Blogs from Aitutaki, Cook Islands, Oceania - page 4

KIA ORANA - Guten Tag oder Sinngemaess: lange sollst du Leben Visit heaven while you are still on earth......... und so geschah es. Am 11. Januar 2008 um 1 Uhr nachts laden wir auf den Cook Islands oder besser gesagt auf Rarotonga, die groesste Insel der Cook Gruppe. Empfangen werden wir mit Musik und einer Gardenien-Girlande. Von Christchurch (New Zealand) aus ist die Zeitdifferenz -25h, was soviel heisst, dass wir einen ganzen Tag gewonnen haben, yeah.....faengt gut an! Unser Driver erklaehrt uns die wichtigsten Sachen von dem Paradies auf Erden, 1. Regel: You are never too late on Cook Isands! Was soviel heisst wie: vergiss die Zeit und Lebe. Da Sie ja "Kia Orana" als Guten Tag sagen, soll man ja schliesslich auf genuegend Zeit haben, denn lange soll man ja schliesslich leben! 2. Regel: Am ... read more

Once back from Akaiami we spent a few days on Aitutaki exploring the island by the help of a rented scooter. Before you can drive in Cook Islands you need to get a special Cook Island driving licience. The police figure that if you can drive from the rental garage to the police station and get there in one piece then you are a safe driver. Managed to get to the police station safely however finding a policeman to get the licience was slightly more difficult. We asked someone in the local market when the police were coming back and were told there were no policemen today and to come back tomorrow. So off we went driving around with no licience, life is very laid back in Aitutaki! Whilst on our scooter travels we came across ... read more

Our short Air Rarotonga flight touched down in the tropical island of Aitutaki following a stunning decent that gave us a jaw-dropping panorama of the collection of islands and atolls held within the large, turquiose lagoon. Since Aitutaki is an island held within a lagoon (just like Rarotonga) the water off the beeches are shallow, clear and still and if you stand at the shore, it won't be long before a shoal of small fish patrol past. The main island of Aitutaki is really small and it's a wonder how they managed to fit in a runway. The island has a proportionate population of some 2,000 welcoming and friendly souls. We wanted to use our Cook Islands driver's licences again so we picked ourselves up another couple of mopeds. This let us explore the island's deserted ... read more

On Olly's birthday we flew to Aitutaki. It took 40 mins on the little plane. The view flying in was fantastic - we could see the whole of the bright blue lagoon. We stayed in a little hut right on the beach, it was lovely. We thought we's seen paradise but we hadn't until Aitutaki!! It's a huge aqua lagoon surrounded by reef. It's considerred to be one of the best lagoons in the world. It couldn't really be any better! The sand is so white and fine. The following day we had a walk to the 'town' which was teeny weeny, and also climbed to the highest point on the island to get a nice view of the lagoon. It was a bit overgrown up there though and also rained so we didn't see ... read more

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 ... read more