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Published: August 6th 2007
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09/03/07 - 15/03/07 Cook Islands Paradise on earth!!
In the Cook Islands, the greeting equivalent to ‘Hello’ is ‘Kia oriana’ which translates as ‘May you have long life’ which has a more longevity than the greeting in most languages where we generally wish each other a mere ‘Good day’ only.
We arrived late at night, spending our second Friday 9th March night in the Aquarius hotel just across from the Airport. Similarly to Fiji, we were met at the airport by the sound of a guitar, ukulele and singing which some feel is that beautiful island sound and others feel resembles the sound of a cat being strangled. I refuse to pass comment!
Saturday it rained. And I mean Rained - it absolutely throw it down all day. We attempted to spend the day looking round the town and rest of the island of Rarotonga but had to camp up in an Internet café with hot chocolates for most of the afternoon. The buses are simply marked as clockwise or anti-clockwise based on their direction round the island. We stayed on clockwise buses so we could ride all the way around the island and end up back at
the airport for our Air Rarotonga flight to Aitutaki.
Aitutaki is listed in those lists of 100 or 1000 (depends how much time you have) places to see before you die and we agreed that it certainly should be on the top 100 list. When you imagine the desert island scene of swaying coconut palms, white sand beaches and cays and turquoise water - Aitutaki is the place. Pilots describe it as the most beautiful place to fly over; it is often considered the most beautiful lagoon in the world and the location scouts for both American Survivor and the UK Shipwrecked show chose it as locations to film both their shows.
The Aitutaki Lagoon and Spa resort isn’t particularly cheap for travelers on a budget! But when you consider location, location, location than it’s definitely the place to stay. The resort sits on it’s own private island with just a small 30 meter ‘channel of the moon’ separating it from the main island. A small wooden ferry runs from 5 am to midnight. You are warned that if you have a late night out at one of the bars returning at 2 or 3 am than you
must be prepared to swim (or ‘borrow’ the ferryman’s personal kayak - we heard many such stories from the staff)
The resort has the only over water bungalows in the Cook Islands and looks out over the turquoise lagoon. Shallow water and tiny waves - a perfect environment to learn water sports. We both tried our hand at windsurfing and after a very tired and frustrating hour with a few bruises to show for it, gave up and retired to the hammocks!
The lagoon cruise is a must whilst on Aitutaki. We sailed around some of the smaller islands, landing on one of the islands where Survivor was filmed, walking around the entire island in only 15 minutes. We stopped in a unique location for snorkeling, where despite being in the middle of the ocean, within the lagoon, you could step of the boat into only waist deep water and then snorkel around the corals. We spotted Giant clams, Moorish idols, triggerfish and hosts of other tropical fishes and the highlight was a huge sting ray that drifted past.
One-foot island was the highlight of the tour. 3 hours of wandering around the island, snorkeling and just
walking out in the shallow water of the lagoon over the sand bar. The Cook Islands Tourist Board use a shot of One-foot island with the slogan ‘Visit heaven whilst still on earth’. We could see why!!! The name One Foot Island should actually translate in English ‘One Footprints’ Island.
The story goes that a father and son were fishing of the island in a reserve where it was illegal to fish. A tribal leader spotted the fishing boat and warriors were sent to kill them - harsh penalties were in place! The father knew their fate, but also realized that they had only spotted the boat from the distance and not the amount of people so he made his boy run up the sand to the coconut trees and then followed him, carefully stepping on each of his footprints. After hiding his boy in a tree, he crossed to the far side of the island and waited for the warriors to dish out his fate. Although killed, his plan worked to save his son. The warriors had only spotted the one set of footprints and left the son undetected. The son grew up, trained as a warrior and
Wanna be star
I promised this crab that I'd make him famous then avenged his father’s death by killing those warriors that had killed his father. The island kept its name on account of the incidents that took place there.
Island Nights are a popular event with family dance groups showing traditional island dancing. We saw a lot of men and woman in grass skirts and a lot of ‘booty shaking’. Members of the audience are always invited to dance with the island dancers with hilarious results!
We made one visit into the small town on the main island to have a look around but mostly we just relaxed on the hammocks and loungers. Shoes were completely optional at breakfast and even dinner; we spent most of our time barefooted and ready for the occasional dip in the refreshing azure water. Aitutaki is a place where you soon finish your book and have to find another one.
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