Rarotonga, Cook Islands - Aborted Mission

We arrived early this morning at the island of Rarotonga, the largest of the 15 that make up the Cook Islands (totaling 93 square miles) and the one on which the capital of the Cook Islands is located.  Here's a sampling of what Rarotonga looks like on the approach.




The Cook Islands is an independent country that is closely associated with New Zealand.  In fact, all Cook Island citizens enjoy New Zealand citizenship.  Interestingly, more Cook Islanders live in New Zealand than live in the Cook Islands.  All Cook Islanders speak English and many speak Maori as well.

It turns out that our planned daylong visit to Rarotonga had to be aborted because of huge sea swells, but not for lack of effort to find a workaround.  Apparently a tender boat was launched to go ashore to the town of Avatiu to bring onboard the local authorities who have to clear the ship for disembarkation.  Because of the swells encountered, it was decided to move the ship to the other side of the island.  The tender, in the meantime, returned to shore with the authorities and remained there while the ship moved to the other side.  Once on the other side, the Captain determined that conditions there were no better and made the decision to abort the landing altogether.  The ship then returned to the Avatiu side to pick up the tender left behind.

Here are some photos of Avatiu I took from a considerable distance using a 70-200 mm. lens (that through some trickery can be made to act as though it has an even greater focal length).  You will notice containers piled up at the shore indicating that there must be some measurable commerce centered on this island.  I also cropped a photo that shows a supermarket with solar panels on the roof.















Finally, some photos showing the tender returning to the ship and being raised up.  You can see how rough the sea is.

    



We're now at sea for the next two days during which we will cross the International Date Line.  Next stop:  Tonga.

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