The bus on the Island goes round



The Clockwise Bus



                                                            

Simplicity is one of the reasons you come to the island. Check in and check out. No Blackberries ringing. No texts dinging. No email harassment. Just a beach and the long hours of leisure.

Another joy here on Rarotonga is the bus system. I’ve never been good with numbers. Bus timetables, spreadsheets – any conglomeration of numerals really – always send me into a cross-eyed tizzy.



Bus timetable for dummies



So I was delighted to glance at the bus schedule today for our ride into the capital Avarua. It’s not complicated. There are two buses, one travels clockwise; the other anti-clockwise. Beautiful. The clockwise bus leaves the capital on the hour and takes half an hour to get to us here on the south of the island. Then it’s another 20 minute ride back to Avarua. The bus will stop anywhere someone wants to get on and off. It’s $7 for a roundtrip.

Soon we were off on our clockwise vehicular perambulation of the 36-kilometer circumference of the island. It was marvelous feeling the warm island air rushing in through the open windows. The island is immaculate and gorgeous.

Our sense of safety shrank away to nothing, though, when I noticed how our bus driver had positioned his rear-view mirror. He was, apparently, enjoying entirely different sights than us tourists.

Yeah, dude, I bet all passenger movements are recorded