I like to ride my bicycle..

Well we both do, actually! Except we nearly didn’t – again! There was a different member of staff in the booking office when we went in this morning – guess what? No bikes! Aaarrggghhh! She denied all knowledge of our booking and only after two somewhat annoyed people went back a second time did she organise two bikes from town. Ok, we catch the bus in...except it had just gone...again! So, plan b, we collect the postcards we’ve bought and sit and write them while waiting for the bus. Just as we finish, 2 bikes get brought back early! Yahoo! Now, I say bikes, and this is Polynesia... but they were a little tired! Mine was supposed to have 18 gears, but as the front derailler was inoperative, I was left with 6, but it worked...providing you didn’t need the front brake as that stuck on whenever you used it! Ron’s was a little more interesting as it sounded like the Pinky Ponk from “In the Night Garden”! Sorry if you aren’t into under 5’s TV – just imagine all sorts of weird noises at once and you’ve got it!. We’re not sure if there was a single bearing on the bike that wasn’t in need of a total rebuild, but it went ok and the hire company seemed totally oblivious to the damage being done!
Now, the point of the bikes..I gradually gleaned this over a few days. A bit more freedom to explore? Er..yes. A chance to go away from town rather than into it? Er..yes. Something a bit more than that? Hmmm, maybe we’re both getting the picture! Ron wanted to cycle right round the island! 33k if you stick to the mainroad...a bit more if you use the back roads...of course we used the backroads! It was fascinating, because you could actually see how the island works.
Let me explain a bit further. Rarotonga is basically a big lump of volcanic rock, sticking up out of the Pacific. Being volcanic, the rock takes ages to break down into soil, and so there is only a narrow strip of land around the edge which is relatively flat, and where there is any amount of soil at all. There is basically one road that goes right round the island (hence the clockwise and anticlockwise buses!) In about ½ of it, where is enough land there is an older back road. The main road has hotels, villas, holiday lets of all sorts. But there is no sign of farming or residential accommodation for the people who live here. Get onto the back road, and you find the real Rarotonga. Small holdings, family homes, local rather than tourist shops. It’s fascinating.
So that was what we did; setting out in temps of 33-35⁰ –the tarmac was melting in places! With the added humidity, cycling was interesting! But we took plenty of water, plastered ourselves in factor 30 and off we went.
We did stop quite a lot! We also had a very refreshing ice lolly and a couple of drinks on the way round. But we made it back by 5 o’clock. We didn’t think that was too bad – others we met on the way round thought we were nuts! Talking of nuts...apart from bruised nether regions we and our aged bicycles returned unscathed. Question –what is scathed? Note to self...look it up!!