 Pic 1. Rarotonga is a welcome port for seafarers |
They could have been the Bligh Islands. The infamous Captain came by on The Bounty in 1789, discovered Aitutaki and its astonishing lagoon, introduced the paw paw, and hove-to off Rarotonga on the way to Tonga. Captain Cook, a dozen years before, hadn’t been able find Rarotonga, it always being somewhere over the horizon, but when it came to allocating names his was a far safer bet. The 15 islands of this sedate and seductive group are spread over more than 2 million square km of the S.W. Pacific – an area the size of Western Europe. Clean, spruce, prosperous, well ordered - this is not an island of thatched huts but sturdy houses, good restaurants, quality hotels, the large coral stone white churches of the five powerful clans and Hula dancing more sensual than Tahiti’s. For those who drool over big screen scenes that seem beyond their mortal reach the famed Aitutaki Lagoon where John Wayne and Cary Grant once stopped over on TEAL Flying Boat routes, is idealised Pacific perfection.
|
