Cook Islands Part 2 - Aitutaki

As we neared Aitutaki we were treated to a great aerial view of the main island, lagoon, and surrounding motus (small surrounding islands). As we landed at the airport we quickly realized that this is going to be like no place we have ever visited before. The airport consisted of a runway and a small open air building. We were greeted at the airport by two staff members from Etu Moana, where we would be staying, and were given leis just like in Rarotonga. After a short van ride, there is no such thing as a long ride in Aitutaki considering it is only 6 square miles, we arrived at Etu Moana.

Upon arrival at the hotel we were greeted by the hotel managers, Jeff and Janine, and were given a coconut to drink to re-hydrate us after our flight. They told us about the various features of the hotel and island. Etu Moana is a very unique hotel. There are a total of eight Polynesian style huts that are spaced out in a large garden that opens up to the beach. The hotel is self catering so there is not a restaurant but next to the pool there is an honor bar, which we made good use of during our time there. They have all the liquors, wines, beers and mixers you could ask for and you would always get a drink to your liking since you are the bartender! Our room was right off of the beach and consisted of a porch with a table and chairs as well as multiple lounges. From the porch, a double sliding glass door opened up to the bedroom. To the left of the bedroom there was a fully equipped kitchen with granite countertops and to the right was the bathroom. The bathroom consisted of both an outdoor and indoor shower. It was amazing how high quality and clean everything was. It made us wonder how a place this nice can exist in on an island this remote. On the porch was an ice bucket with champagne that Jocelyn had arranged ahead of time so we could have a celebratory toast to our second anniversary one last time.

After settling in we realized how hungry we were se we decided to go next door to Café Tauonos. The café did not look like much when we walked up to it. Just a hand painted sign pointing down a driveway towards a small house. Outside the house there were four picnic tables set up and we sat at the last empty one. We found on Aitutaki many of the “restaurants” were really just someone cooking out of the kitchen in their house with picnic tables set up outside for the diners. Everything was cooked by the owner Sonya using mostly ingredients from here garden. Jocelyn had Mahi Mahi with starfruit salsa and roasted pumpkin and Trey had a spinach omelet with a side of tropical fruit and pumpkin. Also to drink we both had glasses of boiled rainwater. The water on the island is not safe to drink so boiled rainwater is the drink of choice. Both Jocelyn and I decided that this was our favorite meal on Aitutaki. As we left we grabbed some coconut cake for us to have later in the day, which ended up being a perfect after dinner treat.

Since there was still plenty of sun left after lunch we decided to hold off unpacking till later and just get our suits on and go to the beach. The beach here was perfect for us. Because of the unique shade tree it was possible for Trey to be in the shade and Jocelyn to be out in the sun. Jocelyn spent the rest of the day reading her book (Eat, Pray, Love – which, by the way, she would recommend to the ladies) and laying in the sun. Trey on the other hand made good use of the kayaks and snorkeling equipment which were included at the resort. One of his favorite things to do here was to kayak out close to the reef where you could tie up to a buoy and then go snorkeling. Although the snorkeling here was not as good as the lagoon cruise we took later in the trip, there was still plenty to see. Trey even spotted a moray eel sticking its head out of a hole in the reef. At first he thought it was just a large stick stuck in the coral but then he noticed the mouth with teeth opening and closing as small fish swam by.

For dinner we went to Puffy’s the local fish and chip spot. The unique thing about this fish and chips place is that they always use fresh, high-quality fish such as Mahi Mahi, tuna, or wahoo. The day we went wahoo was on the menu and it was delicious. In addition to fish and chips the meal also came with a fresh salad which was a nice touch. Puffy’s (called that we think because of the large woman behind the counter who we assume owns it) was packed with all 7 tables filled with a combination of travelers and locals – we even saw Jeff and Janine there, our hosts at Etu Moana so we knew it was not a bogus recommendation! Although you would think that it would not take long to make fish and chips, but being on island time some how we waited over an hour for our meal, but it was well worth it. After dinner we went back to our hut and went to bed.

The next day we decided to have a relaxing day on the beach and just enjoy the island and weather. Trey took one of the hotel bikes for a ride down to the grocery store to see if he could find something to cook for dinner and also to find some things for lunch when they did not leave the hotel during the day. At the grocery store he found next to nothing. For example, the entire fresh produce section consisted of lettuce, eggplant and nothing else. We were told that there was not much food on the island when we arrived because the monthly supply ship was late in arriving, but we did not expect it to be this bad. Trey decided to just grab a loaf of bread, granola bars (the last box in the store) and some potato chips. When he got back Jocelyn was disappointed that they were not going to be able to cook a fancy meal in their kitchen. Because of the lack of food we decided to make dinner reservations for later at Café Tupuna, which many people regarded as the best restaurant on the island. That afternoon we both took the kayaks out together. This was Jocelyn’s first time in a kayak and she did very well although after about 45 min or so her arms started to get tired so we headed back in. For dinner we had arranged a ride to pick us up and found out that it was in fact a van that stopped at our hotel and others to pick people up to go to the restaurant. This was not too bad but the annoying thing was the van did not leave to take people home until everyone was done since there was a diesel shortage on the island. The one thing we quickly learned on Aitutaki is that there is a shortage of just about everything-except for beautiful scenery that is. The dinner itself was good, Jocelyn had the parrot fish special and Trey had the tuna and shrimp. Not many people must have ordered the parrot fish special because when they brought the meal out there were three large filets on the plate. We ended up having plenty of leftovers, which Jocelyn had the next night for dinner as well. After dinner we hung out on our porch talking for a bit and we ate more of the coconut cake we had bought the day before. We decided not to stay up too late because the next day we were going on a full day swimming and snorkeling lagoon cruise.

The next morning a shuttle van came and drove us to the other side of the island where the lagoon cruise started. The boat was a large pontoon boat with seating for 50 people, although there were only 20 people on the cruise, and a sun deck on the roof.

It took us about 45 min to get to our first destination but all along the way we had spectacular views of the lagoon and listened to some island music that was being played by the ship’s crew. Our first stop was a small island that had a nice sandy swimming beach. This island was also where one of the tribes lived during the filming of Survivor: Cook Islands. Jocelyn and I headed straight into the water where we swam around for an hour or so before having to get back on the boat to go to the next destination.

On the way to the next stop we got lucky and spotted a large sea turtle. We tried to take some pictures of the turtle but none of them turned out great.

At the next stop our boat set anchor near some coral and we got our snorkeling gear on to go take a look. Jocelyn had briefly tried snorkeling for the first time in Rarotonga but did not like it very much mainly because the snorkeling gear did not fit her very well and the current kept pushing her into the coral, causing her to get a big cut and bruise on her foot. Her experience here was much better and I think she is looking forward to snorkeling again in Fiji. Here we saw some giant clams with the biggest one being over two feet in diameter. We also saw some clown fish, parrot fish (Jocelyn did not mention to them that she ate their brother the night before), blue starfish, colorful coral and many other brilliantly colored fish. One thing we noticed was that out here in the deeper water the blue star fish were much bigger and there was much more variety of fish. We saw one bigger fish that was fat and about three feet long; Trey swam after it for a little while but it swam away to a deeper part of the lagoon. After about an hour of snorkeling we got back into the boat and were now starting to get hungry. Next, the boat dropped us off on a sand bar that had a few young palm trees growing on it.

We hung out here for a few minutes before starting the walk though the water to One Foot Island where we were going to have lunch. The walk through the water was really fun and it took us about twenty minutes to get to the island but the water was never more than waist deep.

Once we got to One Foot Island we got our passports stamped there at the post office. Why they have a post office on an uninhabited island we do not know. Then we were treated to a buffet lunch with salad, bread, passion fruit, starfruit, grilled fish (that the crew had caught along the way) and hot dogs that the boat crew had been preparing while we were walking over to the island.

After lunch we had time to explore the island and do some more swimming, which Jocelyn and I took full advantage of. Jocelyn thought that it was pretty funny that after her long search for American style hot dogs in the South Pacific that they had them in Aitutaki where they pretty much had no other kind of food! The boat then took us back to the main island and we grabbed the shuttle back to our hotel.

The timing of the end of the lagoon cruise worked out perfectly because when we arrived back at the hotel Dave, one of the hotel staff, was just starting his weekly coconut show. This show was really good (we had read about it as a “must do” in the Guest Book that each Villa at Etu Moana has where guests write all about their stay) and we were glad that we made it back in time. He showed us the right way to climb a coconut tree as well as three ways to shuck and break open a coconut – including with a stick, with your mouth and with a rock. He then let us taste the difference between young coconuts, brown coconuts, and coconuts that had already started to grow into trees. At the end of the show they made piña coladas for everyone using the coconut cream. This became Jocelyn’s drink of choice for the rest of the trip and she knew how to make it because they had a recipe book in the honesty bar with recipes and a place for guests to add recipes for all guest coming after them – nice touch. We were surprised by how many people came to the show. It appeared that all but one villa was there. That night after such a long day we decided to stay in and have left overs for dinner from Café Tupuna and finish off the rest of the coconut cake.

The next day we took it easy and just hung out at the beach with Trey doing a little more kayaking and snorkeling. For dinner we staying in and cooked some pasta. The next day was our last day but we had paid for a guest past so that we could use the hotel’s facilities all day and have access to the guest villa where we could store our stuff and take a shower before we grabbed our flight back to Rarotonga which was well worth it since we had a majority of the day to kill. So far the whole trip the weather had been perfect but just as our plane left Aitutaki it started to rain. It was like the sun had stayed out long enough just for us.

When we arrived back in Rarotonga we had an 8 hour layover until our 2 am flight back to New Zealand. We arranged a cab through Etu Moana to pick us up from the airport. We decided to spend this time at a nearby restaurant and bar called Trader Jacks which had been recommended to us by same mates in New Zealand.

This turned out to be the perfect idea! The cab would also pick us up at an arranged time to go back to the airport and of course in true island style, when they dropped us off at the restaurant as we tried to pay, the response was, “Oh no! Pay when I pick you up!” We had some appetizers and drinks at the bar and then had a late dinner in the restaurant, both of which were right on the water. After dinner we went back to the bar where they had some live music to kill another hour or so before heading to the airport. At the airport we ran into some of our new friends that we had met at Etu Moana in Aitutaki even though we were on different flights. We bonded over the fact that the girl’s name was also Joslyn (obviously spelled differently). The flight from Rarotonga to Auckland was pretty miserable and it was really hard to stomach that we were going to have to wait in Auckland for another 3 hours before catching our flight back to Christchurch. It probably did not help that at Trader Jack’s we pretty much drank the night away. Lucky for us we ran into our new friends from Aitutaki again and they gave us some guess passes to hang out in the New Zealand Air lounge where they had couches, drinks, and a full breakfast set up for free. Feeling slightly recharged we got on our last flight of the day and made it back to Christchurch and home. Once we got home we went straight to bed even though it was 11am.

All in all our trip to the Cook Islands was lots of fun and a great success. Although Jocelyn decided that Aitutaki is as close to camping as she ever wants to come, she does admit it was a great experience and probably unlike any other place in the world. We now see why New Zealanders make the Cook Islands their Pacific destination of choice and Jocelyn hopes that Trey will take her back some day! Next holiday stop: Fiji!