MADEIRA

 It has been quite a while since I have added to my travel journal, not for want of travelling though.  Our recent trip was to Madeira, an island belonging to Portugal just north of the Canary Islands.  We chose to go there because we needed a bit of warm respite from the long Canadian Winter and weren't prepared to pay the huge differential in the American Dollar, which is where we would normally choose to go for a quick winter break.

What a good choice we made!  Madeira is truly like a garden, and for people like us who really love gardens and flowers, this was a wonderful place to visit.  The climate is quite mild all year long and they are able to grow all kinds of tropical fruits and flowers.  The island is made up primarily of rock and there islots of walking up and down.  This time we chose to do the touristy things but if we went back I think we would make a point of hiking the levadas which are the means of bringing fresh water from the hills to the towns. Some a risky to hike and they recommend going with a local guide.

Our air B&B was really conveniently located in the old town and had a great view from the balcony over the roof tops and the ocean.  A great place for a glass of wine after a busy day of sightseeing.

We took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens.  They were truly spectacular and gave great views.

The next garden we went to was the Monte Palace Gardens.  Very different from the Botanical Gardens.  This garden was full of lovely shade trees, water features and art work.  There was an area of the garden that was an orchid garden.  Hard for us to think of a climate where you can grown these outside!

The whole place was like a garden with all kinds of flowering trees and bushes.

The newer downtown area had all kinds of different mosaic tiled sidewalks and plazas.  It made for fairly bumpy walking though and sturdy shoes were a must.

We took three guided tours in little mini buses.  It gave us a really good overview of the island in a short time.

Poncha, or rum punch in a sidewalk cafe overlooking the ocean, was a good way to wind down after some sightseeing.  I had tried the traditional poncha and the passion fruit poncha and our server didn't want us to leave without trying a taster of the Fisherman's poncha (the strongest!).  It just seemed delicious and fruity until I crashed out in our apartment for a two hour nap! a little stronger than I thought!

They had all kinds of variations on passion fruit.  This one tasted like lavender - so delicious.

It was a wonderful trip.  The people are as warm and friendly as the climate.  Definitely a place to go back to as there is lots more to explore.  The seafood was wonderful and each meal was accompanied by Bollo de Caco which was a small leavened sweet potato bread filled with lashings of fresh garlic butter - so delicious!

RORATUNGA AGAIN

Time to leave Aitutaki and fly back to Roratunga.  We boarded the same little plane, with even less scrutiny than before.  Everyone seemed to know everyone and the safety demonstration was the co-pilot taking the seatbelt extension and wrapping it around the mouth of obviously one of his jovial friends, to stop him talking!  Many of the people on board were either part of a 7 aside rugby team or were going to watch the matches.  In fact the whole island was taken up with the tournament and a young fellow staying at the same place as us went along and thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie and fun of the whole thing.

We stayed at the Mauria Beach Hideaway and the owner was very kind and friendly.  Lotus flowers were lining a ditch on the property and were a glorious riot of colour.

There was a night market close to where we were staying, so instead of cooking dinner we ate there.  The locals had stands and cooked local dishes for sale.  Very inexpensive and very delicious.  My other half ate far more risky things than I did, pressed fresh juices and unknown concoctions in the food but neither of us were sick and the food was outstanding.  This lady cooked a wonderful lamb shank that fed the two of us and then her desert was so delicious, I went back the second night for more.  I also bought one of the sarongs from another stall.  There were ukelele's for sale too, but a little more pricey.

We walked down the road a ways to this restaurant which was on the dock.  The place itself was a converted Container.  The food was out of this world.  We ate fish a lot of times, but this fish was absolutely delicous.  We saw a fisherman bringing his catch to her right from his boat, so we knew it was all very fresh.  In fact some of the local little places had far superior food to the so called better hotels.

 Every day we walked the beaches.  There was quite a bit more coral on this side so we wore beach shoes. On the other hand it meant we saw lots of fish right from the shore.

Our room was very comfortable.  Not the most modern, but cosy and scrupulously clean.  As usual, we had a kitchen as well.  I made use of the washing line at the back and the continuous warm wind, to get some washing done.  Our bed was covered with this spectacular bedspread.  The work is done on one of the smaller Cook Islands.

There was also a hanging on the wall, also done in reverse applique.  I was sorry we didn't have the time to visit the island itself. However, I did visit the workshop of Colin and bought a lovely simple black pearl ring.  Several years ago, my daughter and her then fiance met Colin and he took them on a foraging trip up behind his property, they could barely keep up with him!  Colin kindly put together a beautiful little pendant for my granddaughter as a memento of when her father proposed to her mother on the Island several years earlier.

This was where we had our breakfast every morning.  Lots of papaya and fresh tomatoes.  We bought our food at the local gas station.  The food came from the market gardener across the road.  There were different stalls along the road where people sold fresh vegetables from their gardens.  It was quite rural with chickens freely running around as they were all over the Cooks.  Up the road, there was a large pig on a tether, munching his way through the grass and up the hill was a goat.

I watched this every day from our balcony as it unfurled from the palm tree close to us.  Our host was busy one day making many leis to put on her mother's grave.  On Hallowe'en and All Saints Day, the locals decorate the graves of their ancestors.  The graves are usually on the family property and are very much integrated with every day life.  She drove us up the hill to see her handiwork and I was amazed at the effort she had put in and the quantity of flowers. The grave was beautiful.  On our way to the airport, our driver took us past the local Church where everyone was buried who did not have family land.  The whole place was a fairlyland of lights and flowers.

It was so sad to be at the end of our journey.  I had thought of it as the trip of a lifetime - but there are so many places I want to see more of.  So many more places to see that we didn't have time to go to.  I am thinking now that rather than a trip of a lifetime, perhaps this was the first, but not the last to a part of the world that though it is so far away, being part of the Commonwealth with so many ties to England, felt very familiar and comfortable.  Until the next time!

FLOWERS OF THE COOK ISLANDS

The flowers everywhere in the Cook Islands were so beautiful.  The women, to dress to go to a party or any kind of celebration, make coronets of flowers to put in their hair.  The hotels we stayed in had flower arrangements or just a single flowers in many different places.  The front office, often had elaborate arrangements of flowers.  We always had fresh picked flowers on our breakfast table.

This was the arrangement on our bed when we arrived at our hotel in Aitutaki.  They also had some flowers in the bathroom and kitchenette.  We were given leis when we arrived.

 Walking alone the road, the hedges were made of various flowers bushes

They even had colourful bugs!

These grew wild on Aitutaki

Another flowering hedge

AITUTAKI - ONE FOOT ISLAND CRUISE

Paul, of the suitcase fame came and collected us from our hotel along with several other people from other hotels and took us in this open air bus/cart to board the boat to One Foot Island on the Vaka cruise. .  We stopped off at an island on the way for a bit of a lesson about the local coconuts and vegetation.

Then we stopped for the obligatory snorkeling.  However the water was so shallow you could stand in most places, but the fish were pretty interesting.  We saw quite a number of Travali which were quite long fish.

We all had fresh coconut milk in the coconuts, which was delicious and cooling as it was pretty warm.

Then it was time for lunch.  What a feast! All local dishes.  Papaya, semolina squares, sea grapes, purple sweet potato and delicious fish.  My favourite though is BBQ banana.  They are so delicious. like sweet caramel.

This was my plateful of food.  I only took a little of everything to try, but it ended up being a big mound of food.

One Foot Island was so beautiful!  We walked around the Island and swam.  I was only out in the sun for about an hour and managed to give my back a good burn.

This was our boat.

So stunningly beautiful.  We made the trip home, drinking wine, being taught the Hakka and singing to ukelele music put on by the crew and their families.  It was a wonderful days outing.  The crew on the boat were so kind and could not do enough for us all.  Paul was quite a character and kept us all happy and laughing.  The sun, the water, wine, music and good company made for a wonderful day.

COOK ISLANDS - AITUTAKI

The plane ride to Aitutaki was interesting!  The normal plane was being repaired so we went in one of two small about 16 seater planes.  The cockpit was open, so we had a wonderful view of where we were going.  The safety demo was pretty minimal and since everyone seemed to know each other except for a couple of tourists - it was pretty low key.  We had been so worried about the weight restrictions for our baggage, but it was really a non event.  I was glad we had left most of our stuff at our hotel on Rorotunga though - cos really, what did we need other than a bathing costume and flip flops and maybe a skirt for dinner.  

We were met at the airport by the hotel driver, who gave us all these beautiful leis

We spent our time, walking the beaches

Looking at the sunset

Relaxing on the deck

Watching another sunset

Then we thought we were being too lazy so we walked up to the top of the highest point which was not far from our hotel and looked out over the water.  Such beautiful colours.

Our view of the water every day.  Every day it was warm and sunny and beautiful.

Oh and we ate!  This little restaurant was right next to our hotel.  We sat outside at a picnic table, under the shade of some palm trees.  The owner, it turned out came from Calgary!  She was tired of the rat race and came to the Cooks for a visit with a friend.  She met her soon to be husband and the rest is history.  They built up an Organic farm and propagated many plants both interesting and healthy to eat.  Then they served these delicious foods in their restaurant

We enjoyed the food at our hotel too and particularly enjoyed the Gala night where they served local food and we enjoyed a Pina Colada as well.  Our time in Aitutaki was over so quickly.  We really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and rural nature of the island.  We walked quite a lot of it but I certainly could have spent more time there.  The story of our trip.

COOK ISLANDS - ROROTUNGA

After our hectic schedule, we were ready for a little down time.  Our view out of the window revealed that this would be a wonderful place to chill out.

When our luggage arrived, one of the suitcases was badly damaged, to the point that we would not be able to use it again.  But it was serendipitous as this meant we met Paul who kindly found us another suitcase that at least closed even if it wasn't the best.  He told us about how on his down time he led tours in Aitutaki and so we make a deal to meet him later on our trip.

We had a beautiful cabin with this view.  We would only be here a couple of days, but it was beautiful.

Lots of time to relax

Everything was so beautiful.  Even the posts on the outdoor restaurant were decorated

We had an outside shower with coconut shampoo and the heavenly smell of the surrounding flowers.  What a treat!

CATHEDRAL COVE - NZ

We drove up to the Coromandel peninsula for a quick stop before we had to catch our plane.  Thank goodness we waited until the end of our trip to drive this area! The roads were even more windy and narrower than the great Ocean Road if that was possible.  When we got to Cathedral cove, we hiked down to the beach, knowing of course that we would have to hike back up!

It was really beautiful and we had timed it to be there at low tide, so we were able to walk around and through the rocks.

Again, there weren't a lot of people and we spent a lovely time puttering around.

We had time before the tide turned to walk to the other side of the rock, for a different view.  Then we slogged our way back up the path.  Not too bad considering the spectacular view of the ocean and other various shaped rocks on our way up

.

Then on to Auckland airport and on to the next stage of our adventure.  We were so sorry to be leaving New Zealand - we had such a little time to spend there and there were just so many things we wanted to see.  It reminded me of Canada in some way, as the natural beauty was largely unspoiled.  People really enjoyed hiking and camping and there were lots of amenities to do both.  I have a friend who comes here every year and I can see why.  She still feels she has only just scratched the surface of things to explore. We will just have to come back one day!