The Cook Islands Christian Church in Kaumata has recently been overhauled and parts of it rebuilt with an interesting mixture of architectural styles. Gothic windows compete fiercely with Norman. At night the roar of surf on the reef is close, the blackness absolute. No afterglow, no streetlamps or exterior lights diminish the huge sky and its thousands of burning stars. The natural world is very near in this place.
Small crabs inch up an outside wall and sometimes parade boldly across the verandah.
It rained during our first night and next morning the island women were in action. Off the sides of the road they crouched among the coral rocks accompanied by children. All carried small cans. Nowadays the women boil the pupu to clean them quickly and sometimes in caustic soda to turn them white. The traditional method is to keep them in jars for several weeks before washing out the dead and highly odoriferous inhabitants.