Wednesday - rain on the way (perhaps)

With the weather forecast mentioning a chance of rain, and no transport, we opted for a quiet day here at Ranginui's. We started with a hearty breakfast of eggs, baked beans, and cheesy sausages. Just what you need when you aren't planning on doing anything adventurous.

I have booked the car again for tomorrow and a snorkelling trip to the far side of the lagoon leaving at 1pm. More on that tomorrow assuming all goes to plan. Everything is pretty relaxed here so not all plans work out.

We decided a short walk after breakfast would be good for us so did a loop around the end of the Ootu Peninsula to visit the place we stayed at in 2018. This has gone up-market now and is called Tai Roto Bay and looks like it thinks its an upmarket place but doesn't look much different (but is much more expensive). We prefer our cheap-and-cheerful Ranginui's Retreat.

Dora The Explorer!

Next stop was the Koru Café for a morning coffee and croissant (although Miriam opted for a Heineken). We also bought another loaf of bread which will hopefully see us through to the end of the week.

The rest of the morning was spent swimming in the lagoon and the pool before heading back to the Koru Café for lunch about 1:30. This time I had a very filling Pulled Pork burger with fries while Miriam had a Poke Bowl with grilled fish.

There was nothing left to do but read our books and I went for another swim and a Paddle Board trek. By 5pm we were ready for the obligatory Gin/Beer/Wine with more of Miriam's flat-breads and the anti-pasti snacks we brought with us for dinner. We're both feeling a bit full now so need an action day tomorrow.

One thing we have noticed here is that things (mostly steel-based things) don't last well in this tropical environment. The BBQ we are using was pretty new in this unit in 2022 but it is very rusty now. Opening the door to turn the gas on usually results in a load crash as the metal door falls off and crashes onto the deck. We walked past the container which was used to store the wind-surfing gear I hired last time. This had a rusty roof letting the rain in then but now it is empty and the doors are just about falling off.

The really tragic site was the almost new (in 2018) Kuru Club Aitutaki. This is still shown on various booking sites as a 4-star hotel and probably was that when opened. Now, just 7 years later, it is a rusting hulk more-or-less falling down. It had a large number of solar panels on the roof and supplied its own power for the guests and for charging the electric cars it offered them. I remember we were offered a lift by a guy in one of their electric VW Golfs when we were walking back to our own accommodation.

Now it looks like this:

Kuru Club Aititaki

You can see in the photo the rails on the roof where the solar panels were but the rest of the building is literally rusting away. I wonder which country supplied the steel?