Before moving back to the Cook Islands, Junior, who is half Mangaian and half Aitutakian had been living and working in Spain for two years as part of a 24 strong Polynesian dance troupe performing around the Barcelona area. But although he enjoyed the European ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ lifestyle he realised there was no place like home when he came back to Rarotonga for a visit four years ago. “I came back here on holiday and I thought to myself ‘this is paradise – there’s no way I’m going to move back to Auckland or wherever. Once I decided to stay I had to find a job and so I came straight to Trader Jacks.”

He remembers those first few nerve-wracking shifts well. “At first I was so nervous I was shaking,” he revealed. “I knew the people who drank here and it was pretty scary, but now they’re like friends.”

It’s a demanding job keeping the regulars happy and Junior reckons learning what the Trader and his mates want in their glasses is a crucial part of the job. “You’ve got to keep them happy,” he says. “When you see people coming through the door you start getting their drink ready, I think I know what the whole island drinks. Knowing that and teaching the others is important. You have to make sure the new staff know what the locals drink, it’s for their own safety!”

And anyone who has heard the Trader in full cry demanding ‘more piss’ knows the sort of pressure the staff are under, but that doesn’t mean that the visitors don’t get any attention. “I always look to see what the tourists are drinking,” reveals Junior. “I’ll serve them first and at the same time keep an eye out to see what the regulars need and then get their drinks.”

Junior gives credit to his colleagues behind the bar when he first started out for giving him the skills he now has. “There was the best team here when I first started and they were a good crew to learn from,” he says. Since then staff have come and gone and Junior says he has learned from many of them, those he remembers best include Andy Burner and Jason Jones, better known as ‘the Hospo Man’.

Nowadays the dreadlocked bartender is a man in demand, and his skills have even attracted interest from other bars here and in New Zealand, but he has knocked them all back. “I’m staying here,” he says. “Jack can be a hard boss, but he means what he says and he’s a decent bloke to work for – hard but fair.” But he also adds with a grin that his boss can sometimes be his worst customer.

They say bar work is like being on stage, and with his background as a performer Junior sometimes steps into the limelight, treating customers to a taste of his dance moves behind the bar and at weekends he even serenades drinkers if the house band breaks into a reggae number. “I’m not really a singer, but it was part of what I was doing in Spain,” he says. “I like to sing Bob Marley songs - I’ll only sing reggae - but I do enjoy joining in with the boys who play here at the weekend, it’s just a bit of fun.” Those trademark dreadlocks are testament to Junior’s love for reggae. He has been growing them for nine years now and the haircut has even earned him the nickname ‘Bob’, after his musical hero.

In his time at Traders Junior has seen and heard a few things, but like any bar manager worth his salt, he knows not to say too much. But there are a few highlights that he likes to recount – such as the time a local lawyer managed to get a shot glass full of Sambuca stuck to his face.

Then there was the birthday party last year when the bar was decorated with condoms and the swarthy birthday boy was given a rousing clap - but no cheers - when he arrived to celebrate.

Sometimes it seems that the customers are so overcome by the tropical climate and beauty of the island that they have trouble keeping their clothes on, and Junior says he has seen tourists and locals alike drinking shots off people’s belly buttons and using varying parts of their, or someone else’s, anatomy to help them down their drinks.

More bizarre still was the time a well refreshed young lady staying on a yacht moored off Avarua harbour decided it was time to head home and stripped down to nothing but her g-string and began swimming out to sea. This was too much for the locals to resist and they began firing at her with a potato gun as she headed for the boat… just to keep the sharks away!

But getting back to his job behind the bar, who better than the bar manager himself to recommend a cocktail for a thirsty punter here at Trader Jacks. And although Junior himself drinks Maitais, he suggests visitors try Traders’ speciality, the Island Magic – a blend of kahlua, vodka, Bailey’s, banana liqueur and cream, with whipped cream on top.