Rarotonga

 This is a guide, what you might like to know if you were thinking of visiting the Cook Islands.

 We stayed on the main island for 7 nights.  It seems quite big, but you can drive around it in about 50 minutes.  

The interior is uninhabited mountains, which are very scenic. All the population lives in a thin strip around the edge with a paved but bumpy road which can be be busy with locals on small motorcycles. The lived in part seems roughly half locals and half hotels with quite a few churches.

Gauging how nice a hotel is difficult from the road as the nicest part is usually by the sea.  The one we stayed in, Manuia Beach Resort, was a boutique hotel, meaning no children allowed and slightly dearer  than ones down the road. Strange how some humans think?

Or is it the cheap one is three stories high, so you need to get in a lift to go to the beach? You were able to snorkel off the beach but you had to wait a bit for the tide.

We liked it as it had sandy paths and chickens strolling around. Right now we have a mother and it's chick cheeping for food at the door. 

To rent a car or not? It took four days for us to cave in to that idea. Our experience was that it was a good idea as it was not that expensive about $160 for two days plus petrol. Petrol was about the same price as NZ, so not too bad.

It gave us the flexibility to try a restaurant down the road, The Tumunu, where I had a scallops and calamari and chips which I thought good value.  Prices for meals here are a bit high, but take in the idea that everything is imported, it starts to explain why.

For instance, a 500g pack of butter was over $10.

There are things to do, like go into see the main town, Avarua, or go on a lagoon cruise, which for pickup, drop off, lunch, entertainment and snorkelling was around $160, so not too bad.

A typical day might be a trip 4 k down the road to the marine reserve, which while not over run with fish certainly had some to see, with fantastic visibility.

On Saturday they have the local markets. Another thing is dogs.  Apparently homeless dogs wander around, and sometimes in the small hours you hear a lot of barking in the distance. Then a rooster starts crowing. Plenty of crops growing, some of which we can only guess at.

The weather for our stay was a bit unlucky, overcast and windy mostly. A perfect day, now we are leaving.

The currency here is NZ $, but there seems to be the odd coin that says Cook Islands, which would not work in NZ.

On the second day, Morty the cat appeared and made himself quite at home thank you. Not to be seen again much as he must have found even more cat friendly suckers nearby.