Road Trip: Rarotonga

Getting Dirty

This was one of the few stretches of nice looking pavement I saw on the entire island.

The real driving action is behind the wheel of some off-road equipment. There are a few companies that guide tours in various forms of dirt-worthy transportation from quads to 4WD trucks to buggy jungle tours. The 4wd truck tour takes you on roads not accessible for most cars in the only “luxury” vehicle on the island- a Land Cruiser. The Jungle Quad tours use fully automatic 350cc Yamaha Grizzlies. The buggy tours are given on Quadzilla PGO Bug Riders. They have 250cc 4 stroke engines with an automatic transmission, including reverse. Given the power to weight ratio, this is pretty much more powerful than anything else you can rent! The first few miles are actually covered on the island's main road before carving off some little rural track where you tour ancient burial grounds and test your off-road skills through the very rutted back roads.

It's not uncommon to brake hard for a herd of piglets. If they surprise you, you may squeal louder than they do!

Make sure you don't bring any camera equipment or cell phones (no reception, so no point) or anything electronic you can't protect from a crapload of water/mud. They do supply a waterproof bag to put on the back of the quad but the inside will end up soupy by the end of the trip so make sure you also have your gear protected in another bag.

Don't tell me that doesn't look like fun.

If it's rained recently (a pretty common afternoon occurrence in these tropical destinations), the road will be muddy so wear something you don't mind tie-dying in different shades of brown. Our guide led our group through some insanely deep puddles that offered a better mud bath than most spas. One pair of Aussie chicks tiptoed their way around each of these puddles until we stopped for a drink and I decided to hug it out with them and acquaint them with the dirt. They then tore it up, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Kick-ass mud bath.

If you're looking for a cool car to cruise in an island paradise, try Hawaii or the Florida Keys. But if you're looking for an adventure, Rarotonga can give it to you. You can't get lost (basically one road), you can't get caught speeding (too many scooters), and a March with an intake could be the fastest car on the island. If you could find a place to line two cars or a car and a scooter next to each other, it'd be a true test of drivers skill since neither has more power and both will take almost the length of the island to get up to speed.

I love globetrotting and seeing how people get around from big city subways to 4×4's on volcanoes. Rarotonga isn't the most exciting transportation country but it's an insight into the relaxed transportation pace in this small far-off corner of the world.

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