Day 28- Aitutaki, Cook Islands, Wed Mar 14, 2018
Beautiful sunrise
over Aitutaki as we were out on deck walking this morning.
Aitutaki is a picture-postcard tropical paradise. It is a triangle shaped (sides are 7.5 miles
each) atoll famous for its light turquoise lagoon, fish and surrounded by
pristine beaches. Aitutaki has a
population of 1,500. The unspoiled
places that we’ve had the opportunity to visit on this itinerary have been
absolutely fabulous. What an honor to
visit places that so few people have been.

On the schedule for this morning was a shore excursion-Maina
Sandbar and Snorkeling. The departure
time from the ship was 9:30 am, but we were delayed and left after 10 am. This is a tender port and the sea swells made
loading the tenders very slow, to insure everyone was safe. The ship was anchored outside the reef that
surrounds the island, and there is a very narrow one-way channel that the
tenders could pass through in the lagoon to get us to the tender dock. This increased the time getting passengers
ashore.
We had our choice of 3 boats to get into (8 passengers each
boat) and then made our way towards the reef for snorkeling. There are many coral formations in the lagoon
and unfortunately our driver hit one and damaged the propeller on the
boat. It was quite a jolt, he proceeded
slowly to get us to the snorkeling area.
Snorkeling was amazing around the coral formation. We saw many fish, but the most impressive was
the “Giant Clams,” measuring about 18 inches across. The insides of their shells had different
colors-one was green and black, another turquoise. We didn’t even know Giant Clams existed.
Next up was a visit to a small, uninhabited island for a
little beach time. There was a “forest”
of dense palm trees, and we ventured in.
We had to be very careful where we walked as there were hermit crabs
everywhere. We also must have come close
to a Red-Tailed Tropic Bird’s nest as there was a lot of squawking going
on. These seabirds are native to the
Cook Islands. What an amazing visit to a
remote place.
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Hard to see the red tail, it is long and skinny. |
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Apparently this is how new coconut trees grow. |
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There were zillions of hermit crabs in the trees. |
Pre-dinner drinks was in the Cove. We really enjoy two of the servers there,
Petar (from Serbia) and Mikaela (from South Africa). We enjoying visiting
with them each evening. Dinner was in
The Waterside tonight. Julie enjoyed the
Potato Leek Veloute with Truffle Cream and the Grilled Shrimp with an amazing
Papaya-Coconut Curry Sauce (one of her favorite entrees so far). She initially ordered "Broiled Emperor Fillet" - a local fish, but found it way too salty. They replaced it with the Shrimp (no Shrimp picture, we forgot). Bob had the Fresh Corn & Black Bean Salad
with Cilantro Vinaigrette, the Potato Leek Veloute and Veal Marsala. We shared
a Banana Cream Tarte a la Mode.
The main show tonight was a Special Event developed by the
entertainment team, titled “An Evening In The South Pacific.” It was based on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s
musical and had all the familiar songs.
It was incredible, and so many of the entertainers took part in it in
addition to the usual vocalists and dancers.
We truly enjoyed it.
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Pre-show. |
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Huge crowd. |
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.. there ain't nothn like a dame... |
We walked 7.23 miles, and had 15,140 steps.
Are you decked out in Tommy Bahama attire?
ReplyDeleteNope, just your basic rash guard, probably from Costco.
ReplyDelete