The Cook Islands - Aitutaki recap and pictures!
As we flew into Aitutaki we were amazed by its beauty! We thought Rarotonga was beautiful - Aitutaki was even better! The lagoon is much larger and the water was way bluer. Unfortunately as we were arriving a huge storm was coming through - which luckily passed within a few hours and then it was pure blue sky and sun for the rest of the Aitutaki trip.
We stayed at the Aitutaki Lagoon Resort and Spa, which was wonderful! It was on its own separate island so we had to take a short ferry ride (about 2 minutes) from the mainland to the resort. We had our own little bungalow, which was super cute. It had it's own porch and the water was a short distance outside our front door. It was so wonderful waking up everyday, looking outside, and seeing clear blue water.
Like I said before, Aitutaki is much, much smaller. There is a teeny tiny town with only a few shops and not much else to see. We rented a scooter for a day, explored the island, took a hike up to a few lookout points, and were done exploring the mainland:)
We spent most of our time in Aitutaki laying out in the sun, snorkelling, and kayaking. We didn't have an underwater camera so unfortunately no snorkelling pictures:(
One of the highlights was taking a lagoon tour, which was basically an entire day adventure. We were on a small guided boat that took us to several of the motus (small islands). They were amazing!!!!! The clearest water I have ever seen, the whitest sand, it was sooooooo beautiful!!!!!
We got to see the islands that Survivor was filmed on, which was really exciting since we watched that entire season and we are huge Survivor fans. I took a lot of pictures, but I will just post one:) Aitutaki was basically shut down to tourists for three months while they were filming the show, isn't that crazy?? Here is one of the islands that a tribe lived on, with Exile Island in the background.
While we were on the tour we stopped to have lunch on Honeymoon Island. Our guide had Patrick and I plant a coconut tree for our anniversary:) We planted it in a spot where we could find it if we were to ever go back (which of course I would love to do!).
Patrick went on a full-day guided fishing trip and caught many fish. He also caught a ton around the resort (he brought his own pole). I know fishing was definitely a highlight for him.
And here are a few more random pictures from Aitutaki:
Our last day in Aitutaki:(
On the flight back to Rarotonga, where we connected with our flight back to LA.
Seriously, this was the most amazing vacation EVER!!!! We would definitely like to return, at some point in our life. We had the perfect balance between the two islands, although I feel like we could have probably stayed a few more days on Aitutaki.
Our intentions of this trip was to have one last big vacation before we started TTC and to celebrate our anniversary. Happy three years to us!