The Fellowship of Vara's
As I sat on the plane leaving Fiji for The Cook Island's main island of Rarotonga, a guy sat next to me with a bag of books and papers, on top of which was an academic looking read called 'Black Hole Physics.' Black Holes are something I've always found fascinating, but never really understood. What a lucky person to sit next to on a plane!
Especially as we crossed the international date-line. It was good chewing the fat over time and space I could justifiably say "I took off at 1700 this afternoon and I'll land at 2100 last night." It was a bit weird actually. I realised, to my annoyment when I got on the plane, that i'd left my watch back in the bathroom at Travelers while I had a shave. I woke up the next day with it still on my wrist and also a face full of stubble. Spooky.
Anyway, I checked into Vara's accommodation at Muri Beach on the East side of the island. There's 3 little islands off the coast of Muri, just so you know where it is. Vara's is oppositte the middle one.
I was a bit miffed to find it'd been raining the night we arrived. Chatting to a couple of people who'd been here a while, they said the weather was nearly always overcast or raining. This wasn't what I expected from the Cook Islands.
I asked the girl at Reception if there was any cleaning work available, something I could do to maybe earn a bit of cash or knock something off the $140 a week I was paying for my dorm room at Varas.
She told me to try at the internet cafe down the road as they were always looking for staff. As she said it, she looked up and saw an outline of my body in smoke. All she would've heard would've been the sound of flip-flops sprinting off down the gravelly drive.
I got to the shop and couldn't believe my luck as I saw the big STAFF WANTED sign. Excitedly, I asked the Spanish girl behind the counter (who'd just been sitting outside reading a book in the patchy sunshine) what hours they wanted someone to work. 'Ah' she said as she took the sign off the counter. 'That was my job. I haf just started today.' Arse. I thought - shes got my job. And she's not even sitting at the computer terminal. What a waste! Doesn't she know I have a website to update? And a million emails to reply to? I now hate this bitch with all of my heart and soul. My dream of the Cook Islands just isn't coming true. ARSE! I walked out the Internet Cafe and felt it start to drizzle.
That night we heard about a beach party at 'Sails' just down the beach. I didn't fancy going as I didn't really have the money and being Saturday, it'd probably work out really expensive. To be honest, I was having a good night anyway. Kath, one of the girls in my dorm, met up with Sammy a Fijian dive instructor working in a bar in town who she'd had a fling with when she was in Fiji 5 years ago. She was seeing someone at home so she asked all of us to come out and chat when he turned up, thus avoiding any awkwardness. It was cool just sitting outside chatting on the balcony, but we kept hearing music drift up the beach.
About half eleven, we went for a wander. I decided to 'just-go-for-one' which for the first time in six months I managed to do (they shut at midnight!) As we wandered up the stairs from the beach, it suddenly occurred to me I was walking into a pretty nice bar (which, with a combination of cool DJ and fancy lighting, wouldn't look out of place in London) without any shoes on. Though various people were dressed up for a Saturday night, there was no threat of 'you can't get in in those mate' -nobody cared. I like this place.
Next day, the sun was shining and I went to the beach. As soon as the sun shines, Rarotonga (especially Muri Beach where I was) becomes like the postcards. The clear blue water reflects the bright blue sky, the palm trees rustle lazily in the breeze while the omni-present sound of the waves crashing on the far reef reminds you you're on a beautiful little island.
Vara's
As I lay there on the beach, my thoughts turned back to the Internet cafe. I heard the bitch yesterday say she started work at 1pm, I figured I'd head there just before that in the hope of catching the boss opening up, so I could drop in my details in case she left or more hours became available. It turned out she didn't work Sundays and he asked if I wanted to work that afternoon!
Bill, my boss, took me through the various jobs to do then left for the afternoon. The 'CyberCafe Pro' admin software was pretty easy to get to grips with (compared to the stuff I used to deal with in the Control Room) and I was up to speed with all the jobs within a couple of hours. The hardest thing was probably using the milkshake machine without spraying milk and ice cream all around the walls.
That evening when Bill got back I told him I was after more hours if there were any available. There weren't, apparently the new girl 'Anna' and some other bitch had them all covered. He did say there maybe some hours available through the week at the other shop in town (20 mins away) if I was interested. I jumped at the chance.
The other shop in Avarua (the main town of Rarotonga) was bigger, busier and didn't sell milkshakes. Mathias, a Swiss-German guy looks after the network stuff, while Bill takes care of the money.
Monday night we went to the RSA opposite the airport. Rarotonga is pretty small, so everyone goes to set places during the week because they know everyone else will be there! Monday night is the RSA - which looks just like a cricket or bowls club social hall (with bar prices to match, Woo-Hoo!) though the big difference is all the murals on the wall are written in (Cook Islands) Maori which is strange to see.
Next day I started speaking to Mathias about my past work experience. In short, I told him I could sit there and just be a till monkey, dishing out Pre-pay Timecodes for the internet. But i'd really like to do more work and get paid extra. I have a lot of computer and engineering experience and I'd like to use that to earn more than the $6 (2 quid) an hour I was on. As Mat knew he had some things that needed doing, he liked the idea. As the sun was going down, with the clouds on top of the mountains changing colours, Mat gave me a lift back to Vara's on his fantastic sounding, blue and chrome Triumph motorbike. You know what? I think i'm starting to like it here...
A couple of nights later, a few of us went out to dinner at a place called Chilli's. I probably shouldn't have splashed out, but groceries are expensive over here (everything has to be imported from New Zealand) and I was getting sick of cooking Tuna Pasta every bloody night (hey, its cheap!) Big Dave, the owner, took a picture of the five of us on his camera to maybe use in an advert. As he held it up, I suddenly thought 'You Lucky Bastard...' He has exactly the same Sony Mavica (all-in-one floppy disk drive camera) as me. The only trouble is, my charger is broken, so I haven't been able to use mine for a couple of months. I had a word, and my battery should now hopefully last until I can get a new charger in the States. Cheers Dave! (click here for Dave’s Site)
Back at work, Mat and I brainstormed the best way to make a new front page on the terminals to allow banner adverts of local business to always be on top of the internet pages, without obscuring them or stopping the person typing. I got stuck into writing the JavaScript and designing it.
Becky arrived from Fiji to stay for a while. It worked out really well, as her and a couple of other blokes from our dorm, Robbie and Charlie, all hit it off and we had a great little gang. I will just mention Neil and Ricki as well. They were two other guys staying at Vara's from Upminster and Gidea Park respectively - I'm not even going to bother sounding surprised that I've met someone from just down the road anymore! Even my manager Bill, a Cook Islander, spent 5 years living in Ilford!
Saturday, my one day off, I did some Snorkeling on the other side of the little island opposite Vara's. I swear that even though the water was only waist height, I've never seen so many fish! There were thousands and thousands. I also saw a big octopus disappear under a rock, a moray eel and numerous tropical fish, that looked more colourful as the water was so shallow (water absorbs different colours the deeper you go).
Having just been paid for the first time in 6 months, I started thinking about money properly again. I didn't want to dip into the cash I have in my traveling account if I can avoid it now, so I needed to start working out how I can spend less each week. For a start, I decided to move out of Vara's which was costing me $140 a week. I was going to move into Arianna bungalows, closer to town, no beach, not as busy but only $77.
With the money I worked out I could save, Becks, Rob, Charlie and I all went to the RSA and got absolutely plastered. It was a brilliant night. We ended paying some random bloke to take about 20 of us home in the back of his little van which had no chairs. His mate in the front seat I swear was the Cook Islands version of Big Gay Al, who realising we were all English and drunk got everyone singing to random cheesy songs he liked. Apparently Becky and I were also trying to pull off some of the Yoga moves we learnt in Methven, and also various handstands and pissed acrobatics. I don’t remember any of this, though I did have the tell-tale scratches and bruises.
I woke up with a full on, Force 10 please-let-me-die-it-would-be-better-than-living hangover. My first in a long time. Becky, Charlie and Robbie all had a flight to Aitutaki to catch. I'm not sure how they managed it. Even late that afternoon, I still couldn't face writing any JavaScript, I have no idea how they managed to get themselves to an entirely different island.