Today was suppose to be a relaxing day, just sitting on the balcony, reading, doodling. Sangeet said “do you fancy getting the 2:30 bus to Muri beach?” It sounded like a good idea, we could have a wander on Muri beach and catch the last bus back to the hostel which would have been around 4:30pm.
Muri beach is a very nice part of the island. The lagoon is supposed to be the best for Rarotonga and the beach is also meant to be nice. The problem is after Aitutaki the lagoon and beach is not up to that standard – we have been spoilt!
Nevertheless it was still a nice lagoon, much wider than at the hostel and there was a strange soft spongy seaweed around the beach. We spent around an hour walking down the beach watching kite surfers and some older folk enjoying playing with their remote controlled boats. We also saw some small islands (motus) in the lagoon on the coast off Muri. Our bus was due to arrive so we walked towards the road but there was no path to the road so we had to climb over some big rocks! Sangeet went first then held the rucksack whilst I climbed up. We walked along the road, every so often we would look back hoping to catch the bus coming. We came to a stall selling coconut chips with different flavours, there was coconut with ginger, coconut with coffee, coconut with chill also there was chocolate, salt and pepper. We enjoyed the ginger flavour so bought two boxes of that. The owners name is Doug, who said his mum used to make this with the ‘secret recipe’ I think the stall was called ‘aunty Pats coco candy’ as there was no real marking we could not tell. We spent about an hour here chatting to the guys. Every so often we would look back at the road hoping the bus would show….Doug is setting up a website to promote his business and picked my brains on how best promote it.
We also met a guy there called Nolan, he is wwoofing with Dougs and helping him by climbing the trees to collect the coconuts, opening and grinding the coconuts and other jobs that need doing. Nolan is from Calgary and traveling for a year. He has just completed high school.
We bought a couple of the coconut and ginger tubs and carried on our journey. Every so often we would look back and hope the bus was coming. From Muri Beach to the hostel is around 15 km luckily it was cloudy and not as hot as it has been on the previous days. Probably around 25degrees C. By now we knew we had missed the bus so decided to walk along the beach. It was quite nice seeing the expensive resorts and wondering what it would be like to stay there!
As we were walking along the beach three dogs started barking at me, Sangeet who was walking behind me just carried on walking towards me the dogs turned back and just walked passed Sangeet, I think they could sense my fear….long story which goes back to my childhood!
We carried on walking and another three dogs surrounded us, Sangeet said show no fear and just carry on walking. The dogs started following us once in a while two of the dogs would have a play fight with each other. That was fine until they started growling and one of them looked a bit crazed like it might have rabies….we carried on walking chanting Waheguru….! As we walked on we saw another pack of dogs further along the beach so I suggested we walk along the road. The three dogs that had been following us for a while now followed us onto the road. As Sangeet said goodbye to the dogs, I popped into a restaurant called Vaima to have a look at the menu, the only thing we could eat was a veg stir fry, we decided just to get a drink, Sangeet had pineapple juice and I had diet coke. A much needed refreshing drink.
We carried on with our walk and thankfully the dogs had disappeared. We went back onto the beach which is very nice here, peaceful, soft and clean sand called Aro a beach and carried on walking. Even though it was cloudy the sunset was amazing, pink patterns in the sky. It is only when we got to the Rarotongan Beach Resort that we moved to the road as there wasn’t beach access past it. As it was getting later and dark we decided to hitch hike, cars passed us but nobody stopped, Sangeet tried and a very kind lady called Cel stopped, asked us where are we going, we mentioned the Rarotonga Backpackers hostel, she mentioned she is going that way and to get in! Wow we were relieved. She was curious to know where we were coming from, we said Muri Beach, she was amazed we had walked that far. We then proceeded to tell her about our travels and asked her what does she do, she said she was a taxi driver, my heart sank thinking here goes another NZ$40.00!! Luckily she said do not worry I am not charging you for this journey…We were so relieved and thankful.
When you guys are over this way please use Cel for your taxi needs and mention us…
Pecel Taxi
T: 72888
E: [email protected]
As a thank you we gave her one of the ginger coconut tubs…..this must be why we got two tubs!
As soon as we got into our room which was at 7:30pm, I went to get a chinese takeaway and Sangeet warmed up some leftover pasta. Just being my luck on the way to the chinese I get followed by some dogs! We ate on the balcony where a dog decided to join us for dinner! What is it with us and dogs today?!?
Recent Comments