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A Polynesian Fantasy
| Article
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11021 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1986 |
1,697 Words |
| Author
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Carole Ottesen
Carole Ottesen is an author and freelance writer who
specializes in gardening topics. She lives in Potomac,
Maryland. |
Once pristine and isolated, his Waikiki and Papeete have become populous tourist centers differing little from others of the world's overdeveloped resorts. Yet, life "about the idle, warm lagoon," in secret pools and long, holy nights that Brooke described still exists in islands whose benediction and curse is their remoteness: the Cook Islands.
Lying approximately three thousand miles south of Hawaii and west of Australia, the fifteen Cook Islands are minute specks of land in the trackless water world of the trackless water world of the South Pacific. Their isolation--of one island from another, and all from the rest of the world--has kept old Polynesian traditions alive.
Even Rarotonga, the main island with a jet airport, a museum, hotels, and restaurants, has an easy, friendly, small-town flavor. Considered the great metropolis of the Cook Islands, Rarotonga has yet to acquire "world class" slickness; the island lacks both nondescript hotel fare and stereotyped tourist attractions. Dancers entertaining at the hotel, for example, are likely to be contest winners from the outer islands rather than high-paid professionals. And the menu: generally the day's catch.
The pace is still slow and easy for anyone--except the "outlanders" who flock to "Raro" for its excitement and glitter. They come from paradisiacal places like Make in the Southern Group of the Cook Islands, 277 kilometers from Rarotonga. On Mauke's eighteen square kilometers, the loudest sound is the rhythm of the encircling sea rolling over the reef and slowly, incessantly hollowing out a string of underground caves.
Arranging transportation to one of the outlying Cook Islands is always a complicated affair, and going to Mauke is no exception. In the old days, a visitor to Mauke was at the mercy of the Cook Islands Trading Company's unpredictable shipping schedule. Theoretically, the CITC's vessel, the Manuvai, would visit the fourteen outlying Cook Islands at intervals of between four and six weeks. Often, however, when an island had nothing to sell--or only a negligible crop--the Manuvai's calls might be months apart.
Booking passage on the Manuvai is only half the adventure of traveling to Mauke. By far, the more exciting part is disembarking. Because Mauke has a reef around it, the Manuvai must anchor off the island, while whale boats, about eighteen feet long, pull alongside her to receive passengers and goods. Everything destined for Mauke--oil in drums to
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