Rarotonga Market & Scuba Diving

I decided that renting a bike would ensure I could travel around with a bit more ease, and a lot less time spent in the process, so on Saturday morning I walked down the road to a bike rental shop.  Since I wanted a basket I had to get a "beach cruiser" which, sadly, only had 3 gears.  Oh well, the leisurely pace was fine.  About thirty minutes later I had arrived at the Punanga Nui Market (the reason I had left Aitutaki on Friday).  After locating a small palm tree and chaining up my bike I was free to wander around.  Cook Islanders are very skilled craftsmen; carvings, paintings, hand-woven baskets and hats, beautiful jewelry from their special black pearls - everything was so tempting.  A delicious, fresh-made fruit smoothie kept me cool while I browsed the stalls.  I nearly bought a few paintings, there were so many beautiful ones, but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to buy any of the items.  I certainly don't need more stuff, and my suitcase was already pretty full.

When I had mentioned to Carlo that I was hoping to go to the Saturday market, he advised that at 10am there is usually a performance at the main stage.  He was absolutely correct, and it was put on by Highland Paradise!  The same MC and a lot of the same drummers.  This time the dancers were all the little kids (tamaiti), and they certainly were cute!!  

They were still learning their choreography, but they use the show as a fundraiser.  They take the kids to do shows around the world promoting Cook Island culture.  I also managed to catch a video of him explaining the complexity of the drumming to which they are dancing.

I had booked an afternoon scuba diving trip with Dive Rarotonga, which was a 2 minute walk from my flat, so after a quick bite to eat I headed back there.  Although I'm open-water certified, I haven't been diving in a couple years and wasn't sure I would feel comfortable doing a regular dive.  The introductory dive ended up being an excellent choice as I was definitely a bit rusty.  The instructor Paul was fantastic and since the Italian-Polish couple, while not certified, had been diving a few times we sped through "introductory" portion.  While gearing up for the skills test in the pool Paul asked me if I was actually American.  He told me he was surprised when he saw my address listed on my form as the US, as my accent didn't sound American to him.  I told him I had been living in New Zealand for the last 6 months, but he said that wasn't quite it.  He pointedly asked if I had been spending a lot of time around people from the Northern UK.  Shocked by such a specific question, I laughed and said, "Yes.  I was house sitting for a couple from Wales and Scotland and their friends were from Wales and England!"  I couldn't believe he could tell, I really didn't think I had picked up much of an accent.  As for the diving, Paul told us that on the morning dive they could hear the whales talking to each other, so we were excited for that possibility.

The clarify of the water was astounding.  I'm guessing the visibility was at least 12 meters, but it was possibly more.  We saw several unusual fish and lots of coral.  There were a few creatures that when Paul got near them and snapped his fingers they either disappeared inside a hole or changed colors!  I had forgotten to put my camera on underwater mode before we started our descent and once we'd reach our depth the pressure was too much and I couldn't use the buttons to switch modes.  Oh well, I was able to edit some of them.  In the end we never did hear any whales, but we got to see a turtle!!

All in all, it was a great afternoon under the sea.

After a shower I took a walk down to Black Rock Beach and then enjoyed a spectacular sunset.  As the song says, "Life was good today!"