Rarotonga!

by Marc on April 16, 2009

We love beaches and the ocean – that’s why we’ve peppered this trip with some of the best beaches in the world. One of the stops I’ve most been looking forward to was our week in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

RarotongaAirView

Our first glimpse of the island from our Air Tahiti flight took my breath away – this island is absolutely gorgeous, almost completely surrounded by an offshore coral reef, making the entire coast a beautiful, protected beach.

RaroShoreline2

We booked our stay in one of the beachfront studio units at Rarotonga Backpackers – the left half of the building on the right:

RaroBFStudiosWS2PS

I highly recommend this place – the owners, Paul and Rebecca are extremely helpful and the views just can’t be beat, especially at sunset:

RaroSunset3

RaroBalconyDusk2PS

The only downside was that during the first few days of our stay it was unbearably hot, without a breath of wind, and there’s no air conditioning, except in our rental car. It only takes 30 minutes to drive all the way around the island, and sometimes we’d just go driving to beat the heat!

We weren’t blown away by the food at the expensive restaurants, but at least they weren’t Tahiti-expensive. Since our studio had a full kitchen, we were able to cook a few meals and keep our fridge stocked with cold drinks.

I’m told there are some great hikes you can do up in the mountains, but it was just too hot for us to contemplate jungle trekking. The diving is supposed to be spectacular here, and I believe it – just walking along the beach you can see an amazing variety of fish.

RaroHannahFish

RaroShoreFishWS2

RaroTriggerfishCU

The kids liked to explore the shoreline at low tide, often finding impossibly tiny hermit crabs.

RaroShoreGirlsHunt

RaroTinyHermit1

They weren’t alone – I think this cat was hoping for a snack:

RaroCatFish

We visited Muri Beach a few times, where we did some swimming and kayaking in the shallow protected lagoon – like gliding through an aquarium, so many colorful fish darting about:

KTBlueFishPS

KTSpotFish

KTAngelfish

I took the above photos at an aquarium in Auckland, but they are the same fish we saw in the lagoon, along with some really cool blue starfish.

bluestarfish

The whole time we were here, I couldn’t get over how uncrowded all the beaches were, it was such a contrast to all the Caribbean beaches we visited last fall.

RaroShoreline

I guess when the entire coast of the island is a perfect beach, there’s plenty of room to spread out.

MuriLagoonGirlsPS

We’re definitely gonna have to come back to the South Pacific!

{ 10 comments }

April 16, 2009 Wendy

Wow, that second sunset photo is gorgeous!!

April 17, 2009 Nomadic Matt

looks beautiful but seems like it was cloudy while u were there?

April 17, 2009 Marc

@Nomadic Matt – yes it was cloudy a lot, but still very hot. Probably what Thailand will be like next month! We only had rain 2 days, though, and anyway, it made for really great sunsets!

April 17, 2009 Richard

Marc, might check the news before you go to Thailand. Lots of unrest there right now.

April 17, 2009 Mary Beth Haley

I’ll go pack my bags!

April 17, 2009 Mom

I am oh so jealous.

April 18, 2009 DAD

I wonder if I sold everything and moved there if your mother & I could live off the local available food & live in one of them ilttle houses like you show in the blog ??? !!!! that would be like paradise on earth for us retired south florida Folks. OF COURSE I’ M JUST WONDERIIIIIING, !

May 11, 2009 G

On the list as well. Holy cow those are some even more amazing sunset shots. Geez!

July 20, 2010 skip Gebhard

leaving for cook islands Aug. 8 for 2 weeks..staying at sunset bungalows..

September 26, 2010 cat

leaving to the cook islands October 24 can’t wait!!!!!

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