cost of living in cook islands

Anyone knows how is cost of living in CI ?
Is it much more expensive than NZ ?
Should I buy some food stuff before get on the plane from AKL to RAR ?

Thanx in advance

If there is some packaged food you simply cannot live without (Milano Pepperidge Farm cookies, for example) or similar stuff, bring some. But otherwise you can get most food offered in NZ also offered in the Cooks. Could be from 10-25% more expensive for most items. But locally-caught fish and local veggies will be very cheap, so I wouldn't too worry too much. If you can afford the airfare, the extra cost of food really is not that comparatively high for a visitor. Cook meals where you are staying, that will be the main way of saving $$$ on food.

As to the "cost of living"---welll, it mainly depends on your cost of accommodation. Dorm beds are from NZ$15-25/night. Private rooms go up from there. Check out Aquarius, Vara's, Raro Backpackers, Paradise Inn, etc. for the lower-priced places.

Use the mian web site www.ck for the best and latest info.

Post 1 from Raro applies if you're staying in Rarotonga.

If you're headed out to any other island, aside from Aitutaki straight away, you might think about bringing some with you.

We come in from the US and usually head out to an outer island the same day we arrive. So we bring a chilly bin of stuff to cook and snack on for a week or two. Then when we have time to shop at our leisure, we do so on a stop in Raro. I also us the chilly bins to pack snorkle and fins, fishing gear and gifts. The chilly bins also make nice gifts for the local when we depart.

Good idea on bringing a chilly bin of stuff if you are heading directly to an outer island, there is very very very very (etc.!) little choice of food in the shops on the outer islands, even on Aitutaki.

And it's a nice touch to leave that chilly bin when you leave! Good job!

sorry to be dumb, but what is a chilly bin?

Can be metal or heavy fibreglas, but most used for travel are basically a styrofoam box with a lid, like one you might take on a picnic. It keeps food cold for a while.

You can buy a cheap one for maybe US$10. But if you do bring one, be sure to tape it up all around so it doesn't open or leak at all when it gets dumped off the plane and onto baggage carts, etc.

One time when I arrived at LAX a whole arrival/customs gate at LAX almost had to be closed off when a flight from Samoa to LAX, via Hawaii, which had been delayed about 6 hours in HNL, came in. A cheap styrofoam chilly bin, filled with previously frozen but now basically room-temperature fish (from the long flight delay in Hawaii) ripped open when it tumbled onto the luggage turntable, and the fish--and their associated oils, etc., spilled all over the baggage turntable and other bags. Ugh!!!

Also called a cooler or an esky depending on which part of the english speaking world you are from!

The chilly bins/coolers that I use are tough insulated plastic. Igloo and Coleman are pretty good products in the US. I'd never reccommend using the light Styrofoam type. They're very soft and easy to break, crush or puncture. If you really want to go cheap a waxed cardboard fishbox, used for the commercial shipment of fish is a reasonable alternative. If you use them be sure and take some fiberglass strapping tape and secure the lids before checking them in.

I just purchased two 45-liter Coleman coolers for $22 US apiece. You can get a lot of stuff in one of them and they're under the 62-inch checked baggage size restriction on the ANZ flights. In the Cooks the same quality cooler costs at least $75NZD. The people in the outer islands use them to ship goat meat and fish to family and friends in Raro. They make nice gifts for the friends we make on our outer island visits.

One more suggestion if you're going to ship frozen stuff in a chilly bin/cooler:

You can get "Keep Contents Frozen" and or "Freeze" labels applied to your cooler when you check your baggage. Just tell the person that checks them and they'll take care of it. I have a friend that takes Salmon with him every year to Raro from Alaska and has never had a problem.