Chris and Alla's Excellent Adventure (2024): 37. Crossing the International Date Line to the Cook Islands (Rarotonga)

The International Date Line

The fact that we were crossing the International Date Line today, leaving Auckland on the morning of November 5th and arriving in Rarotonga on the afternoon of the 4th was messing with our minds...and my spreadsheet...since the early days of planning. It wasn't until I saw this image of the how time has been calculated that I understood why we were going back in time and how to calculate our new time in Rarotonga in relation to "home time." Fiji and other places we visited in the +12 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time Zone) zone are at the front of the time line. Tonga and other places in the +13 time zone are at the true vanguard, with new calendar day starting in that time zone. With Winston-Salem and Greensboro, GA, in the -5 GMT and Fiji being in the +12, we have been +17 hours ahead of home. The Cook Islands are at the other end of the time divisions. Since it is -10 hrs GMT, it is 2 hours behind Seattle where Traber lives (-8 GMT), and 5 hours behind. We are finally on the same day again!

As I stated in the previous post, everything about the end of the day on our first November 4th was shite. The Fiji Airways flight from Nadi was both full and delayed, and it was a plane configured to have as little leg room as they could manage to fit people into. We had very little sleep because we needed to be at the Auckland airport for our next flight to check in by 6 am. Furthermore, it was obvious that Mom was going to need assistance moving around the airport.

It turned out that because of the length of the flight between Auckland and Rarotonga, Dad had booked us in Business Class. This was a blessing of immeasurable benefit. First we had our own check-in lounge and a ratio of staff to passengers of about 1:3. Second, we had access to the Air New Zealand lounge where Mom could elevate her leg and I could get some devices charged. Third, the seats ended up being First Class rather than Business Class. Mom was still in a lot of pain, but when had been in the air about an hour we got her foot propped up in such a way that she was able to fall asleep. Or, maybe the Mimosa that I ordered helped her relax.

Air New Zealand first class check-in lounge

Selecting breakfast with her champagne mimosa at the ready

The Rarotonga Airport was small - so small that there weren't good options for the dozen or so people in wheelchairs to get off the plane. We both thought it was hilarious to exit the plane in a cargo lift. With the wheelchair assistance, we are first to board and last to deplane, but we have had the benefit of being shunted to "special assistance" lines in customs and immigration. For this reason, we got out of the airport quickly and were able to hire one of the very few taxi cabs available.

Exiting the plane in Rarotonga in a box lift

The invalid and her assistant

Ready for descent

The box lift from the ground

A Cook Island welcome

Our first stop was a medical clinic so that Mom could have the wound looked at, just in case, and redressed. There was a little confusion at the beginning, of course, about what we needed. When they finally understand that we had exchanged very little US$ to NZD, they got a nurse (rather than a doctor) and forewent the typical check-in processes of getting blood pressure, temperature, etc. I thought it was charming that the nurse referred to Mom as "Ma-Ma" as she explained what she was doing and what we needed to do during her next bandange change. In the end it was only 20 NZD ($15 US) and after dropping me off at Club Raro Resort to stand in line for check-in, Mom and the taxi driver went to town to exchange more money.

First stop in Rarotonga: Te Puna Ora Tumanava medical clinic

See sign

"Mama," as refered to by the nurse, getting her dressings changed

Looking as well as expected

The rest of the evening was relaxed. We had a pool-side room and ordered drinks and sat on our little verandah before going into the main building that served as both lobby and dining room. I don't know why we thought that cheesy bread, garlic bread, and fried spring rolls was the "nutricious" meal we needed to wind down, but we ended up with a very yellow dinner. There was a local musician providing live music with dinner, and I was impressed at how he managed his drum machine, keyboard, ukelele, and voice all at the same time.

Since it was an early dinner, we were able to retire early. I went outside to work on the blog and after petting the resort's cat that had wandered into our room, she got in bed to elevate her leg. While I sat outside, I had a good vantage point to watch the other hotel clients. It skewed older with several groups of 8-10 people that were clearly reuning. There were also a few younger couples, some honeymooners and some friends who were going on holiday togther. With its administrative links to New Zealand and use of the NZD as its currently, Rarotonga makes sense as a tropical vacation destination for Kiwis.