Travels with Peter & Kerry

The Cook Islands are located in the South Pacific Ocean, between French Polynesia to the east and Tonga and Samoa to the west. They are almost due south of Hawaii and are about as far south of the Equator as the Hawaiian Islands are north of it.

There are 15 main islands that are spread over more than 2 million km² of the ocean. These islands are broken into the Northern Group and the Southern Group. The Northern Group are principally coral atolls while the Southern Group are principally volcanic islands. The largest of these is Rarotonga, which is the most populated island.

Rarotonga rises about 4,000 metres from the ocean floor before it breaks through the surface with eroded volcanic peaks rising up to 658 metres above sea level in the interior of the island.. It is 32 kilometres in circumference with a fringing coral reef that forms a shallow lagoon. This lagoon is widest in the south and gradually narrows to virtually nothing in the north.

The mountainous interior is covered in lush rainforest and is difficult to access. Some roads leads to interior valleys but the terrain means that there is no road crossing the island.

The highest point of Rarotonga is Te Manga, at 658 metres, but a more well known high point is Te Rua Manga, known as the Needle. This rises to 413 metres above sea level.

The main road on the island closely follows the coast and is known as the Ara Tapu. Three quarters of Rarotonga is also encircled by the ancient inner road, Ara Metua. This was built in the 11th century and was mainly paved with volcanic stone blocks. It is now a sealed road that passes through plantations.

One of the passages through the fringing reef is the Avana Passage, which forms Avana Harbour.

Maori legend has it that seven vaka (ocean-going canoes) left from here in 1350 on a voyage to settle New Zealand; a voyage known as the Great Migration. There is now a monument to these seven vessels at the north end of Muri.

The seven vaka were Takitumu, Te Arawa, Mataatua, Aotea, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru and Tainui.

Avana Harbour is the eastern entry to Muri Lagoon, which is one of the most picturesque parts of Rarotonga. Many high-end accommodation options are in this area. However, the added pressure on the environment may have caused algae blooms in the area and, at low tide in particular, a smell of sulphur dioxide pervades the lagoon.

As well as accommodation for tourists there are also restaurants and eateries. One that was recommended by Lonely Planet is The Mooring Fish Cafe. This serves fantastic fish sandwiches, salads and fruit smoothies out of an old shipping container at the edge of the lagoon.

Kerry and I had the F.O.B. sandwich – crumbed mahi mahi with lime mayonnaise – and a salt and pepper prawn and calamari salad.

Kerry and I hired a car from Polynesian Rental Cars & Bikes this time, as we did in 2012. Conveniently they have an office at the Edgewater – although we did make the booking prior to leaving Australia.

Previously we hired a VW Beetle convertible, but in 2016 we splurged on a Mini Cooper S Convertible! Just the thing for touring around Rarotonga with the top down, despite the speed limit being 50 km/h out of town and only 30 in Avarua and around Muri Beach.

The price was only NZ$72.40 per day, including insurance, which we thought was a bargain.

Many tourists hire scooters and motorcycles as these are common and quite cheap – as little as NZ$15 a day.

Although Rarotonga was formed through volcanic eruptions and has a rugged interior with several watercourses running down to the coast, the only real waterfall is on the Papua Stream that runs from Te Rua Manga to the south coast. This is also known as Wigmore’s Waterfall.

Papua Waterfall is at the end of Papua Road and this joins Ara Tapu just near the derelict Sheraton Resort. This resort was started in 1987 by an Italian contractor, financed by Italian banks. The resort was well advanced in 1990 when the funding was withdrawn after allegations of corruption, connections to the Mafia and failure to account for funds.

The Cook Islands Government had guaranteed the project so when it was abandoned the people became liable for the debt. Various proposals to finish it have been made over the years, including one from Hilton Hotels, but nothing has ever happened. The last people interested wanted the main road redirected so they could make the beach opposite private for guests. As no beaches in the Cook Islands are privately owned that was not a possibility.

Some of the valuable fittings have been looted and now part of the site is used for laser tag. It is quite a tourist attraction in the sorry state in which it has been left.

Travelling further east on Ara Tapu you come to the Saltwater Cafe. This is operated by a New Zealand couple and is somewhere we patronised in 2013 as well. They are open for breakfast and lunch and do very good pikelets with jam and cream for morning tea. The cafe is about half way around the island from Avarua.

A really great place for dinner on Rarotonga is Tamarind House. This is a restaurant located on Rarotonga’s north coast, a few minutes east of Avarua.

A delicious lunch option on the north coast of Rarotonga is the Flying Boat Fish & Chips. The meals are cooked in an old fishing boat that has been set into the grounds of the Rarotonga Game Fishing Club, slightly east of Tamarind House. Very basic decor, but lovely food.

The people who run the eatery have a dog and he fascinated us with his determination to pick up large rocks in his mouth!

When we stayed at the Edgewater in 2012 we went to the Tumunu Restaurant & Bar which is just to the south of the resort’s entrance along Ara Tapu. In 2016 we went here twice.

This restaurant serves a wonderful seafood platter for two, which only costs NZ$80.

Finally, another very worthwhile food experience is the Progressive Dinner. This is run on Monday and Thursday nights and involves visiting three local families in their homes; one each of whom provide entree, main and dessert. We went on the Thursday night and we started at the home of local chief (ariki) Dan Kelly. Dan and his grandson entertained us during the entree and then Dan came with us to the other two homes and brought his ukelele so he could play on the coach.

One of the activities available on Rarotonga is a four-wheel-drive tour with Raro Safari Tours. This trip takes half a day and goes to various places, including up into the mountains. The Lonely Planet guide says that the morning trip includes a barbecue lunch, but it appears this is no longer the case. Now customers are supplied with drinks and fruit at the end of the trip at the company’s offices in Rarotonga.

Despite this, it is a tour worth doing as it provides a lot of cultural and historical aspects of the Cook Islands. These include the oldest marae on Rarotonga, the legendary seven canoes and the value of the coconut.

Demonstrating how to husk a coconut.

As outlined in the post about the Edgewater http://www.peterjoiner.com/cook-islands/the-edgewater/ Kerry and Peter arrived on Rarotonga just as Tropical Cyclone Victor formed west of the Cook Islands. This generated high seas, strong winds and heavy rain.

Due to the large seas, vessels in the harbours of Avatiu and Avarua either went to sea or were taken out of the water. For the first few days and nights after our arrival there were about eight boats that cruised up and down off the west coast, riding out the storm.

One misjudged the waves one morning and ended up on the reef. Fortunately, it was hauled off after a day or so and eventually was taken back to Avatiu after the seas subsided.

Despite the high seas, Peter and Kerry were able to swim at their favourite snorkelling spot at Titikaveka on the south coast.

The waters around Rarotonga are very clear and have abundant tropical fish. We found this time that most of these fish were quite unafraid of humans and were happy to swim around us.