The Cook Islands is a nation comprised of 15 small islands in the middle of the South Pacific, roughly (or at least most easily described as being) halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. I spent an ideal week discovering this Polynesian paradise back in mid September. And upon reflection I can’t think of a more relaxing time than the days I had there.
Honestly, I cannot recall ever feeling quite as good as I did during the first couple of days of my trip. The weather was literally perfect (for me anyway) with the temperature hovering around 70°F/21°C, a cool floral scented breeze coming off the sea, and plenty of warm sunshine beaming down from a cloudless sky. Like never before I enjoyed equilibrium between my body and the atmosphere around it. To be sure, I’ve been fortunate to travel to more than my fair share of dream destinations. This was different.
The rest of the visit was wonderful as well, but maybe just a tad more humid or hot. Those first two days though – whoa – perfection.
While there I split my itinerary across two islands, the “main island” of Rarotonga and the tiny atoll of Aitutaki. I’ll delve deeper into the details of the fun I had discovering them soon with future posts in a dedicated miniseries: Cook Islands Idyll.
While you wait for my next post, why not take a moment to listen to the podcast I recorded about the highlights of my stay on Rarotonga? Here’s the link:
tikichris.com/2017/09/30/tctalks-episode-4-rarotonga/
Getting There
I flew to the Cooks with Air New Zealand on its not quite year old nonstop route from LAX (connecting from London Heathrow) in a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Overnight flight time from LA to Rarotonga was under 10 hours. I was comfy in my luxury leather Premium Economy seat, stretched out and enjoying the inflight entertainment (I binge watched a whole season of The Walking Dead) and actually got a pretty decent amount of sleep. Not my first long haul with Air New Zealand, my high expectations for good and ample food and great, friendly staff and minimal bumps along the way were most certainly met.
For flight schedules and further information go to airnewzealand.com.
And for loads of tips and inspiration to start planning your Cook Islands getaway check out cookislands.travel.
