August 2024
“Welcome home”, said our taxi driver as we drove in the pitch black dark of night from airport arrivals to our hotel, “that’s what we say to those who’ve been here before”, she said with a big islander smile, although I wasn’t sure if the smile was genuine warmth or the fact she’d just fleeced me $60 for a 5 minute drive.
As the wheels had touched down a few moments earlier, 24 years after my first visit to the Cook Islands, I was super excited about a mid-winter sunny break back to this island paradise and sharing it with Anya and the kids.
That was until I heard the words from the air stewardess as we lined up to disembark the plane “be careful, get your kids to hold the handrail, it’s slippery”.
I wasn’t sure what she meant given we had just landed on Rarotonga where the average winter temperature is 24 degrees, but as I turned the corner from the plane’s aisle to the waiting steps leading down to the tarmac, my heart sank.
Being a Brit, I thought I had experienced every type of rain conceivable, even mastering that British skill of being able to hold a lengthy conversation dedicated to the rain.
However, I don’t think I was ready for this. There’s horizontal rain and there’s HORIZONTAL rain. This was the kind of rain that didn’t appear to even touch the ground as it raced through the air like wet wind at 100kph.
After a short sprint from the steps to the tiny arrivals’ terminal, I went to my pocket to retrieve our immigration cards only to find they had turned into a soggy wet consistency. If you’ve ever accidentally dropped a toilet paper into the u-bend you’ll know what I mean.
I had high hopes this holiday of catching up on 8 years of lack of sleep (since becoming a dad), relaxing after several months of intense work and finally reading some of those books on my long list. This was a tall ask but as this was our first time at a resort and this one even had a kids club, then surely this was a chance to truly chill.
When my kids play role play, they pretend to wake up in the morning to the sound of a cockerel.
I have no idea where they got this concept as we have no cockerels waking us up at dawn in Auckland. I thought they were being a little over imaginative.
But as I quickly discovered on our first night, the kids were totally spot on except one slight flaw. A cockerel does not scream its head off only at dawn. It screams all frigging night. Non-stop. Well at least outside our hotel room in the Cook Islands two of them did.
With the mix of torrential rain & wind, noisy cockerels and a snoring neighbour through the hotel room wall, I had what can only be classed as: a terrible first night’s sleep.
I wished I had let Alex pack his Spider-Man web shooter for the trip now. I could’ve spun several webs around that cockerel’s neck.
My hopes of a chilled holiday were fast fading after one night.
The Cook Islands are made up of 15 tiny islands, glistening like jewels in the vast South Pacific Ocean, a 4-hour flight from Auckland.
Rarotonga, with a population of just 8,000 people, is by far the most visited of the islands with its lush mountainous rainforest centre and its lagoon fringed beaches being a huge draw card.
It takes just 45min to drive around the whole island on its one main ring road.
It appeared to have come a long way in the 24 years since my absence with many more hotels, restaurants and tourist activities and whilst I read the nation’s population is in decline, clearly the cockerel population is on the increase.
Despite that bumpy start, we soon brushed aside the continuing poor weather and annoying cockerels and got into the swing of the uber chilled island life and island time, where everything moves at a low pace.
When the sun did finally come out on day 5, we headed to Muri beach, Rarotonga’s most stunning beach on a section of the lagoon that’s got the most dazzling blue waters to finally catch some much-needed vitamin D and enjoy the warm turquoise waters.
We took tandem kayaks out onto the lagoon. A first for both Alex and Sofia. It was awesome going out, as we glided across the silk-like crystal clear water searching for turtles. Much to Alex’s disappointment, we didn’t see any. Coming back was a different ball game however as we seemed to be against the current and into a headwind. After a lengthy struggle, some mild swearing and arms like Popeye, we made it back to shore, ready for a sunset cocktail.
Next up, was paddle boarding. Sofia insisted she wanted to give it a go and whilst neither Anya nor I had ever given it a go, we let Sofia go for it. And like a duck to water she was standing and paddling around like she’d been doing it years.
Then I had a go.
Oh my gosh.
If you’ve ever seen a video of a baby deer a few seconds after it’s been born, you’ve a good image of me trying to stand up on the board. Legs like a drunk Bambi. I decided kneeling was easier but found myself back on shore soon after, having given up with sore knees.
The island of Aitutaki, a 40-minute flight from Rarotonga, is often rated “the world’s most beautiful lagoon”. I was blown away by the sheer beauty and the laid-back feeling of the island on my previous visit, and despite Rarotonga having now being more developed, I was pleased to see Aitutaki had hardly changed.
We were lucky that of the only 4 days of sun on our 10-day trip, 2 of them came on our 2-day trip to Aitutaki.
Aitutaki’s vast lagoon is an insane colour of blue. The kind of blue that a 5-year-old would colour the sea using that blue pen that just looks too blue to be real for the sea. It stretches several km in all directions and is dotted with 15 uninhabited smaller islands, each lined with palm trees overhanging white sandy beaches that are lapped by crystal clear water.
We paid for a company to take the 4 of us out on a boat to visit a few of the islands and to do some snorkelling.
It was the first time Sofia has been snorkelling and as we jumped into the water, we were soon joined by several massive giant Trevally, approx. 1 metre long, circling us. Sofia overcame her fear of these giants and continued to view the majestic underwater world opening before her eyes, taking in the reef, giant clams and a multitude of small extremely colourful tropical fish.
The Cook Islands are full of scooters and with a speed limit of 40kph on Aitutaki and hardly anyone else on the roads, this seemed the perfect opportunity to take Sofia out for the first time on the back. She insisted I put some music on as we rode and so there, we were cruising the streets of Aitutaki, with Unicorn Academy tunes blaring out as huge land crabs ran for cover, the sun blazing down as the wind blew through our hair. As a lifelong 2-wheel rider it was a proud moment and hopefully one that will live with Sofia for a lifetime.
After flying back to Rarotonga, we checked back into the same hotel and were fortunate to have a free upgrade to a seafront room. And with this front row seat came the fortune to see some humpback whales migrating north from our balcony. Another great memory for the kids.
And so, after 10 days, it was time to head back to Auckland. It had been an epic trip, despite the rain. It was full of experiences.
We try our best to teach our kids that experiences make you grow more than materialism. This is easier said than done when one of them is constantly in our ear about their desire for us to buy them their latest obsession.
But this trip, gave us many opportunities for the kids to try so many firsts that will live with all of us for a long time.
The islands are rich in culture, full of smiles and bring “island time” deep into one’s soul.
Something I very much needed.
I, for one, cannot wait to hear the words “welcome home” once again in the near future.
