On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
way2blue
I love to snorkel—so after colleague cautioned years ago now that coral reefs were in serious decline—I explore tropical reefs whenever I can. The Cook Islands are fairly remote, midway between Tonga & Samoa to the west and Tahiti to the east, thus somewhat protected from catastrophic ocean warming. As with most (all?) of the South Pacific island chains, Rarotonga’s volcanic interior formed over a mantle hotspot. Persistent mantle plumes form series of seafloor volcanos as a consequence of the Pacific oceanic plate moving northward toward the Aleutian Islands that subside below the sea surface with time (same as the Hawaiian Island chain).
We joined two excursions on Rarotonga. The ‘culture night’ one was recommended by the Maori staff where we were staying. Words & photos can’t do it justice. We first walked to an ancient sacred platform of stones and our host/MC sketched the history of his ‘tribe’. He is a descendent of the first wife of the last tribal chief (who had four wives till the missionaries showed up and told him he could only have one). This highland tribe was always feuding with the tribe across the valley. The warriors took part in ritual cannibalism, meant to both humiliate the dead foe and also to capture his spirit.
A Maori woman weaving palm leaves & flowers. Which fascinated this young girl. Our host explained that the Maori of Rarotonga were the first people to visit New Zealand, but didn’t stay long as it was too cold.
During dinner we watched singing, dancing & drumming by a group of talented young men & women, supplemented by a few older women singers. Note the 8-string ukuleles. My iPhone struggling to capture the moment…
(I pulled this photo from a short video. Which of course better captures the energy.) Note the musicians in back, drumming on cut logs with a slit down one side. Again, need video to capture the energy… At the end of the performance, the host invited the tour guide of a large group to speak. Turned out that half the guests were Maori from neighboring islands, albeit mostly New Zealand. After a (too) long address in Maori, his group stood & chanted a traditional song with arm movements. Very cool to know that fellow Maori enjoy traveling to each others islands.
Flame trees everywhere. This one on the way to the capital town, Avarua, to visit their art gallery.
We finally found the road to the waterfall which is also the road to the SPCA Animal Shelter. Which pens lots of barking dogs. Also the start of the epic trail over the volcano to the north side of the island. The waterfall wasn’t active since the island has been in a sustained drought. We passed several planted fields as we explored (and more posted signs for the footrace).
Saturday morning we drove back to the main town for the farmers’ market. Wandering the market, I passed this small cottage with a cluster of men hanging around out front, swapping stories. And thought, ‘hmm’. The shop was crowded with women—as it sold beautiful, locally made dresses from locally designed fabrics. I bought a few…
Lots of dogs. Of mixed heritage. Mutts? All seemingly well cared for. In fact visitors are asked to not feed the dogs or bring them into their rooms as the dogs would bond with them, then be distraught when the visitors left. The note emphasized that all the dogs had families. (I met an American woman on Aitutaki who’d brought a thousand reflective dog collars to Rarotonga to help lessen nighttime collisions with cars or motor scooters.)
I remembered that some folks here like photos of food—this was my lunch our last day in the Cook Islands. Grilled prawn salad…
After a week in Rarotonga we head to Aitutaki…
Manyakitty
Fine. I’ll add this area to my bucket list.
Argiope
@Manyakitty: yeah, me too! Amazing photos and I can almost hear the surf. And dogs running free and happy? Take my money, Raratonga. I may never come back.
Trivia Man
One of my childhood books was called The Pearl Lagoon by charles Barnard, he also write Mutiny on the Bounty. A teenager goes to the south Seas and adventurous ensue. These pictures bring me right back to those pages.
A key plot point revolves around a dangerous fish they call “tonu”, always italicized to show it’s a native word. Not a shark, maybe baracuda like? Ive tried to find what fish it is but looking for that word just takes me to the book.
stinger
Great photos and stories!
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: If anybody wants a breezy YA read about this part of the world, i found that book on project Gutenberg.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68550
Manyakitty
@Argiope: 😍
Gvg
@Trivia Man:
#44 PPN *tonu ‘Plectropomus leopardus (Lacepede), P. maculatus (Bloch), coral trout’ PCP *donu (Geraghty)
TON tonu ‘Po Leopardus and other varieties when large’, NTP tonu(mea) ‘grouper’, EUV tonu ‘Plectropomus spp.’, EFU tonu ‘nom d’un poisson’, SAM tonu ‘Epinephelus sp., 3 feet long or more’ (Milner 1966), TOK, TUV, PUK tonu ‘Po leopardus’, KAP donu ‘sea bass sp., TIK, ANU tonu ‘Po leopardus’, TAU tonu ‘Variola louti’, WFU tonu ‘Plectropomus and Cephalopholis spp.’ (Fakamuria n.d.), WUV tonu ‘Serranide’, TAR, RAP tonu
Plectropomus can reach 3 feet in length and a weight of 30 lbs. Several of the glosses mention the size of tonu as compared to other smaller species of Serranid.
https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/253788/1/PL-C127.185.pdf
page 21.
https://spccfpstore1.blob.core.windows.net/digitallibrary-docs/files/f2/f23f9e1765a88e5b25da9091308571fb.pdf?sv=2015-12-11&sr=b&sig=zt28LVQLLkoLl8xCPyx5lM5nI4Bvhq5EZmejJv3uhGs%3D&se=2024-06-08T23%3A51%3A27Z&sp=r&rscc=public%2C%20max-age%3D864000%2C%20max-stale%3D86400&rsct=application%2Fpdf&rscd=inline%3B%20filename%3D%22Thaman_2015_Fishes_Tuvalu_Tokelau.pdf%22 This says the tonu is the family of coral trout page 33. Interesting rabbit hole to go down. I got lots of linguistic research papers when I googled.
MelissaM
@Argiope: I see your plot. Head as a tourist, find a dog, bond with an overnight cuddle and then “whelp! I can’t leave now, we’ve bonded!”
It just may work.
Trivia Man
@Gvg: Awesome! Thank you!
way2blue
@Gvg:
Oh. I must have met one the 3-ft long varieties on a snorkel trip in Aitutaki. Big guy, slow moving. The skipper called him George as I guess he came ’round regularly. I kept my distance…
way2blue
Sorry for the slow check-in. I’m at the San Jose, CA airport; headed for the San Jose, Baja airport…
way2blue
Also. Before I forget. The greeting here is: ‘Kia Orana’. Meaning, ‘May you live long’. Yep. Will do my best…
Dan B
@way2blue: San Jose, C.R.?
agorabum
@Argiope: Chile is pretty good for dogs running free. When going out, we always brought some extra ‘pocket meat’ to feed some of the strays.