Return of the King(snorth)
Tuesday had arrived and I took the afternoon off work to go to Doug and Adele's wedding. They had a posh bungalow right on the beach in the south of the island. I rode down towards where I knew they were staying, as I got about half way there, it started raining. I realised that, good fun as scooters are, they suck in the rain. I had to drive at about 10mph through a combination of not wanting to lose it on a corner and because the rain hurt my eyes if I went any faster. As I squinted at all the accommodation placards, I saw the bearded American guy (and his wife) who failed his scooter test and figured this was probably the right place.
The rain eased slightly as we met up with Doug in his room. He's a superb guitar player, and was knocking out a few tunes until Adele was ready to go. We kept asking him if he should be playing the blues, but he was adamant on keeping it upbeat. I had a little play with their video camera while we were waiting, then we headed off down to the beach.
After a couple of false starts with the CD player, Adele emerged looking fantastic and was taken down to the beach. Apart from a couple of essential lens wipes, due to a couple of raindrops falling above Adele's head but on Doug's, meaning one of them always had their face obscured, I think the video went well. I did nothing fancy, just a couple of close-ups of the ring and a couple of Pan's when the Maori vicar was talking. Though I did indulge myself with a couple of cutaway's to the palm trees and the ocean afterwards.
BTW, this is Sian's mum's wedding website if anyone fancies getting married out here...
The rain didn't really bother Doug or Adele, they seemed perfectly happy just to be getting married. It even cleared up after for the wedding photos. (They got a pro in to do those!) They were really thankful afterwards and I left feeling all karma'd up. They were happy they had a video, I was happy they were happy, I was on a scooter, it had stopped raining, and I was meeting Becky, Rob and Charlie for Dinner tonight. What a good day. To top it all off, Rob and I were going to stand just behind the Boeing 767-200 taking Becky and Charlie to Tahiti.
STOP. REWIND. Go back to Sunday. I was in the Internet Cafe at Muri. I was about to shelve a couple of exchange books from the bookswap when something caught my eye. 'The Celestine Prophecy' a book about spiritual enlightenment which I've been meaning to read for a long time, and was recommended to me by Zandra Utley, (a babe from Leeds I'll marry if I get the chance) from Coral Bay, was sitting on the shelf almost shouting me. I picked it out and read the back, I swear I felt it reading me too. I've never had such a strange feeling picking up a book before.
Sian was there and we started talking about destiny and the little things that happen as if it was planned that way. Somehow we went on from destiny to ambition, and we talked about some of the things we've done, and some that we wanted to do. Things like the opportunities I took which've brought me here, and where she's going. (Sian is planning to come to England to work for a while.) She mentioned Greece in the list of possible places she wanted to visit around the Europe. I told her about the times i've been there, and about an island I want to visit, that Mum and Dad have been to. I've seen footage of Dad and my neighbour Steve (who is a big aircraft fan) standing at the end of a runway as an aircraft takes off. As it takes off, the jet from the plane sandblasts them and makes them run away, camera in hand, swinging as they run, going 'Ah. ow. oh. aaggh'. I've just always wondered what that feels like.
About half an hour later, with the copy of the Celestine Prophecy now sitting quietly in my bag, Neil (Upminster) came in, and said to us both "Fancy going and doing JetBlast tonight?" They'd heard people talking about going and standing on the sea road at the foot of the runway where the Air New Zealand jets take off for LA or Auckland. As it happened, the flight wasn't until 1am and we knew everyone would be too tired or too drunk to go, but the idea was there, and that's why Rob and I decided to head that way after saying goodbye to the other two.
It wasn't a particularly enjoyable ride to the airport, it was pissing it down again, harder than before. The night made us drive even slower. On Rarotonga you never know where all the pot-holes and gravel driveways are, and thats not to mention the dogs, chickens, coconuts and dead palm branches that also think they own the road.
When we finally reached the airport, the rain had stopped but it was still cloudy. We parked our scooters 100m or so away (I learnt they blow over in Dad and Steve's video) and wandered back along the pavement on the main road, past the 'WARNING JETBLAST AREA' signs and disclaimers, to the raised wall where the runway started. The moon was obscured behind the clouds and there were no streetlamps. I'd heard some people say 'Stand on the Sea wall' and others say not to. As I could just make out a 15-20ft drop the other side with the sea lapping at the bottom (and because I had the butterflies the likes of which I haven't had since bungy jumping) I just leant on it.
After a while the giant form of the Air New Zealand 767-200 lit the sky, then appeared opposite us over the raised wall at the back of the runway. The wings and tail then swung around and left us watching as it disappeared back behind the raised floor. After about thirty seconds, we heard the whine of the engines as they were cranked up to full power and felt the air temperature increase as the sea breeze was reversed by the medium of Mr Rolls Royce.
To be totally honest, it was a bit of an anti-climax. It felt as though I was standing in front of a giant hairdryer. The heated air whipped and curled around me as I slunk slightly lower holding the sea wall behind me. I think I uttered a swear word that was lost in the roar of the engines not far up and over the wall. And then. It got quieter, the air returned to normal, and Rob and I were left looking at each other going. "Oh. Was that it?"
The next Saturday I saw a plane take off over town at midday. As it only did it once a week at that time, I figured I couldn't miss it the week after. Especially as daylight means I can show you how close you can get on the little dirt track at the other end of the runway!
Where was I? Ah yeah. The Celestine Prophecy is about 9 key insights in life that the lead character discovers on his journey. He learns these insights by opening up his mind to the possibility that random things that open up new opportunities, happen all the time if you believe in them enough. In short, you make your own luck. It seemed to sum up my life. If you accept this and move on, you'll become a luckier person as you've given yourself over to the idea that maybe, just maybe, its a 2 way street. You believe in luck. Luck believes in you. I've never read a book cover to cover in one sitting before, but I did with this.
That week at work, I was designing some banner adverts for a couple of the things in the shop. Mathias was really impressed by the look and the (admittedly English) humour in them. I suppose all those hours of messing around with photoshop at college and at work seem to be paying off here in the middle of the South Pacific!
The kids on the games upstairs were making their usual noise on the games. Mat was talking about banning all of them or putting an age limit on who can come in during the day (the neighbours were complaining too.) Internet customers have always had priority over gamers as they pay more. I went upstairs with a customer when all the downstairs machines were full and heard a kid shout at his mate. I picked him. Then told all of them that it was busy downstairs and whoever is the loudest gamer, they get kicked out next. I did this a couple of times, which meant that for the next couple of hours, you could hear a pin drop. Mat was sitting there beaming at me. "Thats it! They're quiet! All you need is the idea!"
Just before 6pm I said sorry to Mat but I had to go and catch my bus. He'd have to lock up that night. He asked where my bike was and I told him I took it back as it was too expensive to run. "Well I haven't given you anything for the extra work yet. How about I pay for your scooter hire while you're here?"
:)
This is The Beast my 125cc Suzuki Epicuro.
I couldn't believe the name of it. Epicurus is one of my favourite philosophers. He was an ancient Greek philosopher who preached that a life of hedonism is possible as long as you have certain things. In modern times 'Epicurian' has become synonymous with intricate or expensive hotels/foods/wines. But this is a bastardisation his original philosophy. Epicurus argued that to a hungry man, a ham sandwich and bag of crisps would be as exquisite, if not more so, than a gourmet lobster meal.
He also argued that things (a nice house, a new car, a big TV) won't necessarily make you happy in themselves, or if they do, it'll only be for the short term. But combine them with companionship from lovers, friends or family and your happiness will sustain. Its like the philosophy for backpacking. In a few weeks, I'm going to be in Las Vegas. There’s a casino there where for my entertainment, every hour on the hour, thousands of dollars are spent as 2 full size pirate ships do battle. Ultimately, 1 catches light and sinks with the captain standing on the bow as it disappears underwater. Will I be entertained? Probably.
For the last six months, i've needed a table, a deck of cards and few people. Throw in some vodka and thats entertainment! This is the core of Epicurus' philosophy. Big expensive things make you happy, but no more happy than the small things, so appreciate the small things.
Anyway, this is The Beast 2, the green one had a rattle I didn't like so I swapped it for a red one.
The rest of my time here in the Cooks was spent just being normal. Wake up, ride to work, work, ride home, dinner, watch TV, read Lord of the Rings. I didn't realise quite how big a read LOTR is, I read it pretty much every night and it still took me about 3 weeks to get through. Which was fine because I didn't really have the money to go out often.
I had a big night on my last night at work. I spent most of the night drinking with Bill in Trader Jacks and Banana Court, then went on to see Sian at work at the Waterfront. After that we both went back to Trader's and ended up going to Andy's (bar manager) house.
I went to Aitutaki for a couple of days. Aitutaki is a little broken atoll about an hours flight north of Rarotonga on the SAAB 340. I got the cheap flight at 6am so my room wasn't ready when I got to Josie's apartments. It was raining when we landed.
I sat in the front room and was surprised they had a DVD player there. I was told it hadn't been working correctly for a couple of weeks as everything was playing in black and white. I can't remember if it took me over or under a minute to get it back working in colour, but she was so impressed she immediately put me in a double room that was ready instead of the single I was going to have to share.
The rain stopped but it was still overcast so I went for a wander around to drop off the letters someone in Fiji had given me when they heard I was coming here. I dropped one of them off at Samede's, the one bar in the area. As I sat there sipping a beer, the sun came out and for about 5 minutes, I saw Aitutaki in all its stunning beauty. There were so many different shades of blue in the lagoon, it was amazing. Then the clouds came over again, and I saw no more sunshine for the rest of the time I was there.
A couple of the girls i'd been chatting to on the plane and at Josie's said I could use their scooter if I wanted so I went on a quick tour of the little island. I mean quick, it took me about 30 minutes to see the whole thing, and half the time I was on dirt tracks!
It started raining again so we put Quadrophenia on. I knew exactly what Phil Daniels felt like in those opening few minutes as he drives around town on his scooter with a big grin on his face! We went to an island night that night and saw some locals doing some Cook Islands dancing. I wish i'd brought my camera as you wouldn't believe how fast they move their arses! The blokes do a weird leg bouncing dance too which I haven't seen anywhere else which is cool.
Next day, in the hope the weather would be nice we'd booked ourselves onto a lagoon cruise which took us to some of the little islands. One of them was the island the Channel 4 'Shipwrecked' TV series was filmed on. On it, one of the guides showed us how to get the husk of the coconut off using a big stick in the ground.
As we all crowded round to see him we suddenly noticed the ground was alive with loads of hermit crabs, some of them huge!
We stopped off in the middle of the lagoon and went snorkeling. There main thing there was the Giant clams, which were way bigger than I expected. Our guide then brought out a huge fish head which he pulled some of the flesh off and gave to me. The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by a swarm of big tropical fish all wanting the food, it was great. There was even a brown eel slinking around the coral at the bottom who would attack any big chunks of fish the guide dropped.
We had a good lunch on 'One foot Island' and heard the legend of how it got its name (it isn't because it looks like a foot with no toes). Then we did a bit more snorkeling in the shallow water between it and the next island. I came face to face with an big octopus that was shimmering from sand coloured (nearly invisible) to burnt scarlet to try to scare me off. It almost worked. I left it for a while and snorkeled by some more giant clams then went back to see it. It'd gone from its hole, but I saw it swimming around, attaching itself to a rock, with a membrane from its tentacles covering the rock and seemingly stealing the colour for itself. I don't know if it was hunting or what, but moving between two rocks it suddenly saw me and bolted towards me. Before I had a chance to even think about swimming, screaming or whatever, it dived into a hole a few feet in front of me. Its head poking out, its eye looking at me and its whole body changing colours to ward me off. I think I managed a nervous laugh through my snorkel.
It started raining again as we went back to the main island. That night we watched a couple more DVDs (including Spiceworld, which is actually pretty good if you take it for what it is!) as the weather was bad and the only thing to do was to pay to go to another Island night.
We flew back to Raro the next morning. Its a shame the weather was crap because from what I saw in that five minutes of sun, the place is awesome. I'm in the lucky position of being used to rain here in the tropics, theres nothing I can do about it. Theres no point getting pissed off, you can't change the weather!
Which leads me to last night. My last night here in the Cook Islands. I went to Banana Court for the free Wednesday night Vodkas and because Sian was working there. I think I only spent $2 all night! Whenever I went to the bar, the barmen knew to point me to Sian who put the drinks on her tab, then her Mum and step-dad Frank turned up. (Frank is a partner in Banana Court) then I don't remember not having a drink. It felt like i'd take one sip and they'd buy me another, or two. Then I couldn't buy a round back for them because Sian wouldn't let me! Andy (from Traders) turned up and we all went back to Frank and Teresa's for a couple, then we moved onto some party somewhere else.... I was very, very drunk.
I'm writing this today with a heavy head. I'm sitting in the garden with the sun on my face about to go and see Sian at work in the I/cafe (yes she does work everywhere!) and upload it all, before I catch my flight to LA tonight. It feels strange writing about the end of my life here in the Cook Islands. I thought I was ready to leave, because I felt like I wasn't doing much, but then I've realised thats the point! It's Island life i've sampled! Thats the way it works! I think its because I don't feel like I've had crazy adventures, like I've had in other places. I know its because I've spent 90% of my time working, and that in itself has brought its own surprises and fun. I've also met some fantastic and friendly people; locals, kiwis and fellow travelers.
To be honest, I'm hung-over and I'm trying to say something but I don't know what. I think its that what's special here will only really sink in when I get to Los Angeles and there'll be a gazillion people all running in different directions doing different things all at once. As I sit in my hostel there with my knees drawn up to my chest, rocking and swaying under a blanket going 'too many people, too busy, too loud' then I'll finally realise how special this last six weeks has been.
The last thing Sian and I did before I left the Cook Islands, was go to dinner with Anna and Sergio.
