Cook Islanders are some of the most fun-loving folks you will meet in the South Pacific, and you can easily catch their spirit. Every evening except Sunday is a party night, and especially Friday when the pubs stay open until 2am (they close promptly when the Sabbath strikes at Sat midnight). And as with their Tahitian cousins, the infectious sound of the traditional drums starts everyone dancing.

When Rarotongans aren't dancing in a show, they seem to be dancing with each other at some of the most colorful bars in the South Pacific. No one ever explained to me why they call their tour-de-pubs a crawl. I assume it's because crawling is one method of travel after a few too many of the locally brewed Cook's Lagers. You tour the pubs yourself or take a Friday nightlife tour by bus, such as organized by the Edgewater Resort (tel. 25-435 for reservations).

The Friday night crawl begins -- and often ends -- at Trader Jack's Bar & Grill (tel. 26-464) at Avarua's old harbor, one of the best bars in all of the South Pacific. The island's affluent movers and shakers start boozing here after work. Pianist Garth Young usually appears at Jack's from Monday to Wednesday, and bands take the stage other nights.

Heading east, a very young crowd dances at TJ's (tel. 24-722), while the Trader Jack's crowd wanders into the Stair Case Restaurant & Bar (tel. 22-254), an upstairs restaurant that has rock-and-roll music for dancing after 10pm and an island night show once a week.

Backtracking to the traffic circle, you'll come to The Banana Court (tel. 23-397), which for several generations was the place to do your drinking, dancing, and fighting. It was closed for several years but is now back in business and is the big place to be on Wednesday night. Down the side street in Cook's Corner shops, the small, dark Happy Hideaway Bar (tel. 20-340) attracts a mature crowd of drinkers.

At Avatiu Harbour, The CocoBar (tel. 20-340) is the second best joint for grownups (after Trader Jack's). The bar is under a big thatch roof; the bands play in the backyard. From there you can head toward the airport and the RSA Club (tel. 20-590), where the country's military veterans welcome everyone to drink and dance.

After the bewitching hour of 2am Saturday, many crawlers head to Palace Takeaways (tel. 21-438) at Avatiu Harbour and the food stalls at Punanga Nui Market.

Cook Islands Dancing -- A New Zealander once told me, only partly in jest, that all Cook Islanders are deaf because they grow up 3 feet from a drum whose beats you can hear from 3 miles away.

Their Cook Islanders' hip-swinging tamure is very much like that in Tahiti, except it tends to be faster (which I found hard to believe the first time I saw it) and even more suggestive (which I had even more trouble believing). The costumes generally aren't as colorful as those in Tahiti but are more likely to be made in the traditional fashion, using natural materials as opposed to dyed synthetic fabrics.

Even though the dance shows at the hotels are tailored for tourists, the participants go at it with an enthusiasm that is too seldom seen in the French Polynesian hotel shows these days. Dancing is the thing to do in the Cook Islands, and it shows every time the drums start their tattoo.

Unadulterated Cook Islands dancing is best seen during the annual Dance Week in April or during the Constitution Week celebrations in late July and early August. In the absence of one of these celebrations, make do with an "Island Night" show or two at the hotels. There will be at least one performance every night except Sunday. A little detective work is required, but you'll easily find out where the next island night is being staged by asking at your hotel tour desks or Cook Islands Tourism Corporation or checking the daily Cook Islands News.