Skylodge

25th/26th October 2009 Attending church on a Sunday morning is something of a Rarotongan tradition. Each of the local churches welcomes the tourists to come into their morning service and listen to the wonderful Maori singing, followed by a feed at the community centre. The church we attended in Titikaveka was a lovely building built in the eighteen hundreds, the pulpit area was filled with local flowers and the windows were plain looking out onto the lush green hills behind. The church is a perfect square representing the fact that before God there is no colour or creed, simply human beings. The singing was superb and truly raised the roof and true to form I got quite emotional when they started (it’s something about choirs!). The entire service was conducted in Maori, apart from the lesson which was spoken first in Maori, then English. After the service, the Church secretary thanked a few special guests for coming, one of which was the Queens Representative on the Cook Islands, so we’d been at church with royalty (well almost!). ...

27th October 2009 After a good night’s kip at the SKylodge we walked 5 minutes up the road to a cafe to grab some breakfast. The weather is a bit of a shock here this morning, quite cold and windy, and by the time we’d had breakfast and got back to the hostel to get our bags it was raining - just like home. We caught the bus into Auckland downtown before switching to the the Link bus service to get us out to Parnell where we are staying for a few nights. ...