Chapter 19: I Came to Swim With Humpbacks, but first...

Community Highlights Oceania Chapter 19: I Came to Swim With Humpbacks, but first...

I wake in The Cook Islands, a self-governing country (the 133rd that I have visited) that is "in free association" with New Zealand. Because the resort that was supposed to host me was full last night, I am at the Tamanu Beach Resort. The website says, "Aitutaki's Finest." It isn't that. The 23 villas are of different varieties; I am in a garden bungalow which is one of several in a chevron arrangement so that each guest can look directly into the villa of the guests across the way. Isn't that special. My section is filled with ladies here for a yoga retreat. They are having a fine time. I draw my drapes and turn on the television--it gets four channels.

At around 4:00am, from my bungalow #104, roosters who must be lodged in bungalow #102, begin to crow. There are many theories about why roosters crow. Some say it is due to a burst of testosterone, others say it is similar to that and serves as a mating call, others insist it is a territorial warning to other roosters, and still others insist that it is an alert to nearby predators. I say it is designed to infuriate humans who wish to sleep. It certainly serves that purpose.

So, I am up early but that is fine. I walk the beach--four miles in all--and return to the restaurant for a nice buffet breakfast. B and I chat afterwards as I take a third cup of coffee to a table by the beach, fortunately shielded from the wind by a building.

Josh comes to collect me at 10:30. We stop at his seasonal rental house for a coffee and a chance to chat before he delivers me to the Aitutaki Lagoon Private Island Resort, my base for the remainder or my time on the island. This is the real deal. Accommodations range from overwater bungalows to private infinity pool bungalows to lagoon-facing and ocean-facing beach bungalows. After a small wait for housekeeping to do its thing, I'm ensconced in the latter and delighted by it. Interestingly, the shower is outside. It must never get cold here. Ever. Another contrast. the television here gets Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Google TV and a lot more including something called the TCL Channel which offers tons of movies, none of which I have ever heard of. Quite an upgrade from four channels. As televisions offer more and more built in apps like Netflix, the folks at Roku who delight as having conquered cable will have to worry as they are next on the streaming food chain.

Everybody gets a bicycle, kayaks, paddle boards, etc. It's a very nice place. The sand is coarse and there is a bit too much hazardous coral and rock mixed in...barefoot beach combing requires great care. Water socks are provided at each bungalow. Nice touch. A beautiful pair of white terns guard the walk to my lodging and I grab a nice hot shower.

The day, however, doesn't deliver good weather. It's very windy and overcast with the temperature hovering around 75 degrees. Had this been the first day on the boat to search for whales it would have been (had they not canceled outright) no fun at all.

Josh hosted his bevy of adventurers for dinner tonight at the Boat Shed Bar & Grill which, while adjacent to the resort, can only be reached by a small, drawbridge equipped ferry sort of boat that delivers us across a thirty foot wide "channel" that creates the "private island" upon which the resort is perched.

It's fun but tricky. There is a strong current in this channel as the tide ebbs and flows so the operator is forced to "crab" the vessel on both sides. We passengers must scurry across the drop down bridge. It's fun. I'm glad I'm not piloting this thing.

There are only four of us. I'll have more to say about my fellow adventurers once I get to know them better. First impressions are all positive. Josh provides details for tomorrow and the days ahead and we all retreat for a good night's sleep.

I should, after this morning's rude awakening, be ready for sleep but I'm not. So, I will give you some insight about this place. The Cook Islands has its own customs regulations and foreign policy but no army or navy--it relies on New Zealand for defense. Most Cook Islanders are both "Cook Island Nationals" and also citizens of New Zealand. At first blush, they appear to be amazingly friendly. If you ran across a stranger that was this friendly in, say, New York, you would assume that he was out to scam you. There is very little crime here but tourists are advised to lock their belongings in rental cars or motor scooters and not assume that stashing ones watch and wallet in the toe of your shoe while you swim in the ocean will fool anybody.

They do have their own unique set of problems. The Asian Development Bank recently said this: "The Cook Islands is one of the smallest and most remote nations, facing constraints from a small population, narrow economic base, high exposure to disaster and climate risks and economic shocks, limited private sector activity, and high public administration and infrastructure costs."

In February of 2010, Cyclone Pat hit Aitutaki. Gusts of 185 miles per hour and "devastated" the island, damaging 85 percent of the homes here. Amazingly nobody died and only eight serious injuries were reported. In February of this year, Cyclone Nat passed just to the north of here. Overall, however, recent weather history has been kind to all of the Cook Islands.

At Aitutaki, one of those Cooks, just across the clear waters lies Tapuaetai, "One Foot Island," awarded "Australasia's Leading Beach" in 2008. It is one of the 22 islands in the Aitutaki atoll and sits four miles from my hotel. It is three football fields long and just over one football field wide--and it rises to a height of five feet above sea level. That is the scale of things here. Nothing is big. This is that kind of place.

I post both the map and the aerial photograph because they tell different stories. The map is cold hard facts. The aerial offers a tiny bite of the emotion here, what this place looks like--the colors of the shallow water inside the shallow lagoon. The very different color of the deep surrounding ocean and the palms against the sand. And above it, crisp, clean air. There are cars here but very little pollution. Simply put, we humans have yet to ruin this place. But, give us time. More on this as the week goes on.

This featured blog entry was written by paulej4 from the blog Swimming With Whales.
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