Aitutaki - The Pearl of the South Pacific
From Fiji and Cook Islands - Destinations somewhere out there in Cook Islands on Jan 31 '06
This entry is about:
1 Place Visited
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Aitutaki Lagoon Resort & Spa
"First Class Resort at Aitutaki's Prime Location"
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Did you ever daydream about a picturesque, remote island in the middle of nowhere with a lagoon shimmering in thousand different blue tones, with palm trees and friendly locals. Welcome to Aitutaki!
After having spent a short night in Rarotonga and arriving out of Fiji, we continued early in the next morning departing for Aitutaki. There are several daily flights with the local carrier Air Rarotonga to Aituaki. After a glass of Mango juice and some cookies the captain announced the starting to descend procedure. All passengers were gazing out the windows and expected paradise. After a couple of minutes we were able to see a landmass covered with clouds. We were there: rainy Aitutaki. Unfortunately the massive clouds were hiding the lagoon's total splendor. After a friendly greeting at Aitutaki's small airstrip we were immidiately transferred to the Aitutaki Lagoon Resort. The Resort is a beautiful hideway located on a peninsula of the amazing O'otu Beach with direct access to Aitutaki's famous lagoon.
The plane took off, the clouds opened up and the sun enlightened the real and unique beauty of this very special place
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The weather forecast predicted rain for the following days and unfortunately did not misadvise. We considered it really bad luck being at one of the most beautiful spots on this planet and just not being able to experience the extraordinary beauty because of the pouring tropical rain outisde, which seemed to go on forever. Nevertheless, the rain did not hinder us from exploring almost every corner of this amazingly fascinating island. We rented a scooter right across the Resort and circled the island along the main road. There are just a couple of small shops, a post office and several restaurants along each side of the road. A place that needs to be mentioned is the Te Vaka Restaurant. adjacent to the Are Tamanu Resort. The restaurant features a combination of traditional elements with Asian influences and a great variety of fresh fish. We also ate at the Pacific Resort, which was pricy but good and the Samade on O'otu Beach.
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The Island Night at the Aitutaki Lagoon Resort inlcuded traditional singing and dancing performances of local children. Supposingly the dancing groups on Aituaki are some of the best in whole Polynesia. There is an Island Night almost every evening somewhere on Aitutaki, where locals and visitors get together.
On Sunday morning we joined a church service at the Arutanga Christian Church, whose priest happily invites visitors to join his worship. The church is located right next to the ocean in Aitutaki's main settlement Arutanga and was build in 1828. The local women wore eye-catching dresses and hats and their singing just gave me the goosebumps. After the worship everybody was invited to an extra room to have a chat and some food.
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One day we rented a scooter to drive up Aitutaki's highest peak Maungapu, at just 124m. To cope with the rain we had prepared raincoats made out of plastic bags. There is a small road opposite the Paradise Cove Resort that takes you up half way. We then had to walk for a couple hundred meters and afterwards were rewarded with a magnificent panoramic view over the lagoon and the Pacific Ocean. It was quite windy up there and, believe it or not, even cold.
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We swam over to one of the eastern motus right opposite of the Resort and walked around it for a while. But we were not alone on the beach. Hundreds of big red and grey coconut crabs were blocking our way and only gave way quite slowly. There were several dead fish along the beach, which seemed to be a feast for the crabs. Due to the bad weather conditions no lagoon cruises were operating on any of our days in Aitutaki, which means we were not able to visit the famous One-foot Island (one of the 21 motus). Another historically important motu is Akaiami, which was a refueling destination for the famous Tasman Empire Air Line in the 1950s on their flight from New Zealand to Tahiti.
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After five days of constant rain on Aitutaki and after watching almost 25 DVD's during that time in our hotel room we finally had to fly back to Rarotonga. And guess what?! As soon as the plane took off, the clouds opened up and the sun enlightened the real and unique beauty of this very special place.
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