From The Cook Island(s) to Mt Cook (New Zealand)

From The Cook Island(s) to Mt Cook

We are on our way back from Auckland after 3d on the Cook Islands and 3½ wks in NZ. Although both made for quite enjoyable travel, neither are as intriguing culturally as the two prior years’ overseas trips (Balkans and Japan) so this email will be much shorter. We were in the Bahamas and SW USA earlier in the yr (in addition to a few wks on BC’s coast), however those destinations weren’t worth writing about.

The Cook Islands –or should I say “island”- are/is beautiful. Like most visitors and locals, we only visited the main island of Rarotonga- which has 2/3rds of its population, and most of its economic activity (tourism is the #1 industry). The next closest island is quite far- an expensive hour’s flight. The total area of the country is about the size of British Columbia, but with a total land mass smaller than the city of Vancouver, and a population about that of Yaletown- only 19 000 inhabitants! In fact, The Cook Islands are a country without a single traffic light! The island’s buses are labeled “clockwise” and “anti-clockwise” going around the double-ring road around a volcanic center. Essentially the whole island is ringed by a lagoon with an outer reef breaking the ocean’s waves- making for excellent snorkeling and paddling inside (unless your last name is Gorsuch!), especially where we stayed, around Muri, which has three small islets, which can even be walked to at low tide.

Although visited by him, the islands were neither “discovered”, stepped foot on, nor self-named by Captain James Cook, who named them “The Hervey Islands”, only changed to his name by a Russian explorer in 1835. The combination with New Zealand on this trip is far from random. Practically, it was because Air NZ offers a free stop-over (we flew down via LA). However historically and economically the connection is very strong. Actually Aotearoa (the Maori name for NZ) was discovered from Rarotonga by 7 canoes ~1400, and the Maori (NZ’s first nation) are all descendants of Cook Islander Polynesians. More recently it was annexed to NZ in 1901, obtaining independence in 1965, but still maintaining very close links- it uses NZ dollars, all Cook Islanders have NZ passports and full rights to employment in NZ (and by extension Australia), so that about 3 times as many of its citizens live in those countries than at home. They however certainly are not leaving for better weather- we were, unfortunately, correctly apprehensive about a premature end to our southern hemisphere summer on leaving this beautiful, quiet, and relatively inexpensive South Pacific paradise.

We spent the first wk in NZ touring the Northlands above Auckland (Mangawhai Heads, Bay of Islands, far north tip of Cape Renga & nearby huge dunes, including a few miles of driving on the national hwy of Ninety Mile Beach [in contra to rental contract-I spent a half hour power-washing off the caked-on evidence from the undercarriage that evening and the next morning], & Kauri tree forest of Waipoua). Then flew into Dunedin and spent 2 wks touring the Southern half of the South Island, before flying back from Queenstown to Auckland, where JC’s friend, Bee, who lives in Brisbane joined us for this past weekend. NZ is indeed incredibly beautiful. Some say that NZ is “like Canada”. However in addition to the multiple geologic/environmental inaccuracies of this analogy, I think it does an injustice to the beauty and diversity of NZ- if you were to shrink Canada down to the size of one province, keeping only the best, then you might be coming closer to the truth. Altho the itinerary was chosen so as to not overlap (other than AKL) with my trip in 1996, I still can’t say that I’ve seen all there is to see in NZ, and would be happy to return again. Outside Dunedin we rented an early 1900s historical “Pilot’s House” on the Aramoana Spit- one of only 3 homes on the spit- we were its only human inhabitants 3 of 5 nights- walking home along our private beach in the dark! The “pilot” took ships thru the ~500m opening across from the head of remote Otago Peninsula into the ~30km long Otago Harbour. Highlights there included seeing yellow-eyed penguins and albatross, and the inland Otago rail cycle trail. The very small village of Aramoana at the start of the spit also has an unfortunate history as the site of NZ’s worst mass murder of 13 locals by a bullied and mentally unstable villager (we spoke to the older couple at who’s home we had parked our car about it and they were much more sympathetic towards the killer than we had expected). It was made into a movie “Out of the Blue”, which we will try to watch. Weather was poor the entire 3wks (they kept saying it was atypical for late spring, and was much cooler than historical averages), but especially in the far south- blustery would be the best description, often rain and sunshine simultaneously and always very gusty winds.

Next took a day cruise on the very impressive rain-soaked, waterfall-lined, misty fjord of Milford Sound. Then spent 4 nights in the quaint historical gold-mining town of Arrowtown, 15min outside Queenstown. Drove a 30km gravel road that included 9 ford crossings- we named them after Gerald, Betty etc, of course reserving the largest for Rob. Then headed up to see 3754m Mt Cook (which, similarly, the explorer himself never saw)- excellent views and weather that day, while there I snow-hiked up to Mueller Hut and 1900m Olivier Peak (Edmund Hillary’s 1st pk, but I’m not going any further down his path…). Took a 15min open 1920s-designed Grumman open biplane ride in the valley! Back in Auckland JC sky-jumped 192m off the Sky Tower! Also was taken to an excellent Chinesedinner by some distant relatives of hers.

All for now, and hope you are all well,

Stu