Return To Rarotonga :The Story

Heya All, I promised the story with some more pictures of your second Trip to Rarotonga .
Well, lets make it more broad than just my finds, i will cover all details and costs so you understand that it was awesome budget trip with wicked outcome :-)

I am not gona be like a travel agent, here are essential details to know :
Rarotonga  is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 (census 2006), out of the country's total population of 19,569. It is 32 km (20 miles) in circumference and has an area of 67.19 km² (26 square miles). Flight is 4 Hours from New Zealand Direct Auckland -> Raro
For rest general info refer to Wiki :-)

Here is google maps shot that i will explain :

As the island almost round, we will treat is as a clock for further easier directions. 
The best of the best area is Muri lagoon with several atolls located at 3 to 5pm 
The whole area from 3-9 pm is best for swimming and snorkeling as it has wide reef area and sandy beaches
Where north side has nerrow reef area , rocks and almost no water during low tide ,
High tide is only .7 meters, so it is simply impossible to swim and for the same reason there is no colorful fish you would go after.   

We wanted to stay at the same place were at our FIRST TRIP  butfor the dates we booked flight we were able to get only 4/7 days, so other 2 nights we had to book at Club Raro,being the cheapest at the time .With the night arrival on Friday to saturday night 00:00 am we had to stay there till Monday before we cou ld move to MANEA VILLAS . We ere spending only evening at club raro and both days we were away at proper beach - Muri and other day at Fruits of Rarotonga (deeper place about 2m with lots of fish)
We traveled by Bus that cost 4$ one way or 25$ for 10 trips - recommend to buy it, or you can rent a scooter at 14$+ a day

Here we are, a Raro team :  Elena& Max, Andrew&Ira

Special Thank you to Maryanne at Manea Villas for having us back! your service was perfect as first time and we defo will be coming back :-)

Manea Villas are self contained villas with daily room service.To save on Food (THIS PART IS MOST IMPORTANT READ ON) we took a full suitcase of food per couple .
* you CAN NOT not brings fruits and vegetables to Raro, but you can if its is frozen supermarket sealed packs
* you CAN bring meet/fish/dairy products if they are all factory sealed

So spending about 300$ total in NZ on all general food and some specials - saved us Thousands on restaurant there. As you can see we had restaurant quality meals done our self:

The only  Products we were buying localy are Fresh Bread 5.4$ a loaf and local eggs at 6$ a dozen.

twice we bought Tiptop icecreams 2L containers at 12$ - but that is pretty much it.

All local free yammy treats included Banas/coconuts and Paw paw growing on the Villas' territory :

So General Holiday part was absolutely fantastic! 

Now, lets get to the metal detecting part.

For some of you who looked up tides and noted that its only .7 difference and would think you can detect 24/7.
You can, but with tide coming and going really strong currents flow in the lagoon and it is almost imppossible to sand on feet. Also you can not use sandscoop as all targets go below the light coral sand and settle of reef bed, that is like sponge. so the only way is to free dive and remove sand with your hand till bottom is exposed and take the target out of the pores.

The Ammount of coins in the lagoon is insane! but with the difficulty in water it takes  alot of time and effort to get them.
This time i got almost same amount of coins as i got on my first trip! :-)

Total Coins: 355

Cook Island coins:
5$ * 7
2$* 22
1$*28
---
50C*7
20C*5
10C*7
5C*4
Total 107$ spendable
NZ coins:

2$*52
1$*43
50C*24
20C*40
10C*48
5C*24

Total 147$ spendable


Australia coins total 9 with 6.15$ value

Oldest coin 19XX Uk penny , heaps on 1/2 cent and one Florin 1962 :-(

However i got one silver coin -  3D pence 1946 :-)

The over interesting coin i got was 1974 old rarotongan Dollar! it is massive to compare with current one and olso compare with old biggest nz coin -50cent :

The Other cool items are 2 pair of sunglasses , one of them is POLICE brand with Rrp150$ +

And all the best finds are here : 

The picture speaks for it self with what rings are what :-) 

Thanks for stopping by! See you at the beach !