Rarotonga primary schools fight it out

The weather on Rarotonga is usually pretty good.

I’m talking about local standards here; to those who’ve been suffering recent storms and snow in Europe or America it must seem close to perfect.
It’s certainly true that the fine weather encourages people to get out and take part in sports and our schools, both primary and secondary, are doing their bit by offering lots of sporting choices and organising tournaments in various codes.
Netball, rugby and athletics used to be the major inter-school tournaments but these days you can add soccer, cricket, basketball, touch rugby and volleyball (the subject of this video). And secondary school kids now get the chance to try their hands at lawn bowls and outrigger canoeing.
There used to be so-called experts around who said competition was a bad thing. Maybe there still are but they wouldn’t impress many people in the Cooks. Our kids love the added spice of whopping other schools!

Rarotonga’s wetlands – taro swamps

Back on the subject of Cook Islands wetlands (see also the Ngatangiia Salt Marshes) the northern group islands don’t have any but most of the southern group have freshwater marshes and swamps while Mangaia, Atiu and Mitiaro have freshwater lakes albeit shallow ones.
Freshwater swamps on Rarotonga are, or used to be, on coastal plains and in flat-bottomed river valleys but many of them have now been turned into taro plots.
As you drive around the island you pass plots in various stages of production from overgrown and weed-infested, through freshly turned, with new shoots planted, mulched with kikau, black plastic or cardboard – often flattened beer cartons to healthy looking crops of rukau (taro leaves).
The plots are small but taro production is hard work. Everything is done by hand. Apparently once you’ve planted the taro in the lowlands, on raised beds with irrigation ditches, you can more or less leave them to get on with it – the plants grown in ponds take a lot more effort so I’ve heard.
Most if not all of the marsh wetlands on Raro have been used for taro or drained, filled and built upon. I don’t know of any in the original state.
Maybe on the outer islands some of the lakes have fared better or at least may be reverting to their original state now that so many people have left.
The area of terraces in the Tupapa valley (on the way to Te Kou) is really very impressive.

From A Directory of Wetlands in Oceania - Anna Tiraa

A series of terraced taro swamps extending for approximately 2.5 km along either side of the Tupapa stream from near its headwaters to the edge of the coastal plain. Water is channelled from the stream by way of a trench to the top of the top terrace, then down through the lower terraces to rejoin the main stream at the bottom. Traditionally, small stones were used to line the trenches to prevent erosion; in recent years, some trenches have been replaced with plastic and concrete piping. The taro plots generally follow the contours of the land and are laid out according to the patterns of customary ownership.
The terraced swamps were constructed for the cultivation of taro (Colocasia esculenta), and continue to be used for this purpose.
Although there is no legal protection, the taro swamps have been protected by their customary land owners for centuries.
The Tupapa valley has a timelessness and serenity as yet scarcely affected by the modern progress and development which has occurred elsewhere on Rarotonga. The terraces are of particular interest because of the pre-contact skill that went into their construction and the minimal change that has occurred in the overall design of the terraces down through the ages.

Cyclone Pat appeal at Punanga Nui market

This video shows some of the entertainment organised by the Aitutaki community on Rarotonga to fundraise for cyclone Pat victims.
We had great weather and a large number of tourists and locals turned out in support. The fundraising is going very well with overseas Cook Islanders also doing a great job to help the families back home.
There was some controversy about the Aitutaki Sharks rugby league boys coming to Raro for their game against the Ngatangiia Sea Eagles. Some people – on Rarotonga at least – thought they should have stayed at home and got on with the repairs. Well they’ve all been working flat out since the cyclone and the boys themselves said Aitutaki is sports mad and they were doing it to raise morale. In the end it was a close match but the Sea Eagles won and all the gate takings were donated to the fund, over $1000, so it was a good day’s work anyway.
Back on the island repairs are going well, roads are clear, electricity and water are under control and most of the tourist accommodation is up and running. Tourists are needed to pump money back into the economy.
Meanwhile a cyclone Sarah, has been hovering around the region. Winds caused damage in Penrhyn and it’s above Palmerston, moving very slowly, and Aitutaki is on the edges of the wind and rain and is getting more very bad weather. It’s a worry for the people who have been housed in tents while their homes are being repaired but plans have been made to get everyone under cover if things get worse although it seems to be fading away.
On top of all that, the Pacific also had a tsunami warning this morning because of a major earthquake in Chile.
Generally speaking our islands are very small compared to the wavelength of tsunami waves so we don’t get the massive walls of water - it goes around us rather than over the top. But we could still get flooding of low lying areas.
We had a tsunami alert in September last year and the response here was shambolic. Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga were all hit and 189 people were killed, mostly in Samoa. Here a lot of people drove up a nearby hill causing a bit of a traffic jam while others went down to the harbour to watch. (The water drained out and then flowed back in again but quite slowly I believe.)
The main complaint was that nobody seemed to know what was going on.
Well, this time it was much better organised. Warning sirens went off in the early hours of the morning in the places that have them (Arorangi!) and people went around the island getting everyone to move inland or uphill. The RNZAF Hercules had been on the airport tarmac but it took off and circled the island until the danger was over.
I live up a hill so I slept through the whole thing. First I knew about it was getting up to let the dog in and seeing a bunch of people on the next hillside sheltering under a marquee and looking cold and wet. They headed back to cars and trucks and drove off a short while later. Must have been tourists.
Town was very quiet and some shops were boarded up this morning but once again Rarotonga has been very lucky.