Hello Rarotonga!

We left New Zealand today and flew to Rarotonga.

Let's start by saying it was an early morning, without much coffee. The flight was good and we filled out arrival cards enroute.  The plane was put in a bit of a holding pattern and landing was delayed then a tad bumpy. As we taxi'd I noted the waves crashing onto the airport. Bit close... but how were we to know that wasn't normal?

We also had to wait for confirmation that the winds were low enough now to use the portable stairs.

All that was forgotten of course, when I showed up at passport control with an arrival card featuring some errors. Turns out I ticked the wrong column and answered YES to carrying into the Cook Islands:

• Medicines, weapons, indecent publications, endangered species, drugs etc
• More than 2 L of alcohol
• More than 200 cigarettes or 50+ cigars
• More than $750 of gifts obtained elsewhere
• And more than $10,000 in NZ cash!

Oh but it gets better...
I also ticked YES to being a criminal and suffering from an infectious disease! 

The gentleman at passport control looked me square in the eyes and said "I think we have a problem. You are a criminal?" 

I was mortified. At the same time confused. REALLY? That's the only issue you have with me?!

Luckily he was nice enough to tell me I could just cross out my errors and re-tick boxes before customs took the form from me 5 minutes later.

It was still super windy and many of the roads around the island were closed due to the high water. Turns out Rarotonga had a bit of a cyclone this morning. They just reopened the airport in time for our arrival!

At the Crown Beach Resort, other guests reported we missed the drama of the morning, when the sea entered some of the beachfront villas and the beachy cabana got claimed by the waves and dragged out to sea.

It was too windy to do much except lounge about by the pool and seek out an amazing dinner later on.