Rarotonga trip report
Cook Islands


by Richard Scarsbrook

Rarotonga is the largest of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It lies about 20º south of the equator, 1000km west of Tahiti, almost 3000km east of Fiji. Rarotonga, along with Aitutaki the only other Cook Island that receives many tourists, is in the Southern Group. A remote, rarely visited, Northern Group lies about 1000km nearer the equator. The Cook Islands are a New Zealand dependency.

My wife Jen and I spent a week on Rarotonga in late January 2002, and again in February 2003. Our visits were stopovers on the way from the UK to New Zealand, so the timing was determined solely by the NZ trip. It's such a great place for a stopover we are going again in January 2005, on our next NZ trip.

The climate is tropical, and fairly constant all year round. Maximum average temperatures are in the high 20s, and humidity is high but not uncomfortably so. Rainfall is about 2 metres per year, most of it falling in short but spectacularly heavy showers. The driest season is in winter from May to October. The islands lie in the hurricane belt, and there is a risk of tropical revolving storms during the summer between November and March. Cyclone Cilla passed east of Tonga, and about 1000km from Rarotonga while we were there in 2003. There was some heavy swell on the reef, and a day of thick cloud and showers; but the lagoon remained calm, diving was not disrupted, and the air stayed warm.

Money
The currency is the New Zealand dollar. There were no ATMs in Rarotonga when we were there, but that may have changed. It wasn't a problem since we paid for most things by credit card.

Flights
Air New Zealand is the only airline that flies trans-Pacific and stops at Rarotonga. Flying from the UK with AirNZ it only costs another £100 or so to add on Pacific stopovers. Air New Zealand also calls at Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Tahiti. We've had quite a few flights with them, and have no complaints. Flying the trans-Atlantic/Pacific route (as opposed to trans-Asia) is not the cheapest way but it gives you a huge baggage allowance of 64kg each, and the option of South Pacific stopovers. The downside is having to change planes in Los Angeles and, for some unfathomable reason, having to go though US immigration complete with all your baggage even though you are a transit passenger. On the first trip, we bought the flights through Bridge the World; the second and third times we used Trailfinders. We have found that the cheapest deals get snapped up many months in advance. If you leave it late to book you may find you can't get the dates you want. Later still and you won't be able to get the cheap fares on any date. We paid about £900 in 2002, £1000 in 2003, and £950 for 2005. You'll see cheaper fares advertised, even with Air NZ, but many of them have date and other restrictions. However it's always sensible to shop around.

We carried pony cylinders, empty and valves open, in our checked baggage all the way from the UK to NZ and back without any problems. Since our trip the US has changed its rules (several times) and currently you can take empty cylinders in checked or carry on baggage but the valve must be removed. Some US divers report successfully transporting cylinders without removing valves, but you have been warned.

Rarotonga
Rarotonga is a small island, only 30km in circumference, with a mountainous, forested centre. There is a flattish coastal plain all round the island, fringed by coral reefs. The beaches are idyllic, the people are friendly, and the pace of life is slow. Much of the tourist accommodation is on the southern half of the island where there is a lagoon with good snorkelling. Elsewhere the reef starts at the shore. There is a metalled road right around the island. Wherever you stay, you can be at your accommodation half an hour after clearing customs at the airport. You can hire jeeps, motorcycles, and bicycles. We got bikes - it's an easy hour and a half ride round the island. There is plenty to do - horse riding, kayaking, mountain walks, rock climbing, fishing, diving, sightseeing, and more. From July to October there is whale watching. There's even an athletics club, the Hash House Harriers, which has events every week. One of the guys at the dive centre roped me into doing a short duathlon (using a hired bike complete with shopping basket) with them in 2003. I found it tough going in the heat until a welcome tropical downpour cooled things down a bit. I met a great crowd of people (mainly faster than me) and had a fascinating evening afterwards at the golf club, the hub of island social life.

Rarotonga is a perfect place to spend the few days it takes to get over your jetlag after the long journey and 10 hour time change from the UK.

The Lonely Planet guidebook to Rarotonga is good, and the free map and what's on booklet you get at the airport and all over the island is pretty good as well. So is the Cook Islands travel website.

Accommodation
When we booked our first trip we chose the Rarotongan Beach Resort out of Bridge the World's brochure. There were several resorts, they all looked nice and RBR was in the middle of the price range. It turned out to be a good choice and we returned in 2003, and have booked again for 2005. In 2003 Trailfinders offered a better deal, but for 2005 I have booked directly with the hotel over the internet, and saved several hundred pounds. We travel a lot, and I have found that over the last couple of years it's got much easier to book accommodation direct, and you can often (but not always) get some excellent deals.

The Rarotongan Beach Resort website gives a pretty accurate description of the place. It's got all the right ingredients for tropical paradise - air-conditioned beachfront rooms 15 metres from the lagoon, cocktails on the terrace at sunset, and all that sort of thing. It's popular with Aussies and Kiwis for weddings and honeymoons, and has been busy but not crowded on each of our visits. The food is good, but not gourmet. They serve a great breakfast with lots of fresh tropical fruits. There's a nice restaurant called the Kaena just over the road, which we've been to several times. The Island Nights featuring fire dancers and South Seas drumming are worth seeing even if you don't usually like tourist attractions. There are a couple of dance troupes on the island, which will perform at all the major resorts over the course of a week.

There is a wide selection of accommodation on the island. The only other place I can offer an opinion on is the Edgewater Resort. It doesn't have a proper lagoon, so isn't good for snorkelling, and the ambience wasn't as good as the Rarotongan. But it's cheaper, and our son thought it was OK when he stayed there in 1998. We stayed in a fairly upmarket place, but there is a wide range including self-catering and budget hostels. The Cook Islands travel website http://www.ck/raro.htm has plenty of links. Outside of the Australian/NZ school holidays I suspect you could find accommodation even if you turned up without booking. However, arriving early in the morning after a very long flight from the UK, for only a short stay, we prefer to have pre-booked.

Diving
We researched the diving before we went (mainly through Google) but didn't pre-book anything because there were several dive operators on the island, so we felt confident that we would find one we liked. As it turned out, The Dive Centre - Rarotonga was just across the road from our hotel. It's run by Huw and Sheryl John. Huw is a former BSAC diver from Wales who had done a lot of solid branch diving years before, and he was happy for us to dive together unguided, which suited us fine. We just walked up to the dive centre, and were able to arrange dives for the following day. We had all our own gear including pony cylinders, so only needed to hire tanks and weights. We went back to The Dive Centre in 2003, and will do so again next year.

The diving is easy and pleasant. On our visits the sea temperature has been in the high 20s, and I have not felt the need for a wetsuit. Jen wears a 3mm suit. There is a thermocline at between 30 and 40 metres. Visibility has been 30m+. There are no significant currents, except in the passages through the reef, where the tide (semi-diurnal, maximum range <1m) can run strongly. Most of the dive sites have a similar underwater profile, a coral plateau split by sandy gullies at 10-20 metres, followed by a slope to the depths. The angle of the dropoff varies: at some places there is just a 30º rubble slope; while at others there is a coral cliff of up to 75º continuing to 60 metres or so - Matavera Drop-off is like that, and we thought it was one of the best sites. Most of the sites have some identifying feature such as swim throughs, gullies, coral pinnacles with shoals of fish around them, etc. Large creatures such as reef sharks, humphead wrasse, morays and rays are common but not abundant; we frequently saw shoals of smaller fish such as bream and yellowtail; in one spot we saw a large concentration of crayfish; and on every dive there was a wide variety of small reef fish. There is some dead coral, partly due to high sea temperatures and partly due to crown of thorns starfish. There are a couple of wrecks on the north coast, which we have yet to dive.

The Rarotongan government is running an eradication programme for crown of thorns starfish. We took part in a dive to inject them with poison (sodium bisulphate). It was an interesting experience, and we injected about a hundred of the things each. Not much of a 'splat' factor though - they don't writhe about or disintegrate or anything like that when you inject them (how you feel about that depends on where you come in the humane-bloodthirsty spectrum, I guess; or if you're a starfish).

The Dive Centre operates two Mac boats - made in NZ and looks like a RIB but is completely rigid - which are fast, comfortable and seaworthy. They carry VHF radio, oxygen, and an echo sounder. There's no shade, so take a hat and sunscreen. There are 3 launch sites, fairly evenly spread around the island. The boats are kept on trailers at The Dive Centre, which means that dives are rarely cancelled due to the weather. The boats take up to 6 divers. Once or twice the boat was left anchored and unattended whilst diving was taking place - I noticed other dive centres doing this as well. There are two dives a day, morning and afternoon. We found one a day was enough. Most of the other divers were pretty inexperienced, but the diving is so easy it doesn't really limit the choice of dive sites. Rarotonga is a popular place to learn to dive - and a good one if your ambitions are limited initially to holiday diving. At The Dive Centre the trainees dive separately from the qualified divers.

There are other dive operators. They all use trailer-launched RIBs, they all offer PADI training, and like The Dive Centre most of them will pick you up from anywhere around the island. Cook Island Divers are the largest. I've heard that they're popular with the backpacker crowd. Our son dived with them in 1998 and said they were OK (at the time he was an out-of-practice BSAC Sports Diver with about 70 UK dives). I've also heard that Pacific Divers could be a problem for experienced divers who wish to dive unguided. However they are now advertising liveaboard trips to the outer islands, which could be interesting. Their website doesn't say anything about prices or schedules. There is also Dive Rarotonga , about which I know nothing beyond what you can read on their website.

Not all the operators publish their prices online. The going rate appears to be about NZ$60-70, which is currently about £25 per dive. When we went it was about 20% less. The increase is mainly due to the falling value of the pound against the NZ$ since then.

There is also diving on Aitutaki. This is said to be a beautiful island, and excursions to it are popular and widely advertised on Rarotonga. We dived with one experienced Swedish diver who had been there a few days previously. He had liked the island but had been unimpressed by the diving and the dive centre.

Summary
Rarotonga is a beautiful island and a perfect stopover on trans-Pacific flights to New Zealand and Australia. It's small enough that you can see all of it without the need for long transfers or extra flights, and big enough that there's plenty to do. There's accommodation to suit any budget that can manage the airfare. We spend about £1500 for a week's stopover for two, excluding flights. I'm sure you could do it for half that, maybe less. It isn't world-class diving, but it's very pleasant for a few easy dives, and would be a good place to learn to dive in warm water. Think Malta/Gozo with coral and tropical fish.

Richard Scarsbrook - BSAC First Class Diver/Advanced Instructor, RYA/MCA Coastal Skipper
Jen Scarsbrook - BSAC Advanced Diver/Advanced Instructor