We spent a week in Rarotonga, the capital of the Cook Islands just chilling. Think beautiful beaches, the friendliest people you’ve ever met and tasty fish burgers. That was basically our life for 7 days.

The thing about Rarotonga is that it’s so beautiful a blog is probably better done in pictures.

 

 

The thing about Rarotonga is that it’s so beautiful a blog is probably better done in pictures. Well, pictures and a few words that may be of interest if you’re planning on going:

• It’s only 32km around the entire island, which is a loop, so getting around is easy:
  a) you can hire a scooter (be prepared to dodge the dogs)
  b) get the bus, aptly named ‘clockwise’ and ‘anticlockwise’
  c) hitch hike (totes safe, you may even be offered beer)
• Rarotonga is one of the safest places in the world to visit. The crime rate over there is little to none.
• There are a couple of hostels and lots of resorts so you can make it work for your budget.
• Hit the resort happy hours, it will help your bank balance.
• Church is the in thing to experience on Sundays, but if you’re only going for the food make sure you get the correct one. Lyvette was mortified she only got a cappuccino whilst the other church goers received a feast.
• Muri Beach is a beautiful lagoon – definitely worth a visit. As are the Saturday markets.
• Visit Vili’s Burger Bar (Muri beach). It was the best fish burger I’ve ever had. Granted it was the only fish burger I’ve ever had but it exceeded expectations. I’d even go as far as to say it was the best burger I’ve ever had. Period.
• If we went back, we’d visit Aitutaki. The flights from Rarotonga are quite expensive but from what we heard it’s worth it. And looking back it’s a shame we missed this out. Google it.
• In my opinion The Cook Islands outshone Fiji. Myself and Lyvette have agreed that Rarotonga was probably one of the most beautiful places we’ve been whilst travelling. Especially once you’ve gotten into island life, it’s a grower. A beautiful grower.
• People in New Zealand warned us that it was really expensive and you should take your own food. We did not agree with this, we thought it was pretty similar to NZ.
• If you go to the Te Vara Nui Cultural show (which we thoroughly enjoyed) make sure you wear a coconut bra, grass skirts and headdress. Just because.
• The sunsets are consistently unreal. And we’ve seen a lot of sunsets.
• And finally, the people of The Cook Islands are the nicest people we have ever met. Everyone we met there was friendly, accommodating and extremely helpful. We loved them.

Just as a side note: We may have finally found paradise…