Recipes, Kiwi's, and an Island called Rarotonga

The harbor was small but very industrial. In addition, they were building a new super dock to attract big cruise lines.

The moon went full during our time here and what a sight she was over the mountains of Rarotonga

It was hard to capture the full spectrum view of the mountains, but they were spectacular, perhaps more so than Bora Bora

The people are Polynesian and speak English with a Kiwi accent, as we are in New Zealand territory. It's refreshing to be back in the land of English, although, the Islanders speak with a strong Kiwi accent, hard to understand them at times. Really falling in love with Rarotonga. The internet works great and all the people are happy and friendly. There are beach bars, music, and pizza! The Polish couple, Marcin and Aga, love it so much here they have decided to stay. Marcin was offered a job in Australia and they will make their way there soon. We will miss them, but that's how it goes with world traveler', here today and gone tomorrow. The Cook Islands are breath taking and we plan to visit the Island of Palmerston, a northern island with population, 50 people, all descendants from an English chap with three wives! Rumor has it that the Islanders love visitors, as few go there. Hopefully, they will not be like the native folk in the film Deliverance! I hate those damn inbreeds! If the weather permits, we will visit, Aautaki, a beautiful island just north of Rarotonga and renowned for it's white sand beaches and blue blue lagoon.


The name Rarotonga means "in the direction of the wind" It's fairly small, just 32 km around, with twisting valley's, towering mountains, and beautiful beaches. In recent years Rarotonga has become New Zealand's answer to Hawaii. Best of all, they love to party! Tonight we are going out to Trader Jack's for some live music. In fact, we hear all the hot spots are together down the main road and Friday night is the happening scene. We can walk from the boat to the clubs, or should I say, stagger home to the boat from the bar's, like true sailors on shore leave!

Pearl Beach Resort, other-side of Rarotonga. They have a fabulous cafe in the sand and the sand is like 10 feet of fine delicious powder. I've been waiting to see sand like this again...wow!

Ron and Brad in the kitchen at Brad's lovely home.

We made fast friend's with Brad and Christina. Brad has been on the Island for many years and hails from down-under. Brad has a few enterprises, such as; huge distributor of Nonie to the world, booming fishing charter biz, and three daycare's in Australia. Christina is from New Zealand and of the Malorie tribe. Her mom is from Roratonga and dad from New Zealand. Christina works in the travel and tourist Industry and is beautiful! Brad built his house and what a fine house it is! The front yard is all ocean and the home is very Feng-shui.

Christina; Brads lovely Island girl.

The local minister of Agriculture, befriended us and took Ron and I to his home, where he chopped down an entire Banana tree to give us this HUGE bunch of banana's! We also got some Papaya, limes, and lemons, right off the tree and all organic. Sooz hung the monster stalk from the mast. I see lot's of banana bread and cake in our future.

Sooz and Christina share a laugh.

The red wine was superb

Brad's front yard

Now for some recipes. 

BRIE TOAST

 Serves 12


2 Baguettes
Garlic Oil (use 1/2 cup olive oil and 8 cloves crushed garlic-make it the day before)
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Brie Cheese
Fresh basil
Pine nuts

Cut the baguette at an angle about 1/4 inch thick
Brush with garlic oil and toast lightly in oven at 350 degrees DO NOT OVER TOAST
Remove from oven and add 1 teaspoon sun-dried tomatoes and 1 slice of Brie
Place back in the oven until the Brie is soft and slightly melted.
Remove, top with chopped fresh basil and sprinkle of pine nuts
Serve warm



Some favorites;

Bread Fruit (Oru) Latkes. The recipe is on an earlier post. Bread Fruit falls from the

Mango, Papaya muffins

Peak of Rarotonga, taken by Sooz when she did the 4 hour hike across the Island.

Road sign as you go round the Island

They have simple messages here, like this road sign. The buses that take you round the Island read; clockwise and counterclockwise! Swear to god, that is written on the bus.

We have been here nearly 2 weeks waiting for an important part to be delivered. It has been a blast but we are anxious to get moving again. The trip to Palmerston will be 2 days; from there to Samoa 4-5 days at sea.

I need to get some recipes up, but we have been having such fun, we forget to snap the food photos. We have some lovely neighbors on the boat next to us; young folk from England sailing to Fiji. We had a huge dinner party last night and Brad brought the Mahi Mahi, which Brad said I cooked to perfection in chili, lime, cilantro, cumin, garlic, and olive oil. The feast included: black beans (cooked from scratch) fiesta Rice, home made salsa, roasted corn salad, papaya, and fresh tortillas. Yummmm. We believe that Slow Dance is getting a reputation through the islands as having the best food ever, with many comments such as: "this is the best food I have ever eaten". After numerous attempts to dine out, we stick to the boat, as it is the best restaurant in town!

Gaz and new crew mate (oh boy) cute girl whose name I do not know. They loved the dinner party.

The other sailor and his squeeze

Their boat; maybe we will see you in Fiji

Rarotonga sign post-Soos

IMG_5959, a photo by clove on Flickr.

IMG_6007

IMG_6007, a photo by clove on Flickr.

Never boring in Bora Bora

Backside of the mountain

I know I promised recipes folks but the internet connection is weak and I wanted to get the pictures posted first. Hopefully the internet in Tonga will be good.  We have a great anchorage here in Bora Bora, with in your face mountain view and Ron is right; this is by far the most beautiful island. We arrived Wednesday, than yesterday we all went together in the dingy round the island for a day off, stopping at every resort for beer and food. After working so hard the crew needed a day of R&R. We spent a week in Raitiea in the marina working on the boat and you should see her now! As soon as I can I will post the before and after pictures of the deck, which Sean and the crew sanded down. They also polished the boat as well as clean the haul...she is looking grand and Ron is a happy camper as he finally has a competent crew and a captain who knows engineering. It's been like heaven. Enjoy the pix....

Beach at the Hilton and we even swam in the pool! We were not kicked out of any resort, so we must have looked like we belonged there.



Machin and Aga are a joy to have aboard and Aga is hilarious when she has a few drinks and tells funny stories in English. Aga also speaks French, and it has been great having an interpreter to get things done. Very few French or Polynesians speak English.

Wow, now this is the over-water accommodation I imagined!



Sean, Ron, and Sooz at the Hilton




Sean and the cook on the beach somewhere in Bora Bora

 We found a really deserted beach with a sandy bottom that stretched for miles out in the bay. The kids followed us in their kayaks and on foot for a really long way out into the water.

Sean grew up in South Africa and in the Caribbean, where his parents live today. Sean has been on the sea his whole life and it shows by his excellent ability to drive the dingy as well as Slow Dance herself.


Trini had a fabulous time



Side view of the Island



Locals hut where they harvest Palm and coconut



Sean and Sooz

Local has a load of palm

Cute little island girl

Happy cook, got the day off

Macin took a group shot at the local fair

Aga and the cook



Is this not the face of a happy man!



Sean



Grilled Island veges, always a favorite 

 Chow for now, we will return with more stories, fine food, and recipes. We are going to Matupiti, (which I spelled wrong ) for a few day's. This is the last island in the Society chain and supposedly very wild and primitive Hope they have tomatoes as the store here in Bora Bora had none. We are going to a huge festival tonight, which is a very local affair, complete with karaoke singing. (gonna need alot of drinks. From there we will be at sea for 3-4 days until we reach Roratonga in the Cook Islands. Signing off.....Victoria

Gone Native

If you think it looks nice, you should smell how incredible it smells!

The Tahitian women wear the most wonderful flowers about their head and around their necks.  This beauty was $5.00 at the market and way better then any perfume. The market's are always the best on Sunday morning but you have to get there early and I mean early; 5AM, as the whole thing is over by 7AM.

View from my galley porthole, which inspires my cooking

Marina on Raiatea, our home for 1 week.

From Moorea we sailed to the island of Huahine, a feminine name, as the island resembles a pregnant women laying on her back. We anchored on a lovely bay across from a white sand beach and took a day off to tour the island by dingy. Each island has it's own beauty, with dramatic mountains and sandy beaches, but for sure each islands gets progressively more beautiful! After 3 days on Huahine, we sailed 22 miles to the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa. The crossing took nearly 3 hours and was very rough, with waves at 10-15 feet. I was only a bit sea sick this time which I attribute to to many drinks the night before. I really think I am getting over being seasick. We are in a lovely little marina on Raiatea and can see Tahaa just across the lagoon. Both islands are inside the lagoon, so you can take the dingy over to Tahaa, which is more primitive, having no rental cars or such. We will explore Tahaa next week. Today we are off to rent a car and tour Raiatea as a group. Also, rumor has it that there is

disco dancing in the town tonight, which has us all excited, as we all want to kick up our heals. Typically, these islands are quiet, having no night life except Tahitian dancing.     

Ah, this is the life

There are plenty of sandy beaches to tie your hammock up to a couple of palms.

We found this little resort in the middle of nowhere when we took the day trip with our dingy. They had only two huts to offer guests and the place was awesome! Wonder how you find such exotic places to vacation?

Sooz, looking very tropical

The marina is very much a community of people. There are French families that live on their boats and the kids come out to play together around 5PM each evening. There are bikes, cats and lot's of dogs. They do not believe in spay and neuter of their animals and remarkably,  the dogs are very sweet and docile. 

Sean did the driving around Raiatea and it was grand to have a day off for the crew from all their hard work.

The road around Raiatea

The backside of Sooz, Macin, and Aga

WOW

Crew Update: we are 6, as Christian decided not to come along because she wanted to return to Holland to see her father. I also corrected the information on post Something old, something new, concerning Laura Dekker, the 15 year old girl sailing solo around the world. I also included her website and the site for the film, "Maidentrip". 

The crew is currently working on the decks, sanding and finishing them. Sean has a list of projects to improve the boat and once the decks are done we are off to Bora Bora, which is the icing on the cake. Can't wait to see the island, after all, that was the ad I answered for the chef position: "Come on adventure to Bora Bora". What a long strange trip it's been but finally, Bora Bora!  The food has been amazing but the only draw back is we all forget to take photos. I am planning a post soon, of only the food along with recipes, after all, this is supposed to be a food blog as well as adventure blog.

Oh My My Moorea

Palms against the morning sky

Road in back of the Mobile Station

I can understand why Ron has always wanted to return to these Islands. This is what I imagined; water so clear you can see 40 feet to the sandy bottom, palm tree forests, white sand beaches and fruit that falls to the ground.It just keeps getting better and better.

The hotel across from our anchorage. There is a show tonight at 6PM and we are going to check it out

We spent several day's in Cooks Bay; still unspoiled and beautiful. We had enough of the city and longed to be back in nature.Everyone has worked so hard to get the boat ready. The engine is running like a top again, the water maker works and Sean saved Ron a bundle by repairing the Dingy; which by the way looks great. Remember the dingy went missing in the Marquesas and sustained some damage. We needed to kick back and enjoy a snorkel and a beer.

Sooz and her X-tra large beer

We feasted on Tofu Burgers for lunch with a red cabbage and sour apple salad

Slow Dance in Cooks Bay

Impressive peak

 Wish I could upload some video, cause wow, this place is beautiful. We are surrounded by lush green mountains and palm jungle.                

Chef Salad

Nervous about swimming with the sharks. Sean has an underwater camera, oh boy (Pix from Sooz)

Me with the Tahitian dancer's. The little guy was quite something.

Aga, me and Sooz, with the band

Ohpunho Bay

Beach across from our anchorage. Ron and I walked Trinidad each morning and the crew had a beach party and bond fire. Very cool.

Resort on Moorea

Pray to the mermaids to protect us (Pix by Sooz)

 We went over to check out the hotel by our anchorage and got invited to a Tahitian dance show. Most of us ended up in the show!

Ron got picked first and did a good job of moving his knees the Tahitian way.





 Sooz got the hang of it after watching the other girls.

Ron resorted to watching from the epicenter of activity.

I flailed about (How do they move their hips like that?)

The next day we headed out for Ohpunhu Bay just 2 miles away; a beautiful place as you can see. Getting into the lagoon of these beautiful islands, is not as easy as it may seem. Not being a seaman or should I say, sea woman, I am learning about such things as getting through the pass, how to read the markers to avoid running up on the shallow coral reef. The reef is sticking up out of the water in places and yet, you are passing in water at 90 feet. The currents are strong and we had 30-35 knots of wind at times coming in through the pass. The tides and time of day factor into the right time to enter.