Rarotonga
Written: Aug 08 '02 (Updated Aug 08 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Rarotonga is beautiful
Cons: Some resorts may be a little dated
The Bottom Line: We'll be back.
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| lbestwick's Full Review: Rarotonga |
My husband and I travelled in mid July at 1.00am on a lonely Saturday night from Auckland airport. We nearly never went to Rarotonga as my husband, a Kiwi, thought of Rarotonga as perhaps us Brits think of the Costa Brava.
On arrival we were transferred (very efficiently I must admit), on to a bus for our transfer to the Rarotongan Beach Resort. We stopped on the way at the Edgewater Resort to let off passengers. My impression of the Edgewater was that it was tatty looking, and we even witnessed a runaway chicken taking off outside reception in desperation and landing on the roof of our bus, possibly eager to escape the resort in any way it could (but I could be wrong, perhaps inside, the Edgewater is lovely).
On arrival at the Rarotongan Beach Resort at around 7.00am local time, we thought the front entrance and reception looked infinitely nicer than the Edgewater, and on checking in (we'd pre-booked an extra night to avoid hanging around until around 2.00pm waiting for the room to be cleaned, otherwise you can pay $90 extra on arrival for an express clean service), we were told our room was ready.
Trying not to look too smug when walking past the poor exhausted souls who didn't have a room to go to, we were taken to our beachfront, ground floor room (this was a good move and I would recommend booking the same type of room). Guess we should have taken our chances as we had a bag of rubbish, towels on the floor and a crumpled bed so thought it safe to assume that the cleaner perhaps hadn't been after all. After a couple of calls to reception, we had a little laugh about it with the lady on the line, and...still didn't get a cleaner that day, our introduction to island time I suppose.
The room had a definite 70's feel about it, and although the bathroom had a good shower and plenty of hot water, and the bed was huge and fantastically comfortable, it all looked just a little tired.
However, all this was swept aside when we opened our veranda door and stepped straight out onto a stretch of pure white sand leading to the eagerly-anticipated blue lagoon. It is just as pretty as they said in all the brochures. Unfortunately the day was overcast and the water didn't look as blue as we'd hoped, but this was after all our first day and the weather could only get better...couldn't it? Well actually, pretty much, it didn't, although we did manage to get about 4 half days without a chilly wind or rain, and managed to go snorkelling.
I would bring your own gear so you don't have to return it each day to the activities hut at 5.00pm (or you can buy gear at the dive shop in Avarua, where we in fact went and got very good advice, right down to colour co-ordination, from a very nice gentleman there).
The snorkelling too is brilliant, we saw so many different fish it was breathtaking, some of them will even take food from your hand. My husband being an enterprising Kiwi devised a home-made fish feeder, consisting of a plastic bag, knotted at the top and with a small hole in the corner, which he filled with French bread (he insisted that French bread was the only one of its type with the perfect consistency for the job). However, don't do to your wives what he did to me, and pull out a loaf of bread for the fish while snorkelling and chuck it directly infront of your wife. I found it slightly un-nerving when about 2 million fish suddenly surrounded me and went into a piranha-like feeding frenzy. Which reminds me, take a disposal underwater camera, we were really glad we did and have been boring friends with our albums of fish photos ever since.
All in all we thought the Rarotongan's greatest asset was its location, although the Island Night and Barbeque Nights are well worth going to. We thought the food adequate if slightly limited in choice especially of smaller meals and the cocktails over-priced at NZ$11 when they’re made from tinned fruit puree and not fresh fruit. However, our favorite entertainment was the Sunday Brunch where you get to listen to St Mary's Choir singing hymns island style. We watched them both Sundays we were there and would happily have watched them every day, we were really moved by their beautiful voices and music and just the sheer joy on their faces...wonderful.
Another thing we did was to hire a car in the vague hope of finding a part of the island where we weren't being rained on, and also to not have to rely on the bus service, (which is actually good and pretty regular, but note...the clockwise bus doesn't actually go clockwise on Sundays and only goes anti-clockwise!) Budget Car Hire (located at the resort), were average when it came to service and after returning several vehicles for reasons varying from not being able to get into the car as the wrong key had been cut for it, to getting a vehicle which kangarooed down the road while flashing lots of red dashboard lights, to a car that smelt as if something had crawled in and died in the backseat, (and all these incidents were packed into one day), we finally got a lovely little runaround and kept that for most of our stay.
You can't get lost in Rarotonga, just keep the car pointed forward and you'll end up where you started from in around 20 minutes. We always seemed to end up in Avarua, the main town on the island.
Avarua is a really pretty, quaint little town with some good shops and lots of good bars and restaurants. One of these, which became a favorite, is The Rock in Avarua. It doesn't seem to be mentioned in any of the guides but should be. The breakfasts are great value and the service very friendly and efficient. The menu and standard of food at The Rock is very high, (hubby says this is obviously due to the Kiwi chef), as to my surprise it is in most of the restaurants we went to with a few exceptions. Apparently The Rock is also a 'happenin' place at night, especially on a Friday which is the huge local night out.
We also had lunch at Trader Jacks (just coz it was the touristy thing to do when in Rarotonga), and I was delighted with my lunch special of whole charbroiled crayfish (lobster to us Brits), for NZ$47, served with salad and various sauces which you couldn’t get for that price in Auckland. Unfortunately we had dinner there another night (I was secretly hoping to re-live the crayfish experience), and were disappointed with the food and service. I had the bouillabaise with aioli (crayfish was off the menu), which appeared to be made from frozen seafood mix with a token floating prawn dropped in and 3 or 4 mussels. My husband had rack of lamb which was small and served with a sauce that apparently tasted like a packet mix, perhaps we just chose the wrong things. The service was slow and inefficient.
Next door to Trader's is the Waterfront Bar, where the Kiwi owners Steve and Jenny gave us a great night's entertainment over a few wines and beers telling us some of the very funny horror stories associated with their move from New Zealand to Rarotonga.
I also have to mention the place that became our local, the Timunu Bar and Restaurant situated near the Edgewater Resort. It's owned by Eric (an ex-pat Welshman), who's been there since time first began, and the bar holds the distinction of being the first to be granted a liquor licence. Think Cheers/Fawlty Towers with a tropical flavour. Like Cheers it too has its regulars of Norms and Dianne's although without Eric the place would be just another bar.
Go there for the company, the conversation with the friendly patrons (everyone has their own special story of why they've ended up in Rarotonga), go there to watch Eric put the room thermometer in the freezer just to make you feel more miserable to be on a tropical island and having to sport a thick wooly jumper, go there to have him whisk out portable fans from under the counter and set them up around the bar to blow smoke back the smokers, but above all sit back at the bar and listen to Eric's stories and anecdotes. We enjoyed it all thoroughly, and even got invited to join the regular's darts competition, which ended in hugs and kisses for all concerned, regardless of who had won or lost, or even played.
Must just mention my new mate at the Nu Bar on the outskirts of Avarua. We just stopped for a quick drink purely for research purposes one night, and were served by a lovely lady who told us the complete story from conception, through Caesarian section to the baptism of her son, I really felt we'd bonded after that (although think hubby would have preferred to have skipped the medical parts).
Finally, I would avoid the Spaghetti House at the Edgewater Resort unless you are desperate for a plate of (perfectly adequate) lasagna. The waitresses when we were there were too busy chatting at the bar and waving to their boyfriends cruising past the window on their mopeds, to be in anyway interested in serving us.
Muri lagoon is beautiful, although it was too cold and wet to swim everytime we went there. We also had a look around the resort and a drink at the bar and it all looked nice.
OK, enough already. Go to Rarotonga, it's beautiful, we loved it and will go again soon. It’s best suited to couples looking for romance and relaxation, so go there for the sake of your love life, but above all try to go there when it doesn't rain.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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Epinions.com ID:
lbestwick
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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