22nd October 2009
An early-ish start today, we caught the bus with Sophie who is also staying at the guesthouse, just before 9:30 and headed towards Avarua where we got off just next to the harbour ready to start our cross-island walk.
The start was fairly easy going on tarmac roads, but this soon turned into a track, which then become a single file uphill climb through dense undergrowth.
It took us about an hour to climb to the top of the path which came out next to the Needle. While we were climbing, the weather closed in and it started to rain, heavily. However, because of the dense undergrowth we were travelling through, hardly any rain got through to us.
When we reached the Needle, the cloud was so low that we couldn’t see any view at all, so we started down hill, but just as we set out, the cloud lifted and although no blue sky miraculously appeared, we were able to see all the way to the ocean.
We set off downhill again, along the same type of path with its gnarled tree roots, rocks and mud. Zig-zagging back and forth across the accompanying stream, which was quite deep in places.
We all ended up with wet feet, with Ed giving up trying to hop from slippery rock to slippery rock and just wading through the stream. There were parts that were so steep and slippery, that the only way to get down was to slide on your bum, so we got quite muddy all over. The stream led to Wigmore’s Waterfall which would have been a lovely place to enjoy a celebratory banana, but for the mosquitos, so we made a quick getaway and walked back to the guesthouse. We arrived back at the Guesthouse all still in one piece almost exactly 5 hours after we set off from Avarua.
Needless to say, after we’d showered and finally got all the mud off we didn’t feel like doing very much. The weather hadn’t cleared up much, so it wasn’t really beach weather. We got on the scooter and headed into town to fetch a bottle of wine (the cheapest we’ve found so far is $13). We were half-way there when the heavens opened and Ed got absolutely soaked since he was driving. I just ducked down on the back and managed to stay relatively dry, apart from my hair and face. The rain would start to ease, then get harder again, so after the supermarket, we just got back on the bike and went back to the guesthouse to change, before heading out again to check email, with the now customary ice cream.