Day 18 -Rarotonga

Weather
Forecast called for rain, we got Sunny - Mid 80's

Map

First Impressions
This is a beautiful, remote island. The people that we met were very friendly and welcoming.

What we did
For today's port, we had to tender to the island. It was a short ride, a little more choppy than last time but no issues. We boarded a small bus to our destination and spent 3 hours at a beach side restaurant/bar at a beautiful beach location. They had locals setup demonstrations on coconuts (how to husk and harvest them) and we tried fresh coconut water, grated coconut and coconut cream (yum)! They also had stations on learning the ukulele and drums, another on making ei katu (flowers strung together on a piece of straw) and one more on how to wear a pareau (pronounced pa-ray-o).

Fresh coconuts with chilled coconut water and many local juices were available to all. It was a relaxing 3 hours that we needed. We decided to forgo the afternoon excursion and return to the ship. We both were feeling a little under the weather and decided to just chill in our room, order room service and eat on our balcony.

Next stop in 4 day is New Zealand after crossing the international date line!