Atiu

About this time last year, I was in Atiu, one of the islands in the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands are about as far away from the UK as you can possibly get, a random website I found tells me it is 10,001 miles or 16,091.61 kms from Bristol to Avarua (the capital of Rarotonga - Main Island). 


It then goes on to say that if you drove at a constant speed of 60mph, it would only take 166.7 hours to get there, although it does warn you that "Things like Oceans, Seas, Rivers and Mountain ranges would have a bit of an impact on these estimates, so please don't take these literally!"

Anyway...it was a tiny island, and I arrived on a 9 seater plane with a few locals, and one other tourist, an American called Joe. I think it's the fact that it is so far away from anywhere, plus the flights are expensive, that puts people off but it really was an amazing place. 


Shaped like a wide brimmed hat, everyone lives in the 5 villages in the highest point in the centre, and then all around the edge is farmland. Despite there only being a population of around 400 people, they have 9 tennis courts!! Apparently in the 1990's the villages got into a bit of a 'My Tennis Court is bigger and better than yours' competition. 


The flat 'brim' of the island is fossilised coral reef, and from the edge, there is a shelf which drops straight down around 2000m to the sea floor. Not a good place to drop a very expensive reel of cable as done by a telecommunications company.....

So..things I wasn't necessarily expecting...there are huge crabs - they can break into coconuts so you hate to think what their claws could do to your toes...and we were given a tour of some caves - by a lovely man from Devon - and swam in an underground pool...


I made poor Joe walk pretty much every path on the island, we usually didn't see a single other person, apart from the odd local whizzing past on their scooters, wondering why we would possibly want to walk in such sweaty heat! 


We stayed at the lovely Are Manuiri guest house which is run by Juergen and Andrea and they supplied us with freshly grown coffee and mangoes and passion fruits everyday. Every evening we were surrounded by local children who informed us that we had to entertain them. This usually ended up with them telling me that I was really old and really strange for wanting to go on holiday with such little stuff!


Andrea runs the Atiu Fibre Arts Studio and combines her own ideas and techniques with traditional art forms from the Cook Islands. The main work they produce for commissions and to sell are Tivaivai - Cook Islands traditional ceremonial cloths, made mainly from appliquéd cotton, sometimes with heavy embroidery.

Now I'm off to try some patchwork...maybe not quite so intricate though...