The boy, the coconut and the waves.

I visited Rarotonga a little while back for around a week.

The 1st thing I noticed was the lack of urgency amongst the people there.

Everyone went about their business with a feeling of relaxation in every step.

They call it "island time" and it is a great way to live.

Rarotonga is a small island which takes approx 4 hrs to run the perimeter, and has a great reef surrounding 99% of the island with only one small port, plus many tracks that lead up to the peaks in centre of the island.

The weather there was typically humid, with a daily temperature reaching around 30 degrees celcius.

I met one of the local coconut tree climbers who put on a display of his upperbody strength by climbing a 30 ft coconut tree in a matter of seconds. He then proceeded to cut away the green coconuts and dropped a few to the ground. He was nearly 60 yrs old and yet he had the physique and agility of a man half his age. his feet and hands were like leather, He informed me he had never worn shoes in his life.

Then without warning, he turned his whole body in a horizontal position while holding on with just his hands and held it for about 30 seconds, all while looking at me with a huge wirey grin.

Not a ounce of doubt entered in his mind. It was just like walking on the ground for him. A lifetime of exploring his wild human nature.

After a while in the baking sun, I decied to go down to the beach where I was followed by a small local boy of around 5 years of age. No parents telling him to be careful of the stonefish or not to wander off to far from home or not to touch that poisonous plant, just a boy on his own, totally involved in the world around him.

He waded out into the reef and dived under for a few seconds only to surface with a big grin. thats one thing I noticed here, everyone as smiling all the time, yet most of them lived in poverty. I dont recall I Zoo human ever smiling just for the sake of it, there would have to be some external influence to make one do so, as if we have lost the ability to simply smile for the sake of it.

The boy then climbed out of the water, found a coconut husk and used it as a toy boat in the small waves. This young boy had found total happiness while exploring his playful human nature with just a piece of coconut and some water.

This simple observation had a great impact on me, it gave me a glimpse of how we SHOULD have ALL grown up, surrounded in nature, being entertained by nature and enjoying it as if thats all that mattered.

I was rudely pushed back into "Zoo " life when i entered the airport in NZ. The 1st thing I saw was human traffic, shoulder to shoulder, bells, phones ringing, loud speakers yelling times of flights, ques at the toilets, rubbish all over the floor, and most of all, a small boy the same age as the one in rarotonga, crying his eyes out and throwing a tantrum because his mum didnt buy him a playstation game........only if that boy had a coconut husk and some water.....

"welcome home to the zoo dave" I thought to myself depressingly. I thought of that young boy and the coconut, hoping that some day my life will resemble the simplicity of living in "island time".