Rarotonga - Cook Islands

[radiant]

Anyone dived here? Recommend dive companys? Recommend dive sites? Recommend places to stay? All of us are PADI OWDivers but we wouldnt like to do unsupervised dives just yet.

Cheers.

L

 

[cdiver2]

Hi Radiant, Never dived out that way or heard of diving there. Hmmm Bangor right next to Donagade and the wreck of the Alistor at Ringhaddy. Great area for diving.
Welcome to the board

 

[KYDan]

If I ever get a chance to spend more time in the S Pacific I'd like it to be there. Of course with the "Bush-whacking" of the US$ it ain't the value it used to be. Still the island is beautiful and the people are friendly. We were able to only spend a few hours there, however.

We cruised aboard the Tahitian Princess a couple of years ago. We dove withCook Island divers on Raro. The wind was up pretty good that day, and that dictated where we dove. Not the best the island had to offer. Still a good day diving. The word I got is that all of the operators there were using "Zodiac" style boats with no sun shading.

Our dive master, Pupuke, and the rest of the operation seemed professional, and appreciative of us choosing their service. I would dive with them again. Maybe I'll be able to do so.

Hope you enjoy your time there, and tell us about it when you return.

KYDan

 

[marpacifica]

Spent 3 wks. in the Cooks in early 2002 and loved the people, culture, dancing (MUCH better than Tahitian dancing), fishing and outlying islands, especially Aitutaki atoll. Diving in Aitutaki was just OK, though, because it was recovering from a coral die-off from the 90s (El Nino warmed the waters above 90F for a few weeks). There are some parts of the reef in Aitutaki that are protected from fishing, and that's where you'll find the best snorkeling/diving, but places outside of that didn't seem to have much sealife.

 

[jakz2fun]

Radiant, I don't know if you have gone yet, but I was on Raro last July and dove with Dive Rarotonga ( http://www.diverarotonga.com/ ) and LOVED diving with them. They were great at pointing out critters, were very safety conscious, gave great briefings. I dove with the dive master on all of my dives and was very comfortable with them. They also fixed my Reg when I started having problems with it.

Have fun! JoAnn

 

[pmforster]

I dived with Cook Island Divers a couple of years ago. The dive guide was a bit of a control freak and annoyed most of the group I went with. Those who had dived with them said that Dive Rarotonga were better.

Maybe not relevant (although most people who go to Raro also go to Aitutaki), but there was only one dive operation on Aitutaki and they were the second worst dive operation I came across in 30 years of diving. There are a couple of nice dive sites there though.

Kia orana

Peter Forster

 

[TempNZ]

Go and see Stephen and Joel at Pacific Divers, we have just come back from diving with them and they were great, thoroughly recommend them.

 

[islanddiverdude]

i went on a dive with one dive master through dive rarotonga i think i remember it was tucked back in the island. This dive was different then the others i had done on my stay. It was raining and no one else wanted to go. We took a small boat and went out. Can you say eree. But wow seeing the droplets of rain from below was wild. Fish behavior was quite strange. We were being followed by everything that normally swims away at any site as strange as a human underwater. Saw a couple good size blacktips flying along the sea floor. All i can say is amazying. THe other dives were as well but nothing like this.