. We had taken over some supplies, and our visit to the supermarket was on the downpour day, so we purchased some cheap brollies and rain ponchos. And it worked! We didn't need them at all, great strategy to bring on fine weather.

The great thing about traveling with your kids when they are adults is that they can take off and do their own thing however this didn't need to happen due to the house size (made for space) and our location, swims, walks, and trips next door to the Nautilis Resort for a cocktail needed no planning.

Lance was determined that we would dine one evening on the western side of the island to enjoy the sunset and this is how we found ourselves at Antipodes, a Mediterranean-style restaurant perched high on a ledge overlooking the sea. As we walked in it was easy to imagine we were on the otherside of the world and it resembled something we may encounter in Greece or Italy. Sitting at a large round balcony table we enjoyed great food and one bottle of Roaring Meg pinot noir while enjoying the vista which included a golden sunset. Please note that I mentioned that it was only one bottle of Roaring Meg, this was not due to any restraint on my part, it was because they would only sell us one bottle and after that, we had to buy by the glass. Not to worry, with a view like this it was imperative that the evening was started with cocktails! Another highlight, well not at the time but makes a good story, was Lou'ana's dress. It was a very beautiful dress that had once belonged to Lance's mother back in the '70s. The very long zip at the back of this dress finally 'gave up the ghost' after 50 years. Unfortunately, it was when Lou'ana sat down at the table! Ever resourceful Lou'ana and Dillon slipped off to the bathroom and no one would ever have known that this was not intended to be an opened-back dress.

A few other places where the food is worth a mention are:

Vili's Burger Joint - these burgers pack a punch and stuff will be running down your wrists which is a sign of a great burger.

Deli Licious Cafe - you will leave here stuffed full of really great homemade food.

Swimming with the Turtles - Charlotte Piho photographer

We booked this tour at the night markets and were all very excited!

The weather was about to turn but we managed a cracker of a day with a clear sky and ocean. After a very short drive (everywhere is a short drive in Raro) we arrived on the beach outfitted with some snorkeling gear, some of which had seen better days. However, it all worked and even though I had one large flipper and one short I managed to swim in a straight line and not in circles.

Our guide was a young guy who was lots of fun and looked after us all on the short swim out to the reef. Don't worry if you are not a confident swimmer, much of the journey was quite shallow. The sandy beach dropped away to reveal a beautiful coral backdrop and then suddenly the turtles appeared. They glided past us, under us, and over us gently flapping their flippers like they were soaring through the sky. It was a very special time for us all and I highly recommend it even though it didn't come cheap. Part of the package is photos and whilst ours took quite some time to arrive it has brought back lovely memories.