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Cook Islands

Sandy and I like to take tropical trips. We've been to the Caribbean and to Hawaii many times. In fact, this year we already did trips to Maui and to Kauai. But my favorite tropical place to visit is the South Pacific. The islands are rugged, with sheer mountains covered in lush vegetation. The beaches are beautiful. And the islands are generally less developed and therefore less crowded. I especially love French Polynesia. We've been there half a dozen times, visiting various islands. We've also gone to more distant places in the South Pacific, but that can be a lot more expensive because we have to travel so far to get there. We only go when a good deal comes along. Back in 2022 we got a chance to visit Fiji, taking advantage of specials offered when it first reopened after Covid. And way back in January 2005 we took a trip to the Cook Islands.

Well, this year we got another chance. Costco Travel and Hawaiian Airlines were offering good deals on air/hotel packages for the Cook Islands. Since we had enjoyed our trip there many years ago, we figured that it was time to go back and see how much it had changed. Sadly we've been discouraged at how some of the tropical destinations that used to be among our favorites, are now so crowded that we have no desire to go back. (I'm looking at you, Grand Cayman.)

For our first leg across the ocean, we had an Oh-Dark-Thirty flight from SFO to Honolulu. That meant we had to leave Boise the day before and stay overnight in San Francisco near the airport. At least we didn't have to take an early flight out of Boise. We got to SFO in the early afternoon where we had to wait a long time to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport Hilton. But when we finally got to the hotel, they didn't have a reservation for us.

"Could it be at the other airport Hilton?" the desk clerk asked.

Wait! What? Two airport Hiltons?

Yes, it turns out there is one a little south of the airport (where we were) and also one a little north of the airport (where we had a reservation). Oops. That's a little embarrassing.

Now we would have to wait for the hotel shuttle again to take us back to the airport. Yeah, the one that wasn't running very often. Then we would have to wait there for a different shuttle to take us to the correct hotel. That seemed like it would be way too much time and way too much trouble. Instead we just summoned an Uber and paid a few extra bucks. Fifteen minutes later we were at the right hotel, checked in and in our room. It was an annoying start to our vacation, but we figured that if it was the worst thing that happened on the entire trip, Like would be pretty good.

The next day we had a very early flight, which made sense since we had a long way to go. We had to leave before the hotel shuttle started running so we took an Uber again. We got there so early that the airport was completely dead. That meant that we got through security quickly and were at the gate well before flight time. That was ok. We are definitely "better safe than sorry" people when it comes to catching flights. The only drawback was that the wait was a little dull since nothing was open yet. Then after sitting at the gate for two hours, the flight to Hawaii was five and a half hours.

Next was a layover in Honolulu that was five hours. A long time, but at least we didn't have to worry about missing our connection. And finally we had a six hour flight to Rarotonga, arriving at 10:30 pm. It had been a long day by the time we were settled in our hotel, but at least every thing had gone without a hitch.

Since the Cook Islands are three hours behind Boise time, we were up early the next day. The van driver who picked us up the night before had been nice enough to stop at a late-night gas station minimart on the way to the hotel where I picked up a Diet Coke. Even though we had arrived late the night before, I still had my morning caffeine first thing when I got up. Since it was Sunday I doubted any stores would be open early and I thought I would have to wait. Instead, things were going my way. It was a great vacation already.

A little background on the Cook Islands would probably be appropriate here. They are a self-governing state, but because they are so small they can't perform all of the functions of a completely independent country. They are in a free association with New Zealand. That means that there is free trade between the two, that New Zealand currency is accepted in the Cook Islands, and that all residents are also New Zealand citizens. New Zealand also provides for the defense of the islands. It's somewhere between the arrangement that the US has with Puerto Rico and the arrangement it has with Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands.

The capitol, Avarua, is on the island of Rarotonga. Eleven thousand people live on Rarotonga, which is over seventy per cent of the entire population of the Cook Islands. That's not many people, but from my standpoint it's a good thing. The island doesn't feel crowded at all. The Cook Islands' official tourism webpage brags that the island has no crowds, no branded resorts, no stop lights and no building taller than a coconut tree. I'm not sure that last claim is true, as I did see a three story building in town that looked like it might have been over the limit. It was the office of Asiaciti Trust, a company whose official website proclaims that it is "widely regarded as the premier jurisdiction for the establishment of asset preservation trusts and foundations". Sounds like a place that mafia bosses and Russian oligarchs stash their money to take advantage of lax finance laws in small island nations. Kind of sad that it is the biggest building in the Cook Islands.

While we were in the Cook Islands we stayed at the Sunset Resort. It's on the northwest side of the island, right on.......Sunset Beach. Looking out over the ocean to the northwest, it is indeed the perfect place to watch a sunset. It's a small, locally owned hotel with only thirty five units, which is pretty standard for resorts on Rarotonga. As the Cook Island tourism webpage says, there are no resorts on the island that are owned by big international chains.

We were lucky enough to be in one of the six units that are right next to the beach. Behind us was another building with fifteen garden view rooms. Behind those was a pool area with a bar, the resort lobby, and a restaurant. Beyond that was another pool area surrounded by the rest of the rooms. The resort was long and narrow so we were fortunate to have an oceanfront room. We had a nice patio with walls on two sides to seperate it from the adjacent room (we were on the end) and provide privacy. We didn't spend much time on the patio though because it seemed like that was the only place where we were bothered by mosquitoes. Beyond the patio was a small grassy area with some chairs and then the beach. We spent a lot of our their during the week.

The beach was definitely worth the long trip to Rarotonga. It extended at least half a mile in each direction from our hotel before it curved out of sight. Palm trees grew on the upper part of the beach so that any buildings near the water were almost completely hidden. There were no umbrellas or lounge chairs on the beach. Anyone there tended to stay back in the trees for the shade, which meant that they were out of sight. Often when you stood on the beach you could look both directions and not see anyone else. Other times you might spot someone a quarter of a mile away or more. You really had the feeling that you had the whole place to yourself. It seemed like it hadn't changed much since we had last visited twenty years ago.

We took at least one and sometimes two walks along the beach every day. Usually we went north for about a half mile to a feature known as Black Rock. As you would expect, it's a pitch black rock formation. It's about twenty feet high, rising out of the water next to the beach. At low tide you can walk to it and scramble up to the top. At high tide it requires a short knee-deep wade to reach it. Although there were several small resorts along that stretch of beach, either they were closed or they didn't have many guests because we never saw anyone around them.

We only went the other direction a few times. The Edgewater Resort was about half a mile to the south. Although it doesn't have tall buildings, it is the largest resort on the island by far and there were a lot of guests. We preferred to avoid the crowds so we stayed away. Just past the Edgewater there was a rocky point that we couldn't get past at high tide, so we couldn't go any farther in that direction anyway.

I also found an inland walk on my hiking app. It started from the local hospital, which was about a mile away up a big hill. We could easily walk there fron the resort along back roads. From the hospital, a trail continued up into the rainforest to the top of a major hill which provided a beautiful view of the coast. At least that's what AllTrails said. We did reach the top of the hill, which should have been a great viewpoint, but it was covered with dense forest and we couldn't really see much. After that we just did the walk to the hospital, which was actually a pretty good hike. The roads were easy walking and the elevation gain at least gave us a bit of a cardio workout.

We could find just about everything we needed within walking distance so we didn't need to rent a car. The restaurant at the hotel was quite good and we ate there several times for linner (our name for a mid-afternoon combined lunch and dinner). The Spaghetti House was only a five minute walk and we went there more than once as well. Although it is attached to the Edgewater Resort, it's actually along the ring road and not on on the main resort grounds, so we could go there at off times and avoid the crowds.

Breakfast was included with our room, and we topped it off every day by going to the bakery that was just across the street. It was tiny but according to online reviews it was the best bakery on the island. We certainly thought it was great. There was a small market about a ten minute walk from the resort where we could get snacks and fruit and drinks. Surprisingly there were even two 24 hour minimarts on the island and one was only about a twenty minute walk away. It came in handy once or twice when we wanted something at odd hours. Even getting to Rarotonga Brewery, which made a pretty good lager, was only a five minute walk. I got a reusable jug from them and walked there every day or two to get it refilled.

The interior of the island is steep mountains covered in jungle. Almost everyone lives along the coast. There is one main road, about twenty miles long, that goes all the way around the island. Even in Averua, there are only short spur roads off the main one. There is bus service that runs all the way around the island in both directions. It is fairly inexpensive so we just used the bus when we wanted to go somewhere that was too far to walk. No need to rent a car. There was a nice app that let you use your phone to see the current location of the bus going in each direction. Unfortunately our phone provider didn't have internet service on Rarotonga, so we couldn't use the app when we were out and about. But at least we could use when we were at our hotel and could connect through wifi. That let us watch for when the bus was getting close so we knew when to run out to the bus stop. Not perfect but it was better than nothing.

We only made a few trips away from the resort. One day we went to the south side of the island and took a tour of a small cocoa plantation. They demonstrated how cocoa was grown, harvested and made into chocolate. That last part definitely had Sandy's attention. After the tour we went into Averua and had dinner at Trader Jack's, a casual restaurant right on the water. Food was good and we got to sit on the patio looking out at the lagoon. I even bought a Trader Jack's tshirt, so all in all it was a good day.

Another day we visited Maire Nui, a small botanical garden that features South Pacific flora. It was quite pretty and we enjoyed a leisurly walk around the grounds. We followed that with a trip to Muri Beach on the east side of the island. It's a beautiful beach and the lagoon is much wider on that side, with several large motus. Very scenic. But if any place on Rarotonga is touristy, it's Muri Beach. There were more people here than near our resort. Not a lot, but more. A big thing seemed to be tours where you took a boat to one of the motus and then had a picnic lunch there. Some of them included a native dance show of some kind. We didn't bother with any of that. It seemed kind of tacky to us. But we did have a good lunch at the Rarotonga Sailing Club. We took our time, enjoying food and drinks on their patio while we admired the view of the lagoon. We even got to watch a turtle swimming nearby for quite a while.

Of course we did go into town a few times to check out the shops. Sandy looked at jewelry, especially pearls. I looked at tshirts and tropical shirts. Ollie's Surf Gear was the only place I found with good tshirts. I bought two. Sometimes we got groceries since they had bigger markets in town with better selection. On Saturday morning we came in for the local market. We didn't find much to buy there but the food stands were tempting. I had a monster-size waffle covered with ice cream and caramel syrup. Very decadent.

That was about the extent of our excursions. Mostly we hung out at our resort. We could sit on our patio or closer to the beach on chairs under the palm trees. We spent a lot of time reading and a lot of just admiring the view of the ocean. Several days we saw whales passing by just outside the reef. Apparently their migration pattern takes them by the Cook Islands at this time of year. It's always very cool when you get a chance to see whales.

In the interests of full disclosure I do have to mention one negative incident. The first day on the island we stocked up on snacks and fruit and left them on kitchen counter. When we came back a few hours later, there were ants all over them. We had to throw away all the food. I went to the front desk and got a can of insecticide and sprayed around all the doors and windows to our room, as well as along the path the ants seemed to be following. Then I spent about half an hour killing all the ants I could find anywhere in our room.

After that we were extra careful. All food was either put in the refrigerator or kept in sealed plastic bags. Fortunately we always bring some large ziploc bags on trips. Any trash was taken out of the room immediatly and disposed of in a garbage bin. Every two or three days I resprayed around doors and windows. And I usually scanned the room a couple of times a day for the odd ant that might have gotten in. We never had any more problems. So yeah, a nuisance, but it didn't really affect our enjoyment of the trip.

Eventually our time in the Cook Islands came to an end. We had a red eye flight to Honolulu that didn't leave until 11 pm. Fortunately our room wasn't booked for the following day and the resort people let us stay there until it was time to leave for the airport. I've gotten an extra hour or two when leaving a hotel but 9 pm definitely counts as late checkout! Definitely extra special service from the resort.

We had a great time. So many places that we used to go to years ago have become crowded or commercialized or both to the extent that we don't even want to go there anymore. But the Cook Islands were still pretty much the same as when we had first visited twenty years ago - relatively uncrowded and unspoiled. I suspect that we will be going back soon.

And our trip wasn't over yet. Since we would have had another long layover in Honolulu on the way back, we just decided to stay there for a couple of days. I'll cover that in the next post.