Trip Report - Rarotonga (Cook Islands)

[harvyk]

Yesterday I returned from my trip to the Cook Islands. I thought I'd put something up about it.

OK, first things first - the flights

Saturday the 2nd - CBR - MEL on QF 795
B737-400

OK so this was an early one, we left Canberra at 6:40 in the morning, guy at check in counter didn't really know what he was doing and gave us crappy seats, I complained and my wife, daughter and I got better ones for the MEL - AKL flights. We had average Qantas breakfast which tasted ok and the standard 2 1/2 men on the screen, only problem was my daughter (16 months old) wasn't allocated her own seat so I had her on my lap for the flight, and my wife was a nervous wreak (unlike me she hates flying)

We arrived in Melbourne, my Brother-in-law went to see if they could change their seats as he and his GF where split up by several rows.

Go through security etc at Mel T2 and had about an hour to kill once all the fuss was over and done with.

Saturday the 2nd - MEL - AKL on QF25
B747-400
This was a good flight, smoothest landing I'd ever had. Only problem was the AVOD system had issues so they had to reboot the system mid flight which took about 15 minutes. By the time it was actually working half the flight was over and done with. Lunch was pretty good and my daughter slept for over half the flight. One thing I did notice, was even on a nearly full B747, there were only two people scared enough of swine flu that they wore masks, like me no one else cared.

We then spent 2 nights in Auckland, it was kinda nice to actually see the city (I go over there for work very frequently but it's rare I get to do the touristy things.)

Monday the 4th - AKL - RAR on NZ46
B777-200
After sitting on the ground for over an hour due to a sick pax we finally took off. My daughter did not like sitting around at all and cried for the full hour. Thank god Air NZ run their AVOD for the full time which meant I was able to put on an episode of the Simpson's to kill the time. The flight itself was good, as it was the first time I'd ever flown on a B777 and the first time I'd flown Air NZ internationally (I've flow with them a few times domestically in NZ) I found the flight very enjoyable. I really liked their AVOD and it's good choice of movies. Unlike QF where there is maybe one or two movies I actually want to see, I counted no less than 6 movies which I'd have been happy to watch. Lunch was good however as my daughter was an infant she didn't get any food at all, at least she had her own seat for the flight. Rarotonga airport itself is a breeze, so laid back, only annoying thing was that AirNZ managed to lose my name tags and QP tag from one of my bags. The other thing was we left on the 4th but arrived on the 3rd thanks to the date line. (Rarotonga is 20 hours behind AEST).


Friday the 8th - RAR - AKL on NZ845
B767-300
This flight had meant to be flown by an A320, but an equipment change meant a B767 took us home. I didn't actually realise the change of aircraft even though there where lots of clues such as my seat number and the fact that there where no wing tip fences. I never saw the model number on the side of the aircraft. The moment I realised I was not on a A320 was when I got on board and was told to go to the far row - wait a minute I thought, an A320 is a narrow body, not a wide body. After seeing the 2-3-2 seats which are unique to the B767 in Y I realised what I was actually on.

The flight itself was good. I didn't like the fact I was in the middle row, normally I fly next to the window, however I resigned myself to the fact that it was night time and we where flying over water anyway so there wouldn't be anything to see.

Dinner was good and whilst the AVOD didn't have the same quantities of choices as found on the B777's I certainly didn't have any trouble finding something I would like to watch. Thanks to the headwind we where flying into it slowed as down a bit, so all in all it was just under 5 hours from RAR to ALK (as appose to the 4 hours it normally takes)

Strangely enough we where handed medical forms so that the NZ ministry of health could keep tabs on people in case they had swine flu. Problem is they didn't really give the FA's much instruction. They insisted on giving us the forms even though we where only transiting in AKL. We filled them in before going past the health inspection lines, and when we offered the forms to them they said "not here, give them to customs" we said we where just transiting so they decided they would take them from us. We had spent nearly half an hour filling the damn things in, by god someone was going to take them.

Sunday the 10th - AKL - MEL on QF26
B747-400
The flight started boarding over half an hour late, but as a regular flier on QF26 I wasn't surprised. Besides they usually make that time up in flight and due to quick turn around. The flight itself was good, my daughter was given an activity pack, plus when breakfasts where delivered she was given a very age appropriate selection of baby foods (the types we buy for her at home) which I thought was a really nice touch. I tried to watch a movie but fell asleep half way there. On arrival into Melbourne I was impressed on the size of the customs line. It went back past the duty free store. Normally I'd use the E-Passport lines because they are virtually non-existent, however we couldn't this time as not all of us in the group had e-passports, and my daughter is under 18 years. However when one of the Customs officers saw us holder our daughter he took us over to an express lane, which meant we where through in minutes. (The four others in our group took about an hour). It also turns out that AirNZ and QF talk to each other as our bags where checked in RAR to AirNZ and yet where available for us to pick up from MEL off a QF flight no problems. This was without physically seeing the bags in AKL.

Sunday the 10th MEL - CBR on QF812
B737-400
What can I say apart from stock standard MEL - CBR flight? I couldn't eat lunch (sandwiches with Cheese in them do not agree with me) and a cut down episode of thank god your here made it the standard getting home flight which I hate. I really need to move to a city with a proper international airport.

[harvyk]

Transiting in AKL
The first is that AKL needs to realise that if it accepts international flights late at night it really needs to make sure it's transit area remains open. We very nearly spent the night sitting on the floor next to the door which allows people to transit international flights.

The second thing they need to realise is that yes, people do transit AKL over night, (I'd guess there where 50 people transiting that night) and the fact that you could not even buy a coffee was really annoying. Everything was shut. (Think of the captive audience if you where to sell coffee at 1 am to a bunch of tired travellers who can not necessarily enter the country to buy coffee else where.) I was also rather annoyed that the QP was also closed (until 4am) as if nothing else their couches would have been more comfortable to sleep on than the standard hard airport chairs.





So what did I learn on this trip.

The first is that my 16 month old Daughter is a better flyer than my wife (who hates flying).

The second is that me as the only one with experience flying international (and really the only one who flies frequently full stop) shouldn't really try to guide through 6 other people with zero international flying experience. I really felt like a babysitter trying to heard cats.

The third, if the guy at the check in counter is either too busy to pay proper attention to you, or doesn't seem to know what they are doing, find a new check in person. Whilst our bags where checked in from RAR - CBR we needed to pick up our QF boarding passes in AKL. When the transfer desk opened at 4am, we where third in line. The first guy in the line didn't even know which Australian city he wanted to end up in, he just wanted to go to aust. The second person in the queue had booked under a different name than the one in their passport, and where now wondering why they where having problems. The check in desk guy was still waiting on the phone when he called us over to check in. After he had ensured the bags went from NZ to QF, I said I had a couple of seat requests and he said fine, but lets print out your boarding passes first. Given he really wasn't interested in helping us, and it was obvious that he was more interested in the other people we decided to go to the QP to get the seat allocations fixed. Unfortunately they couldn't do anything for us, but said to go back down to the transfer desk and that we would probably get the seats we wanted. We did this to find someone else completely different at the transit desk who was able to give us the seats we wanted.




Qantas Vs Air New Zealand.

I have to say I am a QF loyalist, however after flying Air NZ I'm now not so sure the red rat has it completely together. Firstly QF are removing the B747 from the MEL \ AKL legs of QF25 \ QF26. As far as I was concerned this was my reason for transiting in MEL rather than the more traditional SYD. So now there are no QF B747 options to NZ I'm not sure I'll be so loyal. (especially as AirNZ still flies B747's on some TT routes)

The second is Air NZ's AVOD just worked, and furthermore it just worked from the moment you got on the plane. There was no stuffing around waiting for it to load and for it to get it's act together.

The third is that bar the domestic B737's Air NZ has AVOD on all flights. This is something that QF is sadly lacking. In-fact they recently got rid of planes with personal screens from their SYD - PER and MEL - PER routes in favour of main screen. I personally believe that all international QF flights and the longer domestic ones (eg east coast to PER etc) should have AVOD as standard.

The one thing QF still has which AirNZ doesn't is an in-flight magazine, however again, fly a few times a month and by the end you really don't care about the in-flight mags.

So my message to QF is simple, - "Get your act together guys, bring back some B747 TT flights and increase the AVOD on all longer flights including Y, otherwise I might be taking more AirNZ flights"

[harvyk]

The really important stuff - the Holiday itself.

Auckland
Auckland is a city I know better than the back of my hand (seriously have you ever tried to explain what the back of your hand looks like). However apart from a couple of hours I once had there after some meetings I've never really seen the city as a tourist, until now. (My trips there are usually to do work and to attend meetings) So it was nice to do a stop over there, even if it was only for a day.

After a leisurely breakfast we went to Britomart station and caught the bus out to Auckland museum + war memorial. It was a very interesting place with heaps to see. In fact it took us nearly 6 hours to go through it, and even then we rushed some sections. After that we made our way back into the city where we went up sky tower. We paid the extra $3 to go up to the top deck where the views where stunning. I also love the glass floor sections, they are both very interesting to walk on, and interesting to watch other peoples reactions to walking on them. (Just about everyone grabs onto the hand rail, even though they are as strong as the concrete floor.)

That night we went to my favourite place to eat in Auckland - Tony's on Wellesley St We then went back to the Hotel as we had an early start the next morning (flying onto Rarotonga).

Rarotonga
For those of you who don't know about Rarotonga or the Cook Islands, Rarotonga is the main entry point for the Cook Islands. It's also Capital of the Cook Islands. The Island itself is fairly small, in fact there are only two bus routes on the island - Clock Wise and Anti-clock wise. The other thing is that the islands run on what is known as Island time. It basically means that everything on the island will happen in it's own sweet time. There is nothing you can do to speed things up, so don't try (just plan ahead a little)

Day one was spent flying there, and getting to our resort. We where staying at the Edge Water resort, unlike some other places I've stayed it looked exactly like the photos in the brochure, no cleaver angles in the photos from that place. After going down the to bar and trying some of the local brew (Matutu) we went, grabbed some Dinner and went off to bed.

Day two, we went into the main town on the island which is a place called Avarua. It's a very small place which if you blink as you drive through it you might miss it. We made our way from shop to shop looking at both souvenirs and at black pearls. (outside of tourism, the cook islands other main industry).

Day Three, we went on a 4x4 tour into the centre of the island. It was here that the lack of safety features in the cars really became evident. The tour was done in a modified land rover, which had the roof cut off it with a canvas canopy replacing it, and to rows of bench seat running along the side. At the end there was a metal bar which the two people at the end needed to hold onto to avoid falling off the back. Heading up the mountain itself we understood why a 4x4 was needed, it was a dirt road which was extremely steep with massive chunks of road missing. Some of it was at an angle so steep that the only reason why I didn't panic was because I sat there saying to myself "They do this everyday, I'll be ok". Still scared the wits out of me, however as was painted on the back of the 4x4, "Go hard or go home". Whilst we where away the tour operator had people back at the base cook up somme amazing local food. One of the more interesting dishes was one called simply "Raw Fish". Once you had gotten over the name, and the fact that you where eating it from a coconut shell it was very nice (very strong lemon flavour) also the pawpaw served with lunch was the nicest pawpaw I'd ever eaten. That night the resort did an island night. Those guys know how to feed people. First by the time you had a little bit of everything on your plate it was piled so high you needed a forklift to carry it back to your table, and after dinner we sat around with cocktails in hand listening to the local music and watching the local dancers - Very entertaining.

Day Four, We had originally planned to do the glass bottom boat that day, but due to the weather (it was raining) it was cancelled. I still managed to get many hours of sitting around the pool doing nothing but ordering drinks in though. We also got a chance to do some snorkelling in the sea. For those who haven't been the entire island is surrounded by coral reef, which means there is next to no surf making it past the reef, but amazing snorkelling. When I first got into the water I sat down to put my flippers on I had fish swimming between my legs! The water was very shallow compared to what I'm used to (I prefer 4 to 5 meters deep) where as the deepest the water got was 1.5 meters. Saw an amazing array of tropical fish (very colourful) and eels.

Day Five, my sister in law got married today (thus the reason for the trip) so wedding type stuff took up the day. What was really amazing was the church service was said in both English and the local Maori language.

Day Six, we went back into Avarua where my wife went shopping and I hired a motorbike. I was a little unsteady on it at first (Been 9 years since I last road a motor bike) but after a little whilst I got the hang of it again. I was issued with a license after being told they just wanted to watch me ride from them to the near by tree and back a couple of times. After that I rode back to the local cop shop where I had my photo taken, paid $20 and received my motorbike license. I then spent the rest of the afternoon riding around the roads near the town (which was very enjoyable) and then scored bonus brownie points when I brought my wife the black pearl necklace she was eyeing off. Returned the bike and caught the bus back to the resort and had one last meal before catching the bus to the airport, which thanks to island time was only 30 minutes late, luckily Air NZ are used to island time and don't enforce the minimum check in times, otherwise we'd have been screwed.


All in all it was a great Holiday and can strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a way to spend a week doing nothing.

[serfty]

Nice report

Kiwi Flyer from FT often transits overnight in AKL (Even though he lives in Downtown Auckland ) and frequently gripes about it being (not) open.

[JohnK]

Very nice trip report!

Sounds like you had a great holiday. I would skip the modified 4x4 trip up the mountain....