Cook Islands March 2007 - Image Heavy

We originally planned to take some friends with us, but events transpired (you know who you are) and we went by ourselves fortunately we were not charged for the vacant bungalow next to ours.

We flew into Papeete, as of April 1st Air New Zealand was cutting back the number of flights, but now direct to Rarotonga from LAX.....hour and a half layover....

I like this glass that was in all the South Seas Airports....

Tiki.....then our digs in Rarotonga...

Cool one bedroom bungalow on the beach. This place was perfect. Only 5 bungalows, a lounge (with some decor from Oceanic Arts...Bob had stayed there recently) where we had breakfast everyday, outstanding snorkling and kayaking out front.

The beaches never had more than a couple of people at any given time...

Nice beachcombing...I found that one about 8' down on some coral...

We were lucky with the weather as our fellow travelers said it had poured for the last 4 days. We had a few hours of overcast each day but the tradewinds blew it out.

I'm so lucky......and she likes tiki too......

Best restaurant (Paw Paw Patch) was right next door.....I had the broadbill fish with taro cooked both as a spinich and a wedge potato...

She had the spicy curry chicken.....

The vegatables everywhere were the best!!!!!Very fresh and tasty.

Some underwater stuff.....

This little 6" clam was shot from above on the kayak....

The guy in the middle was our guide on a cross island hike.....67 years old....

We took the bus over to the Rarotonga Beach Resort. Lots of Tikis here, but more geared to families with lots of activities. Too many people for our tastes and one of the larger resorts. Reviewed already by another TCer. I did like the art, food, and some cool beachcomber lamps......

Next stop.....Aitutaki.....

Dinnertime break.....I'll be back.

I'm Back....I liked that there was always musicians playing in the airports like old Hawaii. On Rarotonga we were welcomed with flower headresses, on Aitutaki, the traditional lei. That's our van driver playing the sparkletts drum...

This place had only 8 bungalows....

Again the weather was with us as they said it rained hard the 4 previous days...

A bottle of beer under her arm and a handfull of beachcombing.....

I was mesmerized by the giant clams.....this one was about 4' across...

Both islands were stunning, the people extremely friendly, all spoke english with a New Zealand accent, not overly developed.....a must see for a taste of the South Pacific....Aunty Lucky took care of us on Rarotonga and Lovey on Aitutaki, their given names, unfortunately their pictures were a bit blurred. This was the best meal ...our last night. I had the fish trio....Wahoo, Ahi, and Mahi Mahi, cooked to perfection...and for desert, homemade poundcake with passionfruit filling a la mode.....heaven. A scooter ride back in the dark with a black sky exploding with a trillion stars, we will return.....

I will be happy to answer any questions......Kia Orana!

[ Edited by: bongofury 2007-04-17 20:29 ]

Hurry Up and Eat!!!

Gee thanks for inviting your little brother. Hope you get indigestion and mom pulls on your ear about all the money you spent on yourself.

Nay seriously brethren. Thanks for taking the time to post. Makes me want to,...Tune in, Turn on, and drop out.

OK Spermy......I ate as fast as I could!

Little bro....mom said you can go next time (she always liked you best).

I think that we should get a group of TCers for a rendezvous here .....a Tiki Oasis!

On 2007-04-17 20:27, Jungle Trader wrote:
Makes me want to,...Tune in, Turn on, and drop out...

Amen, Bruthah! Truly mesmerizing photos, Ron. This one somehow puts it all in perspective.

Wow...awesome photography....looks like a great time was had...getting back to basics. That water is beautiful. :)

WOW - every photo couls be a post card. I particularly like the photos of the giant clams - awesome!

You are seriously making my ache to take a vacation turn into a groan. Very lovely. Wasn't the last Surviror tribe called Aitutaki?

I don't want to live there, but spending winters there would be all good.

Great underwater shots. What did you use? I got an aqua case for my digital I need to try out in the ocean.

Thanks everone. I would recommend renting motor scooters. Aitutaki has no public transportation and a cab ride is almost as much as a scooter rental. The bus on Rarotonga stopped by our spot about every 25 minutes (one bus runs clockwise around the island about 50 minutes, the other counter clockwise). It worked out pretty good except the last day where it became very unreliable. We missed getting into town to shop for carvings. Also there are some side roads we would have liked to check out. We are just thinking of this a an exploration for when we return. And you may want to skip what they call "Island Night" as it is their term for "tourist luau".

We went to the Edgewater Resort to check it out....average tasting buffet food and cheesy music. The drumming and dancing was cool. There are different shows almost every night at a different resort, so maybe others are better. One had a fire dance show that might be worth a peek.

Swanky....we used to bring 2-4 of the throw away under water cameras, but with the cost (and bulk) of several cameras, processing, and chance of damage through the screening process, we decided to get a digital underwater camera. We bought the Olympus Stylus 720 SW for a little over $300.00. It will go up to 10 feet deep (they have another that would go deeper I think it's the 710). The conditions have to be just right. Sunny days are best. Seems like whenever I wanted to get a shot a cloud would pass overhead and I would miss it. With a 2.0 gig card (extra) I think we took over 900 pictures and 45 minutse of underwater video. Come on over.....I can bore you for hours. It feels strange at first to dunk a metal camera in the ocean, but it was fine. Supposed to be in the water for no more than an hour (I had it in some times for 3) then dunked in fresh water for 10 minutes. The only thing I didn't like is that it usues a rechargeable battery, so I had to bring a charger along. The bungalows we stayed in both had voltage converters (and kayaks and snorkel gear), so we did not need to bring ours.

Exquisite photos.
Great report.

Thanks for the time involved in posting and photographing all of that stuff.

I'm certain you enjoy your own lounge more than ever now.

Thanks Bongo!
If I could only retire at a place like that.

Absolutely beautiful photos of an amazing place. Is that guy really 67 years old?

Definitely on our to go/live list. It's a knock your socks off WOW! Thanks for posting the pics. :)

I wish i could take underwater pics as well as you Bongofury, thanks for sharing!

TBird.

Awesome photos and descriptions, bongofury, thanks for sharing.

What is the cost of the flight and lodging compared to Hawaii? How long is the flight from LAX?

How do the Cook Islands compare to Kauai?

WOW! Those are AMAZING pictures - and thanks for the info on where you stayed - that is one of the bungalows locations on our short list as well for our trip in January, 2008. We were debating how much time to spend on Rarotonga (which is somewhat determined by flight frequency...), and you pictures helped us to decide to adjust our itinerary from 5 to 7 days & shorten up our time on Moorea, as Rarotonga looks MUCH better.

Mahalo for sharing your trip with us!!!

Thanks Unga and Pablus. Yes Coco Loco.....67! His name is "Pa". He had been doing the trek for 20 tears (has 10 kids and is on his 3rd wife...if not happy, get another......amen brother). Our trek was # 3,198. He was doing 2 more for a nice
round 3200, so you may have to do the trek with his partner. He said that there had been 27 heart attacks on the trek over the years with only one fatality. The person died of a virus after they returned to Europe.

The trail was pretty wet from night time storms (was cancelled a couple days before) and I slipped a couple times and had a couple of knots on both shins where they were stopped by logs at the proper height. Pa is "retiring" to work on a cruise ship out of Tahiti. What a way to go.

The people of these Islands take pride in their modest homes. Everyones lawn and shrubs were well trimmed. Looked like an army of gardners had just been through there.

Tiki Bird. It's not me.....just get one of those cameras.

Tiki San & croe67..... I love Kauai and the other Hawaiian Islands, but there is no comparison. The Cook Islands are much more beautiful in my opinion. Our plan was to return to Moorea where we honeymooned 15 years ago. Moorea is still more beautiful than Hawaii, but the Cooks seemed even less developed and the people freindlier. It's not cheap, but you have to put things in perspective. Most tropical resorts have the rooms by: Garden View, Mountain View, Partial Ocean View, Ocean View, Ocean Front, and in Tahiti Overwater Bungalows (I personally do not like how these impinge on water and the views of the natural beauty of the lagoon). The prices for each upgrade can really escalate.

On Rarotonga it was $20.00 a day more for the ones on the beach. On Aitutaki the resort did have Oceanfront and Absolute Oceanfront. They all had an ocean view. So comparing how much an oceanfront 1 bedroom in Hawaii or Tahiti it was very comparable. Both included breakfast, Kayaks, and snorkel gear and on Aitutaki bicycles.

The flight from LAX to Tahiti was about 8 1/2 hours, 1 1/2 hour layover, 1 3/4 hour flight to Rarotonga, 45 minutes to Aitutaki (survivor was filmed on one of their small islands on the outer reef. Plane was half full so it was easy to stretch out for the red eye flight.

Love the photos! We went to the Cooks for our 2003 honeymoon. I nearly had a heart attack on Pa's trek, never have been so sore in my life the next day.

Where did you stay? We stayed at the Little Poly (before it was redone) which was next to the Paw Paw Patch, did you stay there or on the other side?

We went to Aitu as well and loved it.

Great photos by the way.

So... that's what paradise looks like.

Beautiful pictures Ron, thanks for sharing!

Someday...

lucky bastard. it ruined my day.
Seriously, great pictures, thanks for posting.

Ron,
Where did you stay and for how long? I might just change my Big Island plans for this. The pics are amazing!

That's it, I think I'm going to have to cash out my 401K plan and fly over there and claim political assylum!

Some of you may remember this series of articles from 2003 about a Los Angeles family that moved to the Cook Islands.

http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/rarotonga-or-bust/2550/

The article is discussed here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=4881&forum=1&hilite=cook%20islands

Bongofury, thanks for sharing photo's of that beautiful tropical paradise.

Here's where I want to live. Look at that GREEN. Wow!

Mrs Hoptiki

An anthropologist who has been to all the islands and takes 2 trips a year for the last 40 years told me that the Cook Islands is the place to go. Beautiful like Tahiti on steroids. Friendly people who speak English. A more intact culture where they welcome visitors. Reasonable prices.

We went at the end of their summer (low season) so prices may be higher now. Your U.S. dollar goes pretty far as the New Zealand dollar was 25% lower. We really didn't do much shopping, jsut relaxing for the most part. I think if you want to own land you have to marry a local (Mrs. Fury offered to get a divorce so we coudl do that). I'm sure most of us would get island fever after awhile, but so tempting.

We spent 5 days on Rarotonga here : http://www.rarobeachbungalows.com
and 4 days here: http://www.etumoana.com

We booked it through the Costco Travel website (I wonder if it would be 25% less if you could book it through a New Zealand agent?). We tried to book it through our regular agent, but could not get the same savings or low cost tarvel insurance they offer. The site does not offer the beachfront as they are trying to show the cheapest accomodations, but just speak to one of their agents and they can do any upgrades. Try to do it in one call as you may get a different agent every time you call.

We liked the bungalow on Raro a little better as the other one was a little fancy, but nice.

Bongo, great pictures and thanks for sharing them. Iknow it takes a while to put together a presentation like this and I am VERY glad that you took the time to do it. Your pictures are AMAZING

Loved those giant clam pictures!!!! and that one with you and the fishing floats - classic! Looks like a beautiful place. you make me want to leave and go to paradise

THanks for the info on places to stay as well, that will come in handy. I had always thought Roratonga would be my first South Seas destination and now you are solidifying that!

Thanks for the tips on Costco travel - I think I'll try that. I am not a fan of travel agents & generally book all travel on my own, but I have been trying to figure out how to anything other than rack rates on the Raratonga bungalow options. Sounds likel Costco is a good option - thanks a ton for sharing!!

Nice Photos. They brought back the memories from our "pacific" world trip. Yeah, we liked the Cook Islands best. Also went to Rarotonga and Aitutaki.

Here we were at the workshop of Island Craft, where they carve copies of a Tangaroa statue that they got from the British Museum.

Amazing photos

My oh my... Just got the atlas out at will be pointing my browser at Air New Zealand in a few moments.

Thanks for sharing your pictures!

Liz & Chris

Bongo!

This could be a print.

Positively jealous - looks like a great trip! :D and AWESOME pics too :D :D

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The coolest tiki art is not bought on ebay, it comes personally from my fellow artists on TC

[ Edited by: hewey 2007-05-17 20:13 ]

Air New Zealand offers round-trip airfares to Rarotonga, Cook Islands for as low as $751, as listed at Travelzoo. (Travel dates are extremely limited.) It's the best sale we've seen on these routes from Air New Zealand. A two day advanced purchase is required and flights must be booked by April 21, 2010 for travel between April 4 to June 13. Taxes, fees, and checked luggage charges are additional. Deal ends April 21, 2010.

http://www.airnewzealand.com/special-deal-to-rarotonga-cook-islands

That is/was a great price! A friend recently flew Air New Zealand and said that they do not charge for checked bags unless
they are over 50lbs each or more than 2. Also no charge for wine and other cocktails (he was drinking Scotch} and they have video screens on the back of the seats like Jet Blue. I'll let you know as we are heading back to the Cook's soon.

Kia Orana

Man Ron, Beautiful pictures. Each one a postcard.
We were planning on Bora Bora and Moorea, but
we are going to Cook Islands instead. Thanks for the suggestions.
Still working on the timeframe.
When are you going back?

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Velvets by J. Sallin

[ Edited by: Iokona Ki'i 2010-05-08 12:16 ]