A quick trip to the Cook Islands

We flew Air New Zealand from Christchurch to Auckland to Rarotonga to Aitutaki all in one day. We left Christchurch at 6:30 AM on August 6th and landed in Aitutaki on August 5th at around 5pm after having crossed the date line. This was perhaps the travel day I was most worried about. Each of our connections was fairly short and we had to include customs and immigration in both Auckland and Rarotonga. I was worried if we missed even one of our connections we would basically fall behind and miss out on experiencing the Cook Islands. Fortunately we made every flight with time to spare.  The plane from Auckland to Raro is a 777 and almost two big for the airport. There seemed like there was more than the usual swerving, screeching of tires, and braking upon landing. Then when all 300+ people got off it overwhelmed the Cook Island immigration lines. It was looking very unlikely that we would catch our flight out but I asked a nice Cook Islander lady who was working there if she could help us make sure we caught our flight. When she heard it was leaving in less than an hour she grabbed us out of line and escorted us through customs, immigration and over to the domestic terminal. The domestic terminal was surprisingly old school. A simple analog spring scale to weigh your luggage and absolutely no security. You could take anything on the plane. Margaret and Nick even bought coconuts and brought them on. So much for no liquids.

The plane was a 30 seat twin engine prop plane-the smallest of our trip. The flight to Aitutaki was only an hour or so. The Aitutaki airport is even smaller than Rarotonga. When we walked off the plane we were met by a polynesian auntie with leas to hang around our necks. She told us she was driving us to our hotel-the hotel had the passenger lists for all the flights and knew when we would arrive. The hotel was a collection of a few dozen bungalows on a great beach with no waves thanks to the coral barrier reef off shore.  That night we had what they called their family barbeque hosted by the owner of the hotel and using recipes from his family.

Aitutaki is pretty undeveloped. Most hotels are small and family run. There is very little to do other than, fish, snorkel, kite surf, or dive. It might have been more on the beaten path even back in the 1950's. Back then it was a stop on the Coral Sea seaplane route across the South Pacific. This was a multiday trip using flying boats that was apparently very glamorous. Passengers included John Wayne and Marlon Brando.

The next day we did a lagoon tour. The weather was cloudy, windy, and rainy so more like Seattle than the tropical south seas paradise you might be expecting but the lagoon tour was great. It was in a glass bottom boat and included stops and at a giant clam nursery, views of coral heads, and sightings of giant trevaly and napoleon wrasse-huge fish.  Then we stopped on an uninhabited motu(island) for a picnic lunch. There were just 6 other people on the tour and no other tour boats where we went or where we stopped.

Giant clams

Honeymoon Island

Giant Trevallies.

The day we were supposed to fly back to Rarotonga we didn't have to be at the airport until about 5pm so we had time for another tour. We got a picnic lunch from the hotel and asked a charter fisherman to drop us off at One Foot Island for a few hours. One Foot has a famous story behind the name .  Since the weather was pretty bad with strong winds and rain we were the only ones on the island. We spent some time wandering around the island and playing in the water. We even played frisbee when the wind and rain died down. There are several shelters on the island and even some you can rent for an overnight stay but they were all deserted this day.  Great day for us

One Foot is the little island in the center

When we got back to the hotel we were told that they had reserved the spa for us to take showers before heading back to the airport for our flight to Rarotonga. Pretty cool considering we had checked out hours ago. Don't know very many places that would do that. At the end of the day we flew back to Raro for the night. We had a quick dinner on the shore and then to bed. We needed earplugs since our hotel was apparently famous for its hula bar with live band everynight until 11:30 PM. At least they provide the ear plugs in the night stand.

A cold dinner on the shore in Rarotonga