Well south in Rarotonga…. Sunday, 17/09/2023
Had a fairly rough voyage down here, for a good part of which the wind was blowing 25 knots. But all went ok, and came in here on Wednesday morning. The harbour of Avatiu on the north coast of Rarotonga isn’t the easiest place to be tied up – it’s small and quite a swell comes in, making it a fairly rolly place to stay. I was initially moored stern to the dock, with the anchor dropped in the harbour to secure the bow. All right in theory, but in practice proved not so good – on Friday morning my anchor chain broke loose of the anchor, the result of the constant surge of water. So – after much dispute with the harbour master – I moved the boat to tie up alongside. Hopefully I can get someone to dive down and retrieve the anchor tomorrow. There’s always something…
The island however is great! You can really feel that you’ve come quite far south because the temperature is relatively cool, typically a maximum of 22 or 23 degrees. Rarotonga is 21 degrees south, meaning that it’s not that far north of the Tropic of Capricorn, roughly 23.5 degrees south. It’s a small island: the circular road that goes around its edge is only 24 kilometres (15 miles) long. The highest point is 652 metres (2,139 feet), so like most islands it’s pretty mountainous. And very green – the centre of the island is covered in dense forest.
What’s quite amusing is that you feel that you are in New Zealand. The people talk with a kiwi accent, and most of the visitors here, of whom there are plenty, are New Zealanders. The Cook Islands were a British colony, then were given to New Zealand before becoming independent in the mid-1960s. It uses the New Zealand dollar and is in “free association” with New Zealand – no surprise because the population is tiny: about 17,000, of whom 11,000 live on Rarotonga. Most Cook Islanders don’t live here – there are 80,000 in New Zealand and a further 28,000 in Australia.
The place is clean and well-ordered and everyone is very friendly. In the last few days I’ve had numerous conversations with people, both locals and visiting New Zealanders – all of whom have expressed great interest in my voyage. There’s only one other yacht here, which appears to belong to someone living here, so it feels quite a special place to be. Most yachts take a more northerly route westwards in the Pacific – allegedly because there is frequently no wind in this area – not my experience at all. I intend to leave on Tuesday and for the next week wind is forecast at 25 knots-plus. So it will be a rough five day sail onwards to the island of Niue.
I’ve been enjoying the landscape and the beaches. Yesterday I walked halfway up the cross-island trail through dense forest to a high point of 240 metres (800 feet). I didn’t come across anybody else – I really felt that I had a vast forest to myself! Today I walked westwards along the coast to Blackrock, where there is a lovely beach and a large reef close inshore that was good for snorkelling.
It’s interesting to see somewhere like this. That’s the great advantage brought by this voyage: the opportunity to visit places that you would be very unlikely to see otherwise. No-one sitting in London is going to say: you know what, I think the Cook Islands would be a great holiday destination! You’d face a 24 hour flight to New Zealand and then another 4 hour flight on here – a prohibitive amount of travel. So I’m trying to enjoy it while I have the chance.