By Christina Garcia
August 6th, 2024
What lies beyond the sunset?
On our visit to Rarotonga, Black Rock Beach was the beach of choice for my kids. For reasons unknown they just kept asking to return again and again. Maybe it was a combination of the impressive giant black lava rocks that adorned the shore and the ever so gentle turquoise lagoon pools that were just perfect for a mid day dip. It could be that this particular beach also provided an abundance of natural materials for engineering and constructing beach shelters. Countless hours were spent on this stretch of sand playing survivor and building beach huts. We actually made some quite impressive beach side bungalows here! One afternoon when an unexpected storm rolled in one of our shelters actually saved us all from getting drenched, saving the cell phones and cameras too! We ended up spending many hours on this beach and for the most part we had the entire stretch of sand and lagoon all to ourselves much of the time. This was indeed a magical place where we caught many a sunsets too! This particular evening (pictured) we caught one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever witnessed in my life! I decided that it deserved a gallery of it's own. It is said that Black Rock area is of great significance to the Rarotongan Islanders as they believed that this was a place where the dead moved on from this earth into the after life....Judging by the magnificence of the sunsets here I can surely imagine just why they may have come to believe this...for it certainly looks like the gates of heaven to me!
