Rarotonga & Aitutaki

[divingscorpio]

Considering Cook Islands for a dive trip. Looking for recommendations on Rarotonga or Aitutaki or doing both in one trip.

Anyone been to either islands and have suggestions on dive ops and accommodations?

Thanks!

[newfins]

We dived both Rarotonga and Aitutaki in 2010. I'm told that neither is a dive destination as such but we had some very good dives and being honest they were a lot better than the dives we did in Fiji earlier that year. During our stay we did 10 dives in Rarotonga and just two in Aitutaki, mainly because the price in Aitutaki is a lot more expensive.

I can't remember the names of all the dive sites, but I do remember our favorite ones on Rarotonga were Mushrooms Forest and Papu passage. The Mushrooms site was on the northern side of the island and had the best coral we experienced during our stay lots of fish and a couple of turtles. The Papu passage site was later in the week and on the south side. This dive we saw a school of up to a dozen rays and 3 sharks, but the coral was not so good. This was the second passage we did that day, the first one being memorable for the strong current. None of the dive sites were far on the boat, 15-20mins and we returned to shore between dives. The thing I do remember is that all the dives had amazing visibility with 40m some of the dives.

In Aitutaki the visibility and coral wasn't as good but we saw 4 or 5 turtles so that was cool.

We dived with Dive Rarotonga on Rarotonga and were very well looked after. They had new gear with dive computers and two instructors on each of our boat trips. For Aitutaki we dived with Aitutaki Scuba, not as professionally organised as the shop in Rarotonga but ok to dive with.

Have a fun trip!

[TSandM]

We dove Rarotonga as part of our Paul Gauguin cruise. We dove with Ian of Cook Island Divers. It was a pretty minimal setup with a small, open boat and I'm not even sure there was any O2 on it. The reef was much like everything we saw in French Polynesia -- hard coral, a lot of it dead, and a scattering of reef fish. It was a pleasant dive because the water was warm and clear and Ian took us through some swim-throughs, but I certainly wouldn't go all the way to that area for the diving alone. On the other hand, we really enjoyed the land time we had on Rarotonga. The people were extremely nice, and there were some lovely things in the shops.

[vaughan99]

Yes, I wouldnt go all the way to the Cook islands for the diving alone - the people are friendly and the islands are very beautiful. The diving is mainly hard coral, bit algae covered off Rarotonga in places, usual suspects re reef fish... What was nice was hearing humpback whales singing in the background on several dives, their songs carry for miles so you dont necessarily see them but you certainly hear them.

[kazbanz]

diving scorpio- Ive been to Raro 3 times in the last 12 months and done a fair few dives. No matter which dive op you use you will be on a small -20 foot either RIB or sometimes solid hull boat.
Without hesitation I recomend Cook Island Divers.The simple fact is that they operate when others don't due to "rough
weather" their gear is as good as any on the island.
I unfortunately agree with the posters above BUT if you want to have a safe taste of cave diving then the shallow cave system at the end of the airport runway is a good half an hour of exploring whilst at 8-12m
I must also add that a lagoon dive even though at shallow depths (15 feet) is great fun and the viz is amazing.
A SAFE option accomodation wise is the EDGEWATER resort BUT make sure you have a Villa or a beachfront room.The garden rooms are a bit rundown. we pay about $4000nz for a 3 bedroom villa for 10 nights
Food wise well Go to Alberto's which is a 5 minute stroll back towards "town"

Um I must say in all honesty there are better -MUCH better dive destinations in the pacific that are just as good for the other side ofg the holiday

[chelmick]

Hey "divingscorpio",

Did you decide to go the Cook Islands? Have you already been? If so, can you advise on the diving conditions?

My wife and I are currently planning a dive trip to Rarotonga and Aitutaki for this coming July 2012. We are temporarily moving to Auckland, NZ from Canada and it turns out that on Sundays AirNZ stops in Rarotonga. And since AirNZ doesn't charge for any length stopover, we're planning to stay for one week in Rarotonga and another week in Aitutaki before continuing on to Auckland - at no extra cost, except the typical $50NZ departure tax.

We're currently planning to do at least 10 dives on each of Rarotonga and Aittutaki. Before we planned our trip, we were also wondering, like yourself, what the dive conditions were like in the Cooks. From our research, both here on SB and other sources located via Google searching, it sounds like the diving is relatively poor as compared to most other destinations in the Pacific Islands. You've probably already read this post: Cook Islands Info Please So it sounds like the reef is in recovery. I've also read that Cyclone Pat hit Aitutaki back in February 2010 and caused a good bit of reef damage. Overall it sounds like the diving will not be fabulous as compared to other Pacific Tropics or even Bonaire, however, to me, it still sounds amazing relative Florida or Jamaica. (My wife and I have dove in Florida, Panama, GBR (from Port Douglas), Cuba, Turkey, Cozumel, Roatan, Utila, Jamaica, Bonaire, Curacao, and Halifax.)

If you, or anyone else reading this, have been to the Cook Islands lately, I would love to hear how about the current scuba diving conditions.

Cheers,
Carl

[newfins]

Hi chelmick, July is a good time to visit the Cook Islands. We were there a month later in August and Rarotonga was surrounded by hump back whales, we were told whales visit from July to October so hopefully you'll be as lucky as we were.

From the dives we did on Rarotonga the sites North of the island had the best live coral. The mushrooms site we did was probably 70% live coral, not ideal by any stretch of the imagination but still good. It was a different story about the coral in Aitutaki, this was not as good. There was obvious damage by the hurricane that hit Aitutaki earlier in the year.

[chelmick]

Hi newfins,

Thank you very much for posting a reply. I have read about the humpback whales around Rarotonga, and I do hope to see (or at least hear while underneath) them in mid-July when we visit.

Thanks also for the update on coral conditions in Rarotonga and Aitutaki. We've been planning to do ~10 dives on each island, but perhaps we'll wait and see how the conditions are in-person to avoid the stiff cancellation penalties.

Cheers,
Carl

[bracko]

that's a bit of a pity... webjet are offering discounted flights there at the moment, i was hoping for a cheap(ish) diving trip.