Exploring Rarotonga

Our Trip to the islands consisted of half of our time on Rarotonga, the main island, and the other half of our time on another small island called Aitutaki. Our days primarily consisted of several hours of beach time at our place mixed with checking out the local markets, visiting other beaches on the islands, and eventually trying to find food somewhere before everything closed. This post is a hodgepodge of pictures and stories from the daily exploits on Rarotonga.

First up, the $2 coin of the Cook Islands. Popular item amongst coin collectors, prized for its triangular shape. You might also note the amazing wallet it is sitting on. That's the wallet that Rebecca helped me make a few weeks ago on a rainy Sunday afternoon. The plan was that I would flaunt it in Rarotonga, take orders for all the people who would be dying to get one of their own, and the Whitings could deliver a whole shipment when they go visit Rarotonga next month. Unfortunately, the islanders are not easily impressed.... I still like it.

Moving along to this: 

I left my camera unattended for 5 minutes (probably because I was graciously refreshing her drink or something) and I returned to a whole series of Tera's Beach Chair pics. This one and the next two are my favorites from the collection. 

Of course Scooby Dude was hanging out with us.

 Here's another sunset from our place:

It's like a Beach-themed calendar everywhere you look.

My Island Sister.

Gosh this is a pretty place...

I couldn't resist the urge to climb one of the leaning palms. I don't have Tera's pictures to prove it, but you'll just have to trust me.

From my perch in the tree.

Market Day!!!!

FRESH FISH!!!!!

I was in it for the food. Pastries and Tornado Potatoes!

Tera was in it for the cool hats. 

In actuality, I was the one who ended up getting a sweet hat at the market. The ladies got some pereus (sarongs) to keep the beach vibe going all summer back home.

Hibiscus and every other amazing tropical flower were growing all over the place.

Momma Scherder ready to head out for the evening!

And what a beautiful evening it was!

Sorry this picture is blurry, but I thought it was important to include to show that Tera got pulled up on stage to hula dance for the crowd! She loves to do it. Ask her to do it next time you see her. 

She was dreading the possibility of getting pulled up there, and we told her it was inevitable. Less than one second after they announced that the dancers were going to go find a partner from the audience, this little boy appears OUT OF NOWHERE and immediately grabs her hand to go for a dance. I loved it. I also loved the food. Tera hated both. This was at an 'island night' where you can get a traditional island food buffet and traditional dance performance. We did two of them. I"ll post the highlights from the second one another time! spoiler alert: Tera had to dance again.

This is a particularly great photograph from the trip. My saint of a sister brought me a SunDrop. Sweet, sweet nectar. I savored every drop.

This was another normal evening dinner at sunset on the beach. ya know, the usual.

Mom soaking it in.

We liked this place. 

Drinks by the beach!

Pretty great dinner view!

We walked out to the barrier reef one day where the waves were a lot bigger. You could stand on the rocks, just at the surface of the water, so it looked like you were standing on water.

Beach Bums!

At night, we went and played with crabs along the beach before bed.

So that's a pretty good sampler of how we passed our time on Rarotonga.