... Or maybe number two - Aitutaki of the Cooks.
We are sitting in a small Brazilian made "Embraer Bandeirante" cruising in low altitude across tranquil Southern Pacific waters. It is only a 50 minute flight from Rarotonga, the main island of the Cooks, to the magnificent lagoon of Aitutaki. ... Read review
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A review by herbb on Cook Islands (South Pacific Islands) November 20th, 2001
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Advantages:
romantic hideaway
Disadvantages:
remote
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Looking out the window on this dreary Sunday makes me dream of some sunny beach somewhere in the Southern Seas. I have the most beautiful lagoon of the world in my mind, Bora Bora of the Society Islands, vulgo Tahiti. Or maybe number two - Aitutaki of the Cooks.
We are sitting in a small Brazilian made "Embraer Bandeirante" cruising in low altitude across tranquil Southern Pacific waters. It is only a 50 minute flight from Rarotonga, the main island of the Cooks, to the magnificent lagoon of Aitutaki. As we approach the 3 km long landing strip, that used to be an U.S. airforce base in WW II, we can make out the white breakers on the reef and the iridescent shades of turquoise right below…
There is even a nine hole golf course with fairways and greens quite differently "groomed" than the likes of Pebble Beach or Augusta, if not to say consisting mainly of a certain semi-rough. Well, we didn´t come here to play golf so on we went into our "Lagoon Resort", the only one on this small island which otherwise offers just a few beds in a couple of **hotels.
The bungalow for 3 nights was spacious and had a large terrace facing the lagoon. The first night made us gape with awe when looking at the starry sky of the down under hemisphere with the "Southern Cross" clearly to make out.
In the morning we were off for the most famous spot in Aitutaki lagoon: One-Foot-Island. These little specks of sand with palmtrees are called "motus" and this one has the shape of a footprint when viewed from the air. The crew handed us mask, snorkel and fins and then we dived down into a colourful world of tropic fish, which had been lured by skipper Leo with some chunks of food from the lunch he was preparing.
One Japanese woman he handed a carcass of a tuna and right after she had stepped off the vessel swarms of hundreds of fish circled her and tried to get hold of some tuna-bits. She was really stunned and started yelling in despair while dropping the carcass. Everybody thought she had been nibbled by some predator but soon our group had a good laugh and Leo excused himself for having not told her what to expect twinkling boldly with his right brow…
Snorkeling around for more than an hour had gotten us hungry and we wolfed down the delicious grilled tuna with herbs, vegetables and rice accompagnied by a well chilled New Zealand Steinlager. Siesta time we spent in the shade of some coconut tree, carefully avoiding the ones that were loaded with fruit. My wife and I could have enjoyed that laid back atmosphere for days, but one hour before sunset we boarded the catamaran and on the way to our resort Leo and his crew made local music with real primitive instruments and sung their lovely tunes.
At night we had an after dinner show with the "special island night" performed by some thirty young dancers, drummers and singers with the enthusiasm of a Caribbean steelband while their parents were looking on and cheering any single performance.
Our last day we rented a small Suzuki 4 wheel drive and drove for 2 hours on every meter of the few roads there exist. We watched kids in school, were welcomed in backyards, had a chat with local fishermen and drove right to the top of the hill having a magnificent 360° view of this island in paradise – Aitutaki.
Getting to the Cooks is easy by Air New Zealand either from Auckland or Los Angeles via Tahiti. You may book the flight to Aitutaki right at the Raro AP (and look out for cheaper fares during the day), there are several daily, except on Sunday which is THE real quiet day in all the Cook Islands, there are also packages together with hotel accommodation.
I had a special Round-the-World ticket from Star Alliance, that was around € 1800 and from the many miles flown we had our next trip to Spain earned already.
Infos on accommodation and flight schedules can be found in the web, just fill in "Cook Islands" in your Google search engine and you´ll find yourself in an instant in the ever romantic South Pacific.
Advantages: Absolutely stunning scenery, friendly people Disadvantages: Long time travelling
...for our honeymoon in the Cook Islands. Altogether, the trip lasted twelve days - we spent four nights on the main island of Rarotonga, then two nights on Aitutaki, one of the outer islands, before returning to Raro for two nights and finally spending two nights in Auckland on the way home. We had booked all this through a travel agent which took a lot of the hassle out of it, and she also managed to get us some great deals since we were on honeymoon!
... ...For the people of the Cook Islands, tourism is their main source of income. For this reason, the place is extremely tourist-friendly and we found it very easy to organise things to do. One of the things we had wanted to do from the start was to scuba dive off Rarotonga. There are a couple of dive companies on the island, but we went with Cook Island Divers. They were extremely friendly, professional and took us to the caves area just near the harbour ...
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09.08.2004
Heaven on Earth Review ofCook Islands (South Pacific Islands)by
DJCJ
Advantages: Beautiful weather, beaches, food, people, culture etc Disadvantages: You can only stay for 6 months a year unless you're a resident
Rarotonga in the Cook Islands is simply heaven on earth. Whether you are a backpacker a honeymoon couple or a family all are catered for on this fantastic island. The people are simply the most friendly I have ever met and after travelling the world I have met quite a few. I stayed in Tiare Village, Rarotonga which offers budget dorm style accomodation through to deluxe pool side apartments at excellent prices. The owner and manager go out of their ... ...not stay longer in the Cook Islands.
No trip to the Cook Islands , unless you want an excuse to return, is complete without a trip to Aikitaki, a smaller island an hour by plane from Rarotonga with even more spectacular beaches, views and peacefullness with all accomodation needs again catered for. At the moment the only way to get to Rarotonga is with Air New Zealand from either Auckland, New Zealand; Fiji; or Los Angeles which means that those ...
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Advantages: The most relaxing place with a unique quality Disadvantages: Hard to think of any although some beaches are not clean as others.
We stayed at Raratonga as part of a stop over on our round the world trip we were suppose to be staying in Hawai but it got changed at the last minute and thank god it did!!! Raratonga really is a wonderfully unique place which I will never forget. The momnet we arrived at Raratonga airport I knew I was going to love it. We arrived at 3am and we were picked up by a courtsy taxi provided by our hotel (The Raratonga Sunset) the lady was just lovely ... ...and was warm and friendly. I could not wait unitl daylight when I could explore the Island. The moment it was light enough I was straight out of the hotel to view the wonderful beach which was literally outside our room it really was beautiful and I knew I was going to really enjoy my short time on the Island.
We decided to hire mopeds for a couple of days and it was a great way to get around the Island and very cheap. We manged to explore as much ...
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15.05.2004
the cooks reveiw Review ofCook Islands (South Pacific Islands)by
tankatron
Advantages: great info, well written, trusted reveiwer Disadvantages: none
...honest ive been to the cook islands last october and this review is so much better than a lot of the guide books, definatley informative, i would put it on par with lonely planet, simply because, lonely planet sometimes gives you too much information, which in some cases is a hindrence, but they are the leaders in such areas. rough guides are also good but this one give you the info needed to have a well informed choice, with great links to the correct ...
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