Week one in the can!

Well, what a first week it has been here at the Cook Islands News.


Fuelled by doubt and emotion in the opening three days, these last two have definitely been a lot easier for me – I think I’ve now got the hang of the newsroom and the intense environment that comes from any newsroom.

It really has been a remarkable turnround. Monday and Tuesday were so difficult that a bit of Wednesday was spent searching for flights home to Wellington!

Regardless, the last two days have filled me with enough smiles for me to realise it could be working out after all.

The other journalists are great and all hard-working. Went and had a couple of bubbly brews with a couple of them on Thursday night and it was just good to see a social side to them as well.

You’re all probably wondering what Raro looks like such is my lack of photos, but never fear! From next week I’ll be doing mini videos weekly to show you all what it’s like to be a journo in Rarotonga rather than just the cheesy blog posts!

It has been an interesting week here in Rarotonga. The new secretaries for the ministries were announced – with four new HOMs (that’s the term for Heads of Ministries). I had the privilege of interviewing the new Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Transport, two relatively low receivers of government funding.

I went to the first guy – Dr Matairangi Purea – and interviewed him at his house. We just sat on the deck, chewed the fat for an hour and just got into minor details. Here’s a snippet:

MW: Oh, I see in this CV here that you play soccer?
DMP: Oh yes! I used to play in the international team when I was at the University of Queensland (in the 80s)
MW: Oh choice – what position did you play?
DMP: Halfback.
MW: Aye? Halfback?
DMP: Yeah, halfback – number 4! (Meaning right back haha)
We continued to spin yarns and as he was talking I (rather rude in hindsight) looked over at the work vehicle that said Cook Islands News on the side, then looked at the mountain range in front of me on a clear blue sunny day and realised: This is my job.

Moments like that are frequent, now. Clouded by self-doubt in the first few days, I’ve since been able to really get my head around certain rounds I’m doing (agriculture, infrastructure and the ports) which makes me feel a lot more confident.

Chief reporter here is Matariki Wilson. She’s a character – she can be tough at times but always very fair and a good laugh outside the office. I know I'll get on with her very well. Like she says, “there’s a time and a place to work.”

The motel I’m staying at for the first two weeks is the Central Motel. Located not far from the local courthouse she’s a funny place run by an Englishman named Malcolm. Great guy, to be fair.

Haven’t really done too much discovering so far here in the tropics. There have been some nice nights out but they’re expensive after a while.

One of the big positives is my new drivers license! I’m officially allowed to drive scooters and cars here on the island. Some strange observations – nobody wears seatbelts and/or helmets here. While I guess they only go 50km/h max around here the fact there have been three scooter deaths in two weeks (alcohol related number: 2) you would have thought you’d HAVE to have one. Nope.

Editor is John Woords and as I suspected, a firm but fair boss. Haven’t really had much to do with him outside of work but sounds like he’s a good man so I will stick to that story.

Next mission for me is finding a scooter and a flat. Now that I want to actually stay here it’s probably not the worst idea? And on that note, I better head home for a feed.

Thanks for reading, hopefully those videos will start coming up from next weekend!

Matiu