Amazing cook islands

The cook islands are just an amazing place. Me and my girlfriend stayed there august 2007. everything is so beautiful and relaxed.in rarotonga the best is to rent a house per week if you are minimum 2 people.we stayed at a cottage just 50 mestres from muri lagoon and we didnt pay that much in aitutaki you can still do on a budget, i stayed at a place that rents huts, it was beautiful and not far from town. in both islands we rented a bycicle. most people though rent scooters that seem to be the most used mean of transportation on the islands. Aitutaki is just an amazing place and the best water and sand is found on my opinion at Honeymoon island, a sandbar near Maina Island. It stayed in my mind, is probably the most beautiful place on earth i have ever seen. Very Good spots in Aitutaki are Ootu beach ,at "samade on the beach" bar and restaurant you can rent a kayak and head to akitua private island where theres a luxury resort(even if it is private the shore remember is always public) and then hop from motu to motu.the farther you go the more deserted islands you are likely to find. In rarotonga the best area is Muri beach. and i loved the vegetation in the interior of the island. When you come from any city in the world rarotonga seems like a peaceful sleepy quiet little town in the middle of nowhere, However if you come back to Aitutaki you will find rarotonga pretty noisy and fast...eheh...everything is relative. other interesting sites in raro is the airport!!chickens go around the domestic terminal and while boarding on a flight to aitutaki not only we didnt have to go through security. they said "just walk to the plane". we didnt have to show the boarding pass neither. i would like all the world to behave like they do in the cook islands!! we stayed a month in the cook islands. how i miss that place! if you have more questions to ask about restaurants and places to stay or to have opinions in a more detailed way just post new questions to me. one more thing: the only real danger in the cook island is to lay too close to a coconut tree. the coconut might be pretty heavy on your head....

Here's one more fun thing to do in Raro.

Find out when the ANZ and other big jet flights come in. Go down to the road next to the airport at the end of the runway on the west end. It's in a spot you can't park alongside the road but you can park a little way down the road and walk down to the spot next to the end of the runway. You'll see a small crowd gathering there on almost every flight.

I'm not sure how high the airplane is when it passes over the road, but it's low enough to give you a real rush! I'd say it's certainly less than 100 feet.

Yes, getting blasted by the jet engines at the end of the runway in Raro...

Oh... Great fun! I think I had read about this in the "Top Ten Most Retarded Things to do Whilst in the Cook islands" list.... between "Let's go climb the Needle" and "Look Mom, Stonefish aren't dangerous!"

Hey... what can I say about a comment like that, islandboi321?

Your signature line says it for me.

OP---
Yes, after being on Aitutaki, or any outer island for a few days, it always felt like I was returning "to the big city" when I got back to RAR!

What I realized after several trips is that one thing one may not immediately notice consciously, but which gives one that feeling, is the smooth, paved road on RAR. After bumping around on a motorbike on coral roads on Mauke, Mangaia, and most of Aitutaki, the sheer smoothness of the ride in the car made a real difference in feeling like one is back in a big town!

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

Think about what you said, h200h... You are recommending a potentially dangerous, not to mention idiotic activity?

Going to get a rush in the Cook islands by standing underneath landing planes?... Now that says alot about YOU.

How old are you anyways?

islandboi321 .... watching the jets land at Raro

I recommend it because I have done it. And about 40 other people with me also thought it was fun. I'm a pilot with over 3,000 landings logged. It is not unsafe to stand beside a public roadway while a landing airplane passes overhead.

You, on the other hand, have only read about the experience and surmised that somehow it is unsafe and dangerous. And... with this wealth of knowledge and experience behind you, have decided to make disparaging remarks about my post. That definitely says something about you.

To everyone else... I won't respond to islandboi321's reply. I'm not about to get into an extended exchange with some cynical sniper that has over 2,420 posts to this forum alone. I have a life!

This is not a personal attack, H200h, but come on now, I just cannot believe you are condoning such juvenile behaviour. And yes, of course it is dangerous... Does everyone on-site have hearing/eye protection? I don't even want to begin to think about the decibel level... What if weather or sudden cross winds caused the plane to do the unthinkable? If you were to do this in any other western country, there is a good possibility that you would be arrested.

If you are the experienced pilot you say you are, then you should know that public safety is paramount in aviation and in the interest of everyone, you should be setting an example for all.

Oddly enough, when I was there, it was well-known information that the police were, at that time, clearing the groups of thrill seekers who were gathering at landings and takeoffs... It was even in the discussed in the local paper. Is there some reason why the police would be involved with this? Or that government officials were strongly discouraging the practice? Are they not in the know either? Surely they wouldn't be asking folks to clear out if there was not some form of potential danger.

Perhaps you should contact the Rarotonga police and also the government of the Cook Islands and reassure them, from a professional standpoint of course, of just how harmless and entertaining this practice is. Heck, why not even suggest a stratagy for revenue generation if this is to become one of the attractions of these lovely South seas islands?

Cynical sniper? You bet. A spade is a spade.

Edited by: islandboi321

Actually guys, there ARE warnings, in English and Maori, telling people not to stand on the road at that curve when flights pass overhead.

It may be a bit dangerous to stand there when it's landing, especially those idiots who actually stand on the seawall. Some planes need to gun their engines if there is a cross-wind at the last moment.

But the real danger is if the winds have shifted, and the plane TAKES OFF in that direction, e.g. to the west, over that seawall. Then the engines are really revving, and jet blast is a definite danger.

So, some situations are more dangerous than others. Landings are a little dangerous, but take-offs are really dangerous.

Raro, about watching the large jets landing at Raro...

Has there ever been a documented case of anyone being injured while watching the airplanes land while standing beside the road by the airport?

When I did it, the police come by just before the plane landed. But they were checking for anyone trespassing onto the airport, they did not clear the people by the road outside of the airport boundary.

I'm sure there are many times more injuries to people in the Cook Islands doing things that are deemed safe by most standards. Like for instance, snorkeling or riding scooters. My guess is that the ratio is well into the thousands. I'd take those odds any day.

Yes, about ten years a guy was standing on the seawall watching a plane land. It was a windy day, so there was was cross-winds, etc., and the plane revved its engines just before touching down to get more control due to those winds. The guy---who also might have been drunk---fell off the seawall. Luckily he landed not too far down on some rocks maybe 5 ft down or so. He had a few minor injuries. But soon thereafter they put up those signs.

747's rarely land in the Cooks anymore. The pilot once told me that "We can land easily, the runway is long enough. Problem is, if we have a full load, we can't take off, it's too short for that."

Ironically, as tourism grew and flights became full in and out, they had to take cargo and baggage off some 747 flights when they left. This caused a lot of obvious problems. Plus, it wasn't full all the time, and Air NZ could fill it on newer routes to Japan etc, so they switched 767's 757's etc., .

I have been near the seawall when a 747 landed. Not right under the plane, maybe 50m off to the Nikao side. Pretty amazing. I'd suggest anyone interested not be directly under the plane itself, but off to the side a little. Still pretty neat, but not really dangerous.

Again, I wouldn't be under one or nearly under one if it took off. Definitely could cause a problem. But due to prevailing easterlies, maybe 90%(??) of take-offs head east over town, not over the seawall.

And yes, a lot more injuries from motorscooters, esp. on weekend nights when maybe 50% of drivers on the road are legally drunk. But I'm sure Islandboi would agree with you on this.

Excellent troll, H200h...

There hasn't been as entertaining a post since the days of Mark Workman...

8/10.