[RMS Tahiti. 3rd Sept 1924]

At Sea Still

3rd Sept 1924

My dear Mother,

We will be in San Francisco in two days now (Friday 10am) so that is good news as we are both a bit tired of the boat and looking forward to a day or two at least on dry land. It is now nine days since we saw the last palm tree of the wonderful South Seas Islands.

Rarotonga - Cook Islands

"Raratonga Island
from the Bay #2"
August 1924

To retrace our steps a little. I think the last time I wrote was a day out from Rarotonga and it was posted there to catch the boat back in about 2 days so I will carry on from there and tell you a few of the things that have happened since.

We first sighted Cook Islands about midday and anchored off the reef at about 2pm as there is no harbour there and all copra and fruit comes off the island in surf boats and these land passengers on the return trip. It is a thrilling ride as the surf is always fair and a big swell runs. We had a safe trip and then had our first taste of island life.

"The Docks - Wellington N.Z,
Native Grave, Street Scene,
Raratonga Island from the Bay"
(Click on a single photo for bigger image)

Rarotonga is only small but very pretty and abounds with nigs who all play Ukulele or guitars all day long even returning from work on the plantations. They are a very happy crowd and there seems to be no discontent among them. The population of the island is distributed amongst 4 villages none of any size so we took a car and toured the island going right around the island in under 1 hr and a half 20 miles so you can imagine it is not very large.

On our return we looked around the villages and it was then time to return to the ship as we sailed again at 6.30pm that night on another 3 day stretch to Papeete on the island of Tahiti and this place I am sure must be wonder island of the Pacific.