Day 126 - Wonder Worlds from Above

Nice plane, but not ours...

Because we were early like always before a flight, we could spend an entire hour in the Air New Zealand lounge. So much nice food *_* Finally we could leave this cold country and were hit by a heat shock when we left the plane in Rarotonga. Because my dad already told me, I wasn’t this much surprised but enjoyed it anyway: an elderly man playing the guitar and singing for the people waiting for their luggage, sitting on a chair in the baggage claim area behind the baggage belt.

As we weren’t already spoiled enough during the flight, eating and drinking from porcelain dishes and real glasses with fabric napkins (we were unexpectedly upgraded to Economy plus and sat in the first row), we noticed to have public wireless at the airport, at least as long as there were planes scheduled. What a revolutionary thing!

After having seen the San Andreas catastrophe movie on our flight, I was glad to see such a wonderful world, both on Rarotonga and Aitutaki. Rarotonga pleased with its green mountain needles, the Aitutaki atoll with its turquoise color. Arriving in Aitutaki, we were greeted by the Queen and brought to her garden lodge where we would spend two nights. The actually short way seemed sooooo long lasting, because the Queen’s husband didn’t drive much faster than foot pace, and everybody who overtook was denounced to be in a hurry. So we chugged along the roads with my dad on the rental scooter behind us.

One corner of Aitutaki

 

Later in the evening, we had to make two extra rounds with our scooter over the island. I had forgotten to take our camera out of the Queen’s car. Although we had no street address of our hosts and were not able to call them, at the end my father found their house not far away from our Garden Lodge. Aitutaki is small enough that its about 1000 inhabitants know everyone and also know where people live. And everyone smiles when you meet him/her on the street! But we had to do some shopping anyway, and we had plenty of time - due to the date line we were able to relive the 19th November again.