Exploring Aitutaki

Getting around Aitutaki is easy just hire a motor bike, the island is small and very relaxed with not much on it to do, the lagoon however is the spectacular highlight here.

Getting around like the locals watch out for 'Aitutaki burn' - well known muffler burn injury for tourists.

Typical Aitutaki home with burial plot adjacent.

Getting around in safety gear! the things you wouldn't do at home with kids.

Aitutaki was the 1st island to accept Christianity in 1821.  The Cook Islands Christian Church in Arutanga is the oldest church in the Cook Islands you can attend a service for the experience of the gospel singing and the 'fire and brimstone', we waited out side to witness the women wearing white and ornate hats leaving the service.  It was a lovely spectacle to see families take off on motor bikes wearing their Sunday best. 

Sunday service 

The florescent lips of baby clams growing at the marine research centre
 (which is in the back yard of a local house pretty low key)

Hollander snorkelling 

Oren snorkelling too!

Giant Trevally tamed by the dive guide

The Giant Clam approx 1 meter across

The worlds most beautiful lagoon Aitutaki Island

We flew 45mins to Aitutaki from Rarotonga and descended over the worlds most famous spectacular lagoon.  It is almost an atoll  the main island is adjacent to the large turquoise  lagoon with a ribbon of little motus scattered around it.  It has the most amazing snorkelling that I have done - lots of tropical fish and giant clams.

Aitutaki is a basic island with small villages and has a population of approx 2000 people, the descendants of Polynesians that first settled in AD900.  The first European contact was with Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty in 1789 - no wonder they decided on mutiny not long after. 

Aitutaki's reputation grew in the 1950's as its  lagoon was used as  a stop over for TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Ltd) fly boats on the famous coral route.  The old glamourous 50's posters of the fly boat travellers in smart fashion were hanging in the resort we stayed at, the fuel stop over enabled travellers to refresh themselves in the lagoon before moving on to Tahiti.

We hired motor bikes  to explore the island enabling us to do our own thing and have meals out at other resorts around the island (loved the 'Pacific Resort Aitutaki').  Recommend a snorkelling tour of the lagoon the guides know the spots to go to see the clams and provide a BBQ lunch on 'One Foot Island' -  Tapuaetai which has a passport office of sorts so you can get yours stamped for fun.  Also checkout the clam farm a marine research centre project to help build the numbers of clams in the lagoon.  

Flying over the gorgeous lagoon - thats 'One Foot Island' 

Arrival drinks

Catching the barge to our resort 

Our hut on Aitutaki Lagoon Resort.

The view from our hut

The kids hamocking around!

Making sarongs with photo sensitive ink- the lino cut outs create images in the sun.

The challenge of the 'Needle'

The 'Needle' is a unique feature in the centre of the island (Raro) and can be passed in the cross island walk.  We decided to set out with our guide book to do just that not realising how challenging the walk (climb) would be. The walk is through jungle and vine covered steep rocky tracks that sometimes weren't visible apart from the orienteering markers on  trees here or there. It was hot and sticky and with our fitness questionable after Alex's mild heart attack earlier in the year the expedition was probably reckless in hind sight.

The relief and great sense of achievement is evident in our sweaty red faced post climb faces.  The kids of course loved it!

The chain of Pacific islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved so the islands have volcanic origins rising up from the sea bed.  Explosive volcanism on Rarotonga millennia ago threw out phonolite breccia, the most famous pinnacle formed this way is the 'Needle'.  If you are interested in Geocaching there is one here too.

The Needle - Te Rua Manga

The deceptive easy start of the cross island walk

The ascent was really difficult! this is how steep it was.

Amazing views

Sweat drenched but alive!

Relief - we did it!

Jungle babies

Exploring Raro's back roads and bogs

Our beaten up convertible took us past deserted beaches, fields of taro (the local root crop), lots of goats, chickens and pigs, stinky nori fruit and colourful local homes with well tended ancestral burial plots in the front yards.  With the jagged central peaks beckoning we decided to get off road in the car and ended up bogged which was fun anyway (things you do in other peoples cars!).

Using coconut fronds to get a grip.

Taro crops

The Nori fruit that smells like blue cheese and is used for supplimentry cancer treatment.

The giant taro.

Rarotonga's majestic peaks fringed by beaches

Landing on the main island of Rarotonga you can't help being mesmerised by the beautiful lush landscape that dominates the centre of the island.  The island can be circumnavigated in 45 mins and has a local bus that does that regularly stopping at all the little settlements along the way on the coastal fringe.  There's not much in 'Raro' but it doesn't take long to appreciate the sleepy nature of the place and to enjoy the freedom of getting around easily.  We hired a dodgy rusted out convertible for our time there which the kids enjoyed and it enabled us to explore some of the back roads easily.  

Raro runway

Stayed at The Pacific Resort Rarotonga

The Weather Rock - if its spinning its a tornado

Great little motus in the Raro lagoon provided wonderful snorkelling sites

Hermit crab racing

The finishing line!

On the back of the rusted out convertible! exploring. 

The CICC built out of coral limestone

The Cook Island Maori keep their dead near their ancestral homes and ornately decorate the graves.

The backdrop to Raro's main shopping district

A typical colourful Cook Islands home.

A warrior welcoming us to the Highland Paradise feast and cultural show.

With Spencer a friend from the resort