Flora and Fauna

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We didn't have to go far to see beautiful flowers.	Maeva's garden was filled with them.	Pierre would occasionally pick a few. The plumeria smelled wonderful.	Wild orchids
An iris?			The flowering stalk of a coconut palm.
The non-flowering plants were beautiful too.	And there were all sorts of visiting "wildlife" too.	Red ants	Mynah birds
Geckos on the veranda	And geckos in the house!		Chickens and roosters (noisy things!) roam freely on the island.
The roosters crow at any time of the day or night. Thank goodness for earplugs!	Occasionally dogs would trot through the backyard. One time, a spotted pig ran through trailing his broken tether!	This dog settled in for a while.	The beaches were teeming with hermit crabs.
Often, we saw them fighting for shells, some already occupied.			Invariably, the hermits had beaten us to the nicest shells.
Some were as large as a fist, others as small as a grain of rice.		Some were loners.	Some were joiners.
		Beautiful shell . . .	taken!
	There were also crabs who lived in holes. At night, with a flashlight, we could see hundreds on the beach.	This one had caught one of his recently molted brethren.	All the Rarotonga dogs we met were sweet and friendly. We saw this one at the market in town.
Mostly, though, we met them on the beach, where they would keep us company on our walks.	One (her name means "sand") was too focused on fishing to pay much attention to us. Pierre did get her to chase a few sticks.
Bougainvillea grows wild all over the island.	Who knew that hibiscus flowers came in so many colors	and shapes?
			Several varieties of bananas grow on the island. They're good (and cheap!)

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