Lightning over Rarotonga

The six o’clock TVNZ news is rebroadcast in Rarotonga at 8.30pm. Well to be more accurate it’s some time between twenty past eight and five to nine depending on what programme precedes it.
The weather segment of the news includes forecast symbols for Australia and the Pacific islands, including the Cook Islands.
Since early December our symbol has shown a dark cloud with flashes of lightning, rain and a temperature between 29C and 31C. The temperature’s been about right but we haven’t had much in the way of thunderstorms - until this week.
On Tuesday night we had two or three great lightning displays.
The first one started at about 6.30pm, still daylight but you could see the flashes illuminating the tops of the clouds. That was to the NNW. Very little thunder so it must have been a long way away.
It kept going though, and moved slowly to the west and then another display started up in the northwest. There was still no thunder and no rain.
The video was taken at around 9pm. By that time the storms had moved around to the west and there was an average of about 15 seconds between flashes but I’ve edited out the waiting time to make it look more exciting.
The display lasted for several more hours and another storm started up in the north at about 9.30pm. Actually heard some thunder from that one although it was still far out to sea.
So the TV weather forecast got it right at last.
Actually it’s just as well we haven’t had too many storms because whenever they come close, large numbers of the islands’ computers suffer from fried motherboards and hard drives. This is an additional expense that web surfers just don’t need given the already exorbitant cost of keeping up with the world online.
Telecom Cook Islands, the country’s monopoly ISP, is currently pushing a deal whereby you get ‘up to’ 1Mbps download speed and 20Gb data allowance (with a 10c per Mb excess fee) for the princely sum of $1650 per month. And I didn’t forget the decimal point. That really is one-thousand-six-hundred-and-fifty dollars. A month. Something similar from Telecom NZ (which is a major shareholder in TCI) will cost you $59.95 per month with a speed of up to 4Mbps and if you go over the 20Gb the speed drops but there’s no extra charge. That’s over 27 times more expensive.
It’s not cheap staying in touch in the islands!

Tahitian Princess’s last visit to Rarotonga

The Princess Cruises ship Tahitian Princess paid its last visit to the Cook Islands on Saturday.
Locals will be sad to say goodbye.
The Tahitian Princess has been a regular visitor to Rarotonga for several years. Every ten days or so during the cruise season the elegant-looking ship dropped anchor beyond the reef so passengers could come ashore on small tenders. Well, they could if the weather was OK. If the seas were rough, riding the tenders was too dangerous and the visits were cancelled.
Over the years the harbour has changed quite a bit. There is now a western basin where small fishing boats anchor and this is where the tenders unload. Shopkeepers set up stalls on the foreshore above the harbour on boat days, mainly for black pearls, carvings, pareu and woven souvenirs. Visitors can also pick up tours and dive boats here.
Saturday was a lovely day, no problem getting people ashore and the island would have looked beautiful to those who stayed on the ship.
There is talk of building an alternative ship’s tender harbour on the western side of Rarotonga. It would be small and only be used when the sea swells in the Avatiu area stop the safe transport of passengers to the island.
A total of 28 cruise ships visited Rarotonga last year but another 13 could not stop over because of heavy swells. In fact the first scheduled cruise ship of 2008, the Seven Seas Voyager, was unable to land anyone. That’s a big disappointment for stallholders and tour companies. However, with world finances in their current state we’re unlikely to see a new tender harbour any time soon.
The Tahitian Princess is heading for the northern hemisphere this year but other cruise lines are planning to call in and they should all be welcomed with open arms, weather permitting, as they make a real difference to the local economy
Well, at least it was fine for the Princess’s final visit so let’s hope everyone had a great time and has lots of happy memories of Rarotonga and the Cook Islands.

Rarotonga’s cross-island walk

Members of the Cook Islands search and rescue organisation have just placed new markers along Rarotonga’s cross-island track. The track leads from the Avatiu valley, up to the Needle, about 350 metres above sea level, then down through the Papua valley to Wigmore’s Waterfall.
Heading up from the Avatiu side the track is reasonably clear but from the base of the needle there are two ways down, one goes along a ridge and the other through the valley. The route crosses the Papua stream in several places and there are also other tracks leading off the main path. It’s often difficult to see where you are supposed to be going.
In fact two female tourists lost their way in early January and spent a night in the bush.
Even in dry weather the steep slopes can be slippery and the head of Rescue Cook Islands, Charles Carlson, says the cross-island track isn’t a walk in the park! Especially after rain, the ground and stream crossings can be treacherous. On one rescue mission a tourist with a broken leg had to be carried out.
Carlson says that if it’s raining you shouldn’t go.
As the video (filmed several years ago) shows, there are some fantastic views on the track over both sides of the island but in wet weather it wouldn’t look nearly so impressive.
The two tracks leading down from the Needle to Wigmore’s Waterfall are now marked with green steel plates nailed to the trees.