Cook Islands trip report

Hi all,
we have just returned from a 10 day honeymoon in the Cooks. Here's a few bits and pieces that people might find useful:

We stayed 3 nights at Sea Change (Raro south coast) highly recommended, total luxury
then 3 nights Etu Moana (Aitutaki) same as above
then 3 nights Magic Reef (Raro west coast) nice bungalows but staff not very helpful or knowledgeable. They had no idea about island n ights or anything...

On the flight to Aitutaki, there is nice lagoon views on the left hand side of the plane.

Aitutaki aadventures (the yellow boat) highly recommended for lagoon cruises, $85 (teking for example charges 99) incl snorkelling gear, lunch and towels. pick up 9.30, start 10am, finish 4pm

Cafe Tupuna is very good, mains between $31-35.

There is only one supermarket in Aitutaki thats open on Sundays, adn thats not in town but on the western side of the island (and very small)

To get your licence, bring your own pen. The raro police station dont supply any! Open from 8 am to 4/5/6pm on weeekdays, depending on the exact day, amd until 1pm on Saturdays.

A temp licence is $3 and good until midday the next day, to give you time to get to the police station, the real photo licence is $20.

Raro issued licences are valid in Aitutaki, but NOT the other way round!

We hired through Island car and bike hire, and would highly recommend them (scooters are $20 a day, helmets $2 extra but no one wears them) Insurance excess is $2000 but for $3 a day can be reduced to $1000

Vaima restaurant at the half way marker have great take away pizzas for $18, big enough to feed two. They do complimentary pick ups and drop offs which is really handy.

CITC supermarket just outside Avarua is bigger, better and a bit cheaper than Foodland in town.

Cafe Jireh opposite the airport is highly recommended for the Atiu coffe ($4), squares, cakes and NZ style cafe food ($6-8) for focaccias, pies, lasagne, quiches... all very yum.

Hope that helps. For detailled reviews check out tripadvisor (same nickname there)

A nice, easy to read (paragraphs) report.

@ Kornsptiz...

If you had it to do over again, what would you do different?

Good to hear how things went for your Cook Islands honeymoon. Both Etu Moana and Sea Change Villas receive rave reviews! Sound like both of these places lived up to your expectations!! Did you plant your coconut tree on one of the motu?

I've been driving around Rarotonga these last ten years using a driver's licence issued in Aitutaki. It says Cook Islands Drivers Licence, so I'm happy to argue this fact if I should ever need to.

CITC Supermarket and CITC Foodland are part of the same foodstuffs importer/wholesaler/retailer. Prices should be equalised across both of these two supermarkets. I didnt notice any price differential between the two stores when I lived on Rarotonga for all of 2011. I'm hoping that was an irregular occurence having some goods being priced lower at the larger store in Panama.

Looking forward to reading your reviews on TA. I'm sure all your tips will be of great help to other travellers. All the best.

It was cool, it rained 8 out of 11 days and it was extremely stormy. So stormy in fact, that we had to stop on the side of the road for a bit because we almost got blown off the road on our scooter - two up :)

#5 You'll find that Aitutaki and the other low-lying islands have less rain than Rarotonga. On a scooter I've had to pull over during a hard downpour because I just couldn't see.... even with wrap-around sunglasses. Aitutaki is pretty easy to navigate during a rain, the roads drain pretty well (mostly paved with some unpaved w/sand + broken shell and coral) and it's flat.

Atiu and Mangaia can get difficult on a scooter when it's raining because they have a lot of hilly unpaved red clay roads that get slippery when wet.

Mauke and Mitiaro are also pretty flat with sandy well-drained roads and not many hills.