Pacific’s ‘best-kept secret’ islands are now easier to get to

Last month the first direct Jetstar flight from Australia to the Cook Islands touched down at Rarotonga International Airport.

The first of three direct flights launched per week from Sydney to Rarotonga, it marked the first time a budget carrier has flown direct to the Cook Islands from Australia and the first time any airline has offered more than one direct flight per week (pre-COVID, Air New Zealand offered one direct flight per week). It’s also the first Australian carrier since Ansett to service the route.

There are now three non-stop Jetstar flights each week from Sydney to Rarotonga.Credit: iStock

While the Cook Islands mightn’t seem a secret to most Australians, research by the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation shows less than one in every 100 Australians actually know where the Cook Islands are.

In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 350,000 Australians holidayed in Fiji – but only 29,000 made it to the Cook Islands. In the 20 years prior to COVID, the number of Australians travelling to the Cook Islands annually increased by only 5000 people. Meanwhile, 120,000 New Zealanders visited each year, with direct flights between Auckland and Rarotonga operating since the airport’s opening in 1974.

“They have to be the South Pacific’s best-kept secret, to Australians anyway,” Australian ex-pat Barry Weizman says. “I’ve been here over five years and most of my friends in Australia still have no clue at all where I live. Most of them think I’m in New Zealand somewhere.”

Graeme West, general manager Australasia for the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, says it’s the difficulty Australians have had flying to the country that has left the islands off our collective holiday radars.

Aitutaki Lagoon is revered as one of the South Pacific’s most pristine.Credit: Cook Islands Tourism

“When you have to fly through Auckland and get on another plane, it’s hard to compete with direct flights to Fiji, or Vanuatu. But now with 30,000 seats a year (plus indirect flights through New Zealand), we’re expecting our best year for Australian visitors.”

As the Cook Islands come to the attention of the Australian public at large, can travellers expect to experience a holiday similar to those they’ve already experienced in Fiji and Vanuatu? There are some key differences. You won’t find a single chain hotel here for starters, nor will you be transported the moment you arrive to a resort or a private island. No building is taller than the tallest coconut tree – it’s the law – and there are no traffic lights or peak hour traffic. Chickens, piglets and dogs are the main traffic hazard. The speed limit is 50 km/h, or 40 km/h if travelling by scooter, as most motorists here do.

Given its small size, most people get around Rarotonga on scooters.Credit: iStock

“In Fiji, Australians tend to stay around their resorts and most of their entertainment and activities are organised by resorts,” local tourism operator Charlotte Piho says. “But in the Cook Islands ... you don’t spend much time around your accommodation.

“The whole island (Rarotonga) is like a resort, and you’re not just mixing with other tourists, you’re hanging out with locals at bars and restaurants. You’re a part of their world, they’re not just working for you. It’s all about immersion. In the Cooks, you become a Cook Islander.”

West agrees this is the key difference with a Cook Islands holiday.

“You tend to feel a little more isolated in places like Fiji and Vanuatu from the local people, except those serving you at resorts,” he says.

Rarotonga’s west coast has some of the liveliest sunset bars and restaurants in the South Pacific – but on most nights you’ll find as many locals here as tourists. The capital, Avarua, is home to one of the most iconic seaside bars in the Pacific region, Trader Jacks, a favourite hang-out for locals and tourists alike. Just across the street the nightclub Rehab is where locals congregate to meet tourists, many of them travelling on the four-times-weekly Raro Pub Crawl Party Bus.

Trader Jacks, one of the Cook Islands’ liveliest bars.Credit: Alamy

This kind of immersion occurs partly because of its size: the Cook Islands are tiny by comparison to other South Pacific hot-spots like Fiji, Tahiti and Vanuatu. The main island, Rarotonga, is barely 67-square-kilometres, meaning you can circumnavigate the island by car or scooter in less than 40 minutes.

“That’s one of the key differences,” Weizman says. “That’s what makes Rarotonga feel like one big resort. There’s something comforting about the size, you get to meet all the locals and see that they’re really no different to us. And the roads are never busy like they can be in somewhere like Tahiti. That’s what won us over.”

Weizman and his wife Jade originally planned a honeymoon in Bora Bora, but when their travel dates didn’t match up with their desired accommodation, the couple’s travel agent suggested Rarotonga. They fell in love immediately with the island, built a boutique eco-resort (Ocean Escape Resort & Spa) and have been here ever since.

“I can’t believe that we’d been all over the world and we’d never really heard of the Cook Islands,” Weizman says.

“I travelled a lot through South-East Asia but you always have to have your wits about you, but here it’s always safe and it’s clean – locals are obsessive about it. Australians still know so little about the Cooks, some friends ask me if they have hotels here, or shops, or bars or restaurants.”

On the contrary, with its vast collection of restaurants and chic beachside cocktail bars, Rarotonga has the liveliest social scene in the South Pacific, with entertainment options available every night of the week, as well as a bustling local food stall market four nights a week.

And while there may be no chain hotels or resorts here, the Cook Islands is home to one of the South Pacific’s most awarded resorts, the Pacific Resort Aitutaki, a multiple winner of the World Travel Awards’ illustrious World’s Leading Boutique Resort category.

Pacific Resort Aitutaki.

For decades a drawcard for honeymooners from North America, Australia and New Zealand, the island of Aitutaki (40 minutes’ flying time from Rarotonga) offers an alternative to Polynesia’s far better known honeymoon hot-spot, Bora Bora.

Its lagoon is revered as one of the South Pacific’s most pristine, shaped like an equilateral triangle with sides 12 kilometres long, it’s home to 14 tiny, uninhabited islands, accessible only by boat. You can sleep in over-water bungalows on your own private island – as you do in Bora Bora – but the best retreats like the Pacific Resort Aitutaki and Tamanu Beach are built beside tiny townships on the island, to encourage the sort of cultural immersion you won’t experience on Bora Bora.

“The fact Australians still don’t know about the Cook Islands shows how untouched they still are,” Piho says. “It’s Tahiti or Hawaii 30 years ago. We have the same big green mountains and pretty lagoons and beaches, we just don’t have the people.”

DETAILS

Fly
Jetstar flies from Sydney to Rarotonga on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 9.30pm, fares start at $249 one way, see jetstar.com.au Jetstar and Air New Zealand also offer flights through Auckland, see airnz.com.au

Stay
The Cook Islands offer everything from budget guesthouses and homestays to five-star luxury resorts. Stay beside Rarotonga’s largest lagoon at Pacific Resort, or at Aitutaki’s multi-award-winning Pacific Resort Aitutaki, see pacificresort.com, enjoy beachside living and the Cook Islands’ best island night at Tamanu Beach in Aitutaki, tamanubeach.com, or stay at Rarotonga’s newest boutique hotel, Ocean Escape Resort and Spa, oceanescaperesort.com

Eat
Options range from budget-friendly fish burgers with local beer at lagoon-side bars to gourmet multi-course dining at some of the South Pacific’s best eateries. Enjoy local delicacies at a 160-year-old former colonial homestead beside the lagoon at Tamarind House Restaurant & Bar, see tamarindrarotonga.com, meet local families and enjoy home-cooked Polynesian dishes on a progressive dinner, cookislandstours.co.ck/experiences/progressive-dinner/

Play
There’s everything to do from world-class diving (padi.com/diving-in/cook-islands/) to guided cross-island mountain walks (maungatours.com) to lagoon cruises across Aitutaki’s lagoon (thevakacruise.com) and learning about ancient Polynesian culture (highlandparadise.co.ck)

More

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Find hot deals for the Cook Islands at MyHolidayCentre.com.au

The writer travelled courtesy of the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation