Held at beautiful Muri Lagoon, the day started with a parade of paddlers, led by local traditional drummers, warriors and canoes. Then, the somewhat serious sprints began. Crews raced by club and age category and were honest – for most part. Lots of teams filled up crews with whoever they could get. The race course was a straight 500m. from the ocean side of the lagoon towards the beach. It was quickly obvious that there were a lot of steers that did not know how to race sprints – as crews crossed one or more lanes to get to the finish line – all the more fun for spectators. The more serious crews advanced to the final heats. For the rest of us – the party had an early start.

After the race finals, there were a bunch of fun events – fun to participate in and to watch: SUP relay (with and without paddles), the underwear exchange (you’ll have to wait for pictures), piggyback race in the lagoon with kids, and the Fly the Ama challenge. The winning crew in that event made it look truly easy as they just popped that ama up and kept paddling for another minute or two.

The closing party began with an amazing dinner. It was all served on hand-woven plates of palm leaves and included many traditional dishes and local food. The drink was iced coconut water, fresh out of the shells. It was all beautiful to look at and delicious too. There were speeches and thanks made, then it was drinking and dancing time. While there was a deck to dance on, there wasn’t room for everyone, so most of the dancing took place on the beach – under the stars, and into the water. A great wrap up to a great week. Highly recommend Vaka Eiva for any crew planning to do an international event.

We’ll get some photos here as soon as we can! Or, shall I say – as soon as I stop shivering…. From 29 one day, to 2 degrees the next. Ah well – all totally worth it

The canoe is set up, ready to go and the gear is loaded on to the support boat. The boat was excellent; a good size, had a nice cover, great coolers and a captain that had done this race every year. He got us settled and we were off.

18 women’s crews were in the race. The Australian crew – Crown Beach, was in the lead, with the Cook Islands 1 crew closely behind. We had a great start, and the first change was about 20 minutes into the race. It’s so wonderful to jump off an escort boat (or canoe) and into warm tropical water. The last changes we’d done were in a practice around Passage Island. Each change into the water there was heart attack inducing! Our escort boat dropped us in perfect position each time, and timed it around the big reef breaks. He had a long towline to toss us each time, so no swimming required to get back on to the supprt boat.

Conditions changed about every 5 kms. around the island, from big waves, to tough choppy stuff, headwinds, and then a final 2 km run into the finish line on small bumps, wind behind us and blue-green glassy water below us. During the race, paddlers saw a humpback whale or two, turtles and flying fish! As you round the final buoy, it’s a couple hundred meter dash to the finish line. As soon as your canoe is in site, there were four local drummers, who hit the Tahaitian drums to give us a pounding welcome in. It was fantastic. The volunteers are there to take the canoe off your hands, and then we were treated to fresh fruit and iced fresh coconut water, right out of the shell. We managed to finish 12th out of 18, but with the smiles on faces, you would have thought we’d come in first!

The men’s race went off at 1pm, with about the same number of crews and very similar conditions. Teams from the same clubs won that event – Australians from Crown Belle and the Cooks Islands top men’s crew. The Cook Islanders put on a much better show coming in with big smiles, same side paddling and flying the ama across the finish line. That race did have a bad note as one of the paddlers on a local team suffered a heart attack. They got him off the water, and quickly treated but he didn’t survive. His crew finished the race and got a big welcome in.

All in all, an amazing day. Thursday, the mixed crews do their Round Rarotonga, Friday – it’s time for sprints and wrap up parties…..

The main form of transport is the scooter. Almost everyone old enough to drive has one. It’s like Hells Angels on 50cc’s… Grandmas have the little kids with them, sometimes tied to them with a sash, often they just hang on. Speed limit for scooters is 40 without a helmet, 50 if you wear a helmet. I think we’ve seen about 3 helmets as it’s too hot to wear them. Better just to go 40 .

Food and drink
For most part, the food has been really good and in some cases, outstanding. Prices are comparable to Vancouver. The baked goods – from bread to croissants to cakes – are amazing! Also – coffee…. to our great pleasure, it’s been wonderful. Coffee is grown on one of the outer islands and roasted here. And folks really know how to pull an espresso too. The fruit is as great as tropical fruit can be. There’s just something about papaya and mangoes fresh from the tree!

Traditional canoes
There are many, many traditional wooden canoes around Rarotonga. Some are simple hulls, others intricately carved and decorated. They sit in cages, hang in grocery stores or lie in hotel lobbies. Many of them get taken out at least once a year for a traditional fishing competition. There is concern that it is a dying art as there are fewer carvers around and fewer young people interested in learning.

Weather
Typically tropical – when it rains, it pours! There had been quite a drought before we arrived but we’ve had a few good dumps of rain. It does keep all these gorgeous flowers happy. It never lasts long and it’s still 29 degrees, so no complaints here. Winds have been u usually variable, coming from directions they don’t usually come in at so it’s anything goes

OC6’s
Rocs and Mahimahi are the main available canoes. The Rocs are a bit lighter and a bit faster. There is no weight restriction with the local racing association so most canoes are about 225 lbs. The very few Mirages are 400 lbs and aren’t used for racing. The rigging on the canoes is braced high off the gunnels. Skirts are attached with Velcro and and varying shapes and sizes. Some are so tight across the canoes that the knees are rubbing against them.

Wildlife
Roosters and chickens…. Nature’s alarm clocks, even if you don’t want to wake up at 4am. Dogs: pets and community dogs…. Not quite feral as everyone feeds them. Slow moving dogs in this heat, no one is playing fetch! Mosquitoes and ants….. Lots and lots and lots of them. We have donated a substantial quantity of Canadian blood to the mosquito population. Beautiful birds…. Fish…. Aquarium like fish in the lagoons, with even some aggressive ones. One of our paddlers was bitten while snorkeling!