A Visit to Aitutaki and a Short, Final Stay in Raro
Friday, August 27th, 2004Kia Orana once again from the Cook Islands. (Kia Orana is the local greeting/farewell in the Cooks [similar to the Hawaiian “aloha”] and translates to “may you live long.”)
Since I last wrote, I’ve been to Aitutaki, another of the Cook Islands, and spent a couple more days in Rarotonga. As with my previous experiences in the Cooks, everything has been pretty uniformly wonderful.
Aitutaki is, like Rarotonga, volcanic in it’s origin, but coral has had an even greater part in its growth. Indeed, save for a few 100m peaks in the centre, horseshoe shaped Aitutaki is almost a perfect coral atoll. The island is about 7km long, with a huge (15km x 12km) lagoon of beautiful turquoise water surrounding it. Dotted throughout the lagoon are many small uninhabited islands or motus.
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