Rarotonga International Airport — Local services in Avarua

A small yet tidy operation. Unlike in NZ, where I hail from, Jetstar clerks allowed me much grace. I have a habit of buying a comically small baggage allowance while on the day I show up carrying more in cargo than does the average container ship. I could never be accused of traveling light. I have devised many schemes over the years to thwart the Jetstar clerks (they ideally thwack a 60 something dollar surcharge at you), which mostly involves taking advantage of the good graces of my fellow passengers to hold most of my luggage while around the corner my bags get weighed. However, unexpectedly, I was caught red-handed firstly with checked luggage, and then later with carry on - both being chronically overweight, downright morbid. However, they let me go and put on 3 pairs of jorts under my baggy denim and do a great reshuffle of various foodstuffs (including 3 kgs of rice bulging at the seams of a ziplock) respectively. I expected it was going to be my day of reckoning, but they were surprisingly chill, and even seemed to respect my craft - undoubtedly they watched me out of the corner of their eyes don pair after pair of pants. When going through security, they confiscated all of my cans as they exceed the no-more-than-100-mls-of-fluid limit - although truth be told can we call a can of butter beans a liquid? I can't say I've been tempted to try to drink one. This is all well and good, but the lady says to me "you can keep your rice and salt - add a bit of salt to the rice and - mmmmm - delicious". She was taking the piss, and the humour of this is not lost on me. 5 star service, they were able to tolerate my fake cluelessness and general belligerence with surprising calm, poise and alacrity.

Also a word on where you first arrive in the airport. When you walk in from the plane, you will see one of the most bizarre jobs being worked. You will be greeted by a Hawaiian shirt and lei clad man strumming a guitar and belting out waiata. But if you stay long enough, and go into the right corner, you realize that for 40 minutes of every hour he's out of sight in the back, where the smell of a mighty barbeque issues forth. That...

The lady at the baggage drop-off, named Moya Healy (981), was unhelpful and hostile. She wanted us to check in our hand luggage, in which we had quite a few electronic devices. She stated that our bag didn’t fit the requirements (we had flown into Rarotonga with the same bag). We checked the measurements on our tickets, and they were completely different from the ones presented by the lady. We even offered to place the bag in our leg room, but she was unwilling to help us.

She went to check with her manager, and suddenly the weight of the bag was also a problem. When we said that we could move the extra 2kg into another bag and began repacking, she accused us of lying about the contents, claiming we had said the bag contained only electronics (which we never stated).

She then labeled us as “uncooperative” and said that she would “assist us” by not allowing us to board the airplane.

Her actions and accusations were completely unprofessional and unacceptable. The whole situation made our trip unpleasant. Fortunately, the staff on board were kind and the flight went smoothly. As a traveler to such a faraway country, I would...

A pretty small airport hence the off loading of passengers on the tarmac! I didn't really understand why NZ citizens and residents had to be in a different queue. The immigration queue in arrivals was SO slow moving and there is basically no air conditioning in the building. Duty free is quite little and there are two stores to choose from. Duty free prices were great though (cash and card accepted). The departure area is separate to the check-in area which I found confusing as there wasn't great signage or much direction from the airline staff as to where to go after checking in. There are about 5 small stores at the departure lounge that sells a small range of duty free. Food and drink wise, there is only a small café and I don't think they sold alcohol. There really needs to be more food options. I was looking for a beach towel and managed to find it in the surf store so was pleased about that. The entertainment...