Air Rarotonga

In all the flying around Europe I did while working for Alcatel and Dornier and all the other holiday flights etc, in all those years, the very first time a flight has left on time was with Air Rarotonga! I think it should take over BA. The plane was a Saab 340 fitted with carbon fibre propellers with Ti leading edges made by Dowty in Gloucester!

Aitutaki is the real thing. A tropical island at Lat 18 S. The temperature is 35C in the shade dropping to 30 at night and the sea is a constant 28C. The reef goes all round but is assymetrical thus creating an enormous lagoon at the south side. Fantastic snorkelling. A giant clam is only 200m from our beach and we watched it trap a fish. The tracks are covered in land crabs and the sea of them kind of parts as we drive along on our moped.

Our tree hut is really a shack. The wash basin is half a giant clam shell. The water supply is intermitant. The bed is hard - 2" foam on a solid base. At least there is an effective mossy net. There is not much food here. The shop is almost empty but it has lots of Immodium. However a cargo boat arrived today and us along with half the population watched it unload, so tomorrow we may be able to eat.

I have an ear infection and will try the hospital tomorrow for antibiotics.

This may be the last blog update from here as the connection is painfully slow and expensive.

But when all said and done this is a beautiful place with very friendly people who all seem to be at complete peace with everything. It is a lovely place to be.

Bye for now.