25th/26th October 2009
Attending church on a Sunday morning is something of a Rarotongan tradition. Each of the local churches welcomes the tourists to come into their morning service and listen to the wonderful Maori singing, followed by a feed at the community centre. The church we attended in Titikaveka was a lovely building built in the eighteen hundreds, the pulpit area was filled with local flowers and the windows were plain looking out onto the lush green hills behind. The church is a perfect square representing the fact that before God there is no colour or creed, simply human beings. The singing was superb and truly raised the roof and true to form I got quite emotional when they started (it’s something about choirs!). The entire service was conducted in Maori, apart from the lesson which was spoken first in Maori, then English. After the service, the Church secretary thanked a few special guests for coming, one of which was the Queens Representative on the Cook Islands, so we’d been at church with royalty (well almost!).
After the service, everyone headed over to the community hall over the road, where there was an array of wonderful sandwiches and cakes on offer. While we were there the church secretary explained the history of the church and how it had been built by his forefathers. It’s refreshing to meet people who genuinely want to pass on their knowledge of their culture and for you to experience their faith first hand. The islanders have been so welcoming and friendly and I remember one thing one of the lay preachers said - ‘we hope you will take the smiles and warmth of the Cook Island people with you wherever you go’. I shall definately try to hang onto that thought!
We went to Avarua to return the moped and ended up walking some of the way back to the guesthouse because the one bus that runs on a Sunday does not run between 12 and 2 and everything, and I mean everything is shut in town on Sunday, so not even chance of a coffee.
The bus dropped us at the supermarket just round the corner from the guesthouse which is open on a Sunday and we had our final ice cream before catching the bus to the airport, where the plane was already on the tarmac waiting (no three hours before here - the locals just turn up once the plane is in, although we tried for 1 hour before). The best plane we’ve travelled on so far, more leg room and seats that reclined back quite a way, and a really excellent entertainment system where you can even start watching films before and during take-off and landing. Two films and an episode of Scrubs later and we were touching down in Auckland, where we were picked up by Scott from the Skylodge hostel near the airport.
Since we crossed the dateline during the flight, we left the Cooks being 10 hours behind the UK and arrived in New Zealand to be 13 hours in front and having lost a whole day!!