Our next target after Samoa is Cook Islands. Cook Islands is a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. Cook Islands counts 15 islands and Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand. They have the status of Cook Islands nationals, which is not given to other New Zealand.
Whatever ‘free-association’ means, but there are no other flight connections to Rarotonga, the main island of Cook Islands, than via New Zealand. Therefore, the most tourists we met in Cook Islands are Kiwis. Tourism is the country’s main industry, and the leading element of the economy, ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and marine and fruitexports.
Rarotonga – Where is our luggage?
As we were actually already in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we had to fly “back” to New Zealand due to flight connections. The flight distance increased from 2600km to 7300km. We thought about staying a few days in New Zealand but because it was winter time we were not really feeling it staying for a few days after island life and 30°C. Therefore, we decided to fly straight to Rarotonga via Auckland. We had a few hours layover in New Zealand and had to check-in our luggage by ourselves again in Auckland.
Arrived in Rarotonga, our 4th South Pacific island, we were waiting for our luggage. Mine arrived but Alisha’s didn’t. We had to create a missing luggage report and we were not the only ones. It looked like it is quite common. Of course, this was a big bummer for us as we planned to fly to the next island within Cook Islands. First time Virgin Airline and it was already a disappointment. Anyway, we tried to do our best, I mean for that you have luggage insurance and I mean so far we never had any problem with our luggage.
Arriving on a Friday afternoon is not the best time for a Catholicism driven island in the South Pacific. Of course, all shops were closed for the rest of the weekend. Alisha had to manage the next days with her clothes that she was wearing that day and some emergency ones that we luckily had always in each other’s bag exactly for that purpose.
Our struggle with weekend arrivals
We pre-planned our Cook Islands trip a few days/weeks before we arrived which we had to do for the South Pacific islands out of obvious reasons also mentioned in previous posts.
We booked two nights in Rarotonga to be able to prepare our stay in a new country/island before moving on. Of course, we didn’t calculate actual shop opening times into our plan which obviously didn’t work out this time. No luggage, no chance for a SIM card, no shops for cloths and beside of the dive shops and the hotel bar more or less everything was closed. In addition, we booked already our flights to Aitutaki, our first atoll experience.
A little bit of a rough start in the Cook Islands but we tried our best. The anticipation was bigger than our disappointment about Rarotonga. We had a funny night at our hotel bar and we were able to book a dive for the days when we return to Rarotonga after Aitutaki.
Two days later we were boarding an island plane of Air Rarotonga. Next stop Aitutaki, unfortunately still without Alisha’s luggage.
Aitutaki – Our first atoll
We booked a bungalow built on stilts (Paradise Cove Lodges) which was located directly at the beach. As we arrived at one of the smallest airports we have seen so far, we got picked up by the owner of our accommodation. Unfortunately, the weather was not that great at that time. Anyway, we had a quiet little bungalow with a little kitchen and seaview from our bed. We rent a scooter from the owner of our stay so that we are a bit flexible to explore the island.
The next day, we had time to explore. We were driving around the little island and there was even a little hill in the middle which was accessible by scooter. This is where we have seen the beauty of the atoll Aitutaki. A view like from a postcard. The sea had such a deep and clear blue, we were impressed. This was the first time we have seen something like this.
We tried to explore every edge of the island by our scooter. As it was still weekend, all the shops were closed and even the main restaurants were closed. We found a hotel restaurant which was open for the tourists on the island, which was not the cheapest but the only option we had. At least it was great food.
Aitutaki – One foot island tour & more
A must on such an island is of course a lagoon tour, the Vaka Cruise. One of the main attractions was the One Foot island where you were able to get a special passport stamp.
The island was quite small. Therefore, there were not that many tourists actually staying on the island or let’s say it was a ‘manageable’ number. We realized it later when we joined the tour that all these tourists are actually flying in from Rarotonga just for the day and for that lagoon tour.
We met a couple from Auckland and another one from Denmark. The couple from Denmark stayed on the island too. Actually that day we found out that they were staying at the same lodge than we did. We arranged to meet for dinner that day. But first it was time to enjoy the tour. We drove by all this little islands, were able to have a walk on a few of them, snorkeling with huge fishes and sharks, combined with the island vibe of the locals on the trip with great food and music – a pacific dream. One of the highlights of course was the One Foot island including a passport stamp which was the best souvenir.
We were lucky with the weather that day. There was a big storm the first night, the second day we had a sunny day and for the day of the tour we were lucky with a few hours of sun at the time of the tour. We couldn’t complain. 24h/7d sunny weather neither exists on the South Pacific islands.
The rest of our time on the island, we were exploring all the little bars, restaurants and even tried to race with a landing & starting plane on the road just next to the airstrip. Overall, 3-4 days was enough for that island and we were ready to go back to Rarotonga. We were overwhelmed of the beauty of the sea in Aitutaki and really enjoyed the days on the island.
Back to Rarotonga – Diving & road trip
Back in Rarotonga, we rented a little convertible Nissan, our new island cruiser. The next day we had our scheduled day. As we planned to stay another 3 days in Rarotonga before leaving for French Polynesia, this was the only day we were able to go diving because of the 24h holding time after diving until you are able to fly again.
The meetingtime at Dive Rarotonga was 9am. We were a group of 4 people and we were ready to go diving. It was a really nice dive. The visibility was great and the corals diversity too. Nevertheless, it was for us more like a “regular” dive as we dove so far with more sea life than here in Rarotonga.
The rest of the time, we used to drive around the island with our little fancy convertible car. We had so much time that we approximately drove three times around the island, once clockwise and twice in anti-clockwise direction. It was so much fun driving around the little island.
After another week on a South Pacific island, it was time to focus on our next target French Polynesia. We flew with Air Tahiti from Rarotonga to Papeete, Tahiti.
More about that in our next post.
Cheers,
Ueli
Gallery Cook Island
