Blogs from Cook Islands, Oceania - page 43

Hi guys not sure if my new Zealand entry worked so hope I have better luck with this one. I have been in the cook islands for 6 days with only 3 to go. It has gone so fast.... The day I arrived was the day of the wedding and it was such perfect weather. Emma found me laying on the beach and I went and hung out with her while she was getting ready. I just tried to keep her pre wedding jitters under control while I drank lots of champange and relaxed in her private spa on the beach front- the things I do to help my friends ; ) The actual wedding ceremony was amazingly romantic and the perfect way to show your love for someone with the sunsetting behind them on an ... read more

We arrived at about 5:30am after a long flight from LA with a stop for 1.5 hours in Tahiti which we didn't know about until we got on the flight. After a very short wait for our bags (it helps when only one flight comes in at a time!), our chariot awaited and took us directly to the Aroko Bungalows. It was pretty basic but just what we needed - afterall it had a big bed, a shower, a fridge for the beers and a deck to sit out on with views over the lagoon. What more could you ask for? Well, some air conditioning perhaps but actually our ceiling fan did a pretty good job considering it stayed around 28 degrees even at night. We did very little to be honest despite all the things ... read more

The beautiful islands of Raratonga & Aitutaki in the Cook Islands are picture perfect!... read more

Last day today. Since we last wrote, we’ve had a couple more dives and done some more walking. The first dive was at some caves, not overly exciting but we did see a huge octopus swimming around before backing into a hole to hide from us. The last one was back at the Mataora for another night dive. This one was badly organised though with some very inexperienced divers kicking up silt, dropping torches, swimming into people…not that I am saying we are experienced or anything, but we are better than that! Between those dives we took the bus round to Muri beach/lagoon. We had a look at a couple of historic boat launch sites. The first one, marked by a stone circle, was where boats were supposedly launched for the great migration to NZ, the ... read more

We’ve done five dives now; one was called off because of rough seas. The first was a wreck called the Mataora, outside Avarua harbour. The wreck was broken up, and in places was little more than a pile of twisted metal. We didn’t see heaps of fish, but it was a good and interesting dive. The water was reasonably warm (24C) and visibility was good. We saw angel fish, damsel fish, some big lionfish, cod, crown of thorns, triggerfish, rainbow wrasse, threadfin butterfly fish, anemone fish, clownfish, checkerboard wrasse, blue spotted grouper and trumpet fish. The coral around the wreck was very plain, but appeared to be alive. We hung around town (Avarua), having lunch at Trader Jacks, waiting for the second dive, only to be told that it had been called off due to rough ... read more