The Pacific Princess cruising into Papeete Harbor last night may have been a beautiful sight, but we had to view it dispassionately. No, we weren't watching our next home arrive; the ship will be sailing without us on board when it leaves Papeete tomorrow at 5pm. We're also not continuing our stay in French Polynesia. Instead, we're heading back to Faa'a airport this morning to catch a 12:15pm flight to our next destination, 755 miles to the west.
While our decision to fly to Rapa Nui from Papeete was made after only two minutes of deliberation and finalized by June 1, over the following month there was a slow realization on my part that first using the Pacific Princess to get to Papeete, and then using Papeete as a base for more extended Polynesian travel was a most excellent idea for this long-flight-averse traveler. Having visited the three corners of the Polynesian Triangle, it was time to further explore its interior. We've now spent months in French Polynesia, and visited Samoa and American Samoa twice; the obvious choice for another Papeete 'side trip' was the Cook Islands. Though they are an independent country in Free Association with New Zealand, their largest island of Rarotonga is only a 2 hour flight from Papeete, and, coincidentally, Air Tahiti operates one flight weekly, on Thursdays, between Papeete and Rarotonga (sounds familiar, no?).
Source: Graphicmaps.com
Source: http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g1166723-d4461191-i69426062-Muri_Shores-Muri_Rarotonga_Southern_Cook_Islands.html
Source: Muribeachhideaway.com
Getting G on board with a second departure from our usual "cruise ship as a second home" MO didn't take a lot of effort, but I could have made it even easier for myself. When I finally stopped talking and simply showed him pics of the Muri lagoon on the southeastern corner of Rarotonga...
...we were of one mind that this was a place we needed to see, especially since we would be 'in the neighborhood'. As with Rapa Nui, we will never again have the opportunity to visit the Cook Islands at a fraction of the time and expense of flying there from home. G's only stipulation was that we make the trip immediately following our week on Easter Island. He did not want to be repeatedly embarking and disembarking the Pacific Princess; once he reboarded the ship and unpacked again, he wanted to stay put until it reached Los Angeles on December 3. That decided the timing of our side-trip: October 8 to October 15. We'll be returning to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti next Thursday, and reboarding the Pacific Princess during its next turnaround in Papeete on Sunday, October 18. When it returns to Papeete the evening before, we'll be so excited that we'll be standing on the quayside waving lighted batons to guide it in. ;-)
That we are able to fit in these two side trips, both of them requiring flights that operate just once a week but on different days, within the constraints of two 10-night Pacific Princess cruises made all of this possible. To us, that means it was meant to be.
Our Cook Islands research pointed us to Muri Beach Hideaway on the Muri lagoon on Rarotonga for our stay. The reviews on both Booking.com and TripAdvisor were glowing, and the location (right on the beach) and full kitchen sounded very appealing. (May we have better luck this time around!) Once our Cook Islands decision was made, we moved quickly, booking a lagoon-view bungalow online and then reserving our round trip air between Papeete and Rarotonga on Air Tahiti (a smaller, inter-island airline not related to Air Tahiti Nui). A week on a beach in the Cook Islands; we're so there! Well...almost. One more flight over empty miles of Pacific Ocean comes first, but this time it's only two daylight-hours long (and thankfully in the same time zone). We can do this!
Internet on Rarotonga, much like internet on Easter Island, will be hard to come by and very slow. Worse yet, we'll have to pay for it. And even worse again, the charge will be based on data usage, not time (which means I'll be uploading few/no pics!!). But I'll again continue to compose posts that might not be published until we return to Tahiti next Thursday. How far have we sunk in the world of wifi when Papeete is the best we can hope for?
But, in the world of travel, this adventure is priceless.
Life is good. :-)
