From Bora Bora we sailed to the main island of the Cook Islands, Rarotonga, in almost 5 days. There we stayed for a week and got to know and enjoy some what this island has to offer, including beaches, wildlife, nature walks, cultural shows, great dining and entertainment, and more, in short - everything a tourist is looking for.



Our choice of itinerary

We intended to cross from French Polynesia (FP) (Bora Bora) to Tonga, and from there to New Zealand (possibly via Fiji). In the middle of that, between FP and Tonga, lie the countries of The Cook Islands and of Niue. Some people bypass these countries, but we wanted to stop over in both.

The Cook Islands are spread over a large ocean area from North to South, and one can pass through them following either the northers route, via an uninhabited atoll named Suwarrow, or following the southern route, via an atoll named Aitutaki or going even further south, via Rarotonga, one of the southernmost islands, and also the largest and main island housing the country's capital of Avarua. I think most cruisers prefer the northern route, via Suwarrow, and only a few chose to visit Rarotonga. I guess they prefer the remoteness and unspoiledness of Suwarrow, while possibly also preferring to avoid the less dependable weather in the area of Rarotonga.

We are less attracted to atolls, we are not very avid divers and snorkelers, and we do like to get in touch with and learn about the locals, and therefore we had a strong preference for the southern route via the main Cook Island of Rarotonga.

Here is a map of the Cook Islands (taken from ian.macky.net)



The weather situation

Rarotonga is significantly more south than the Society Islands (Tahiti etc.), and while still within the trade wind belt, it's weather is influenced by the weather systems passing by further south, and in general, the weather is colder, more variable and less predictable.

Two days before our departure from Bora Bora, we consulted with our weather router, MetBob, on the feasibility of passing through Rarotonga, and he indicated it was well possible, and gave us the below proposed routing map together with expected weather on the way (I added the italic dark blue tags). The main info is the routing in red, as well as the wind arrows to be expected along the route, also in red.

The most remarkable features in the map is the drastic change in sailing direction in a point about 95 nm east of Rarotonga - a turn of about ~60 degrees to the right. The change in direction was designed by Bob, and I believe it was intended to address the ~60 degrees change in wind direction when going through a trough although that doesn't show clearly in the chart.

Note that the forecast implied performing a gybe (changing the side of the sail while having the wind from the back - a manoeuvre carrying potential danger if not performed with care), close before the right turn, as well as a tack (changing the side of the sail while keeping the wind from the front, "going through the wind", which is a much easier to control manoeuvre), at some point after the right turn, close to arrival to Rarotonga.

I must admit that this was my first encounter with such drastic changes in direction being part of a plan, and I found them to be a slightly disconcerting prospect. However, Bob reassured me that the winds would not exceed 25 kts from any direction while going through this, which is something we can well handle.


The day before departure we received Bob's final routing map, which I will also show below, and which is quite different from the one of the day before, but which for reasons I don't remember decided not to adhere to.



Our actual passage

In the end our track was pretty close to Bob's first map:


We covered a distance of about 560 nm, in 5 days minus 2 hours, which is an average of ~115 nm /day, which is a bit below our normal average, but I believe that was due to the somewhat unfavourable wind and sea conditions during the last day of the trip.

Our new crew members Mats and Gauthier functioned very well. We took equal shifts at the helm, except for Ruth, who took only daytime and evening shifts. Mats was a really serious sailor, with thoughts about buying his own boat in future, performing his own forecasts as well as following everything that was going on closely, while Gauthier a 30-ish young guy from the north of France was just very enthusiast, doing everything asked from him, with a smile. Both were capable cooks, and all over very pleasant people for us to share the boat with.

Some pictures from underway:

Not long after leaving we passed by Maupiti (in the distance, below) (22-Aug). Maupiti can only be visited by passing a narrow passage through the reef, which is said to often have very strong currents, and even if one succeeds to enter, it can happen that one needs to wait several days there for acceptable conditions to be able to make it back to sea. Even though Maupiti is considered by many the most beautiful island of the Societies, and I talked with quite a few people who went there, I was not willing to take the said risks, and decided to bypass it.




We saw some nice sunsets on the way (24-Aug).


Mats played (my) guitar... (25-Aug)


Ruth was sea sick quite a lot, but fortunately not all the time ... (26-Aug)


The same day, we passed pretty close to the (Cook) island of Mauke (see map above):


Still that same day. under some conditions, the autopilot started oscillating at a rate of about one oscillation / second. This contraption, using some elastic rope, resolved it...


And then we passed through the trough (apparently) - at some point the wind fell, and after a short while, returned, but from a different direction. And we radically changed direction (see actual track above), this time with the plan to go straight towards Rarotonga. But the conditions did not allow that, it took us too sharp into the wind. I do not remember us gybing or tacking, but we must have done so. I do remember this part of the passage as relatively unpleasant, with quite strong winds and wave action from almost ahead. The direction of the wind slowly changed in our favour (as had been predicted), and as one can see in the track record above, we could gradually change our course to finally sail straight to Rarotonga.

The next morning (Sunday 27-Aug, 9:00) brought us our first sighting of the mountains of Rarotonga, always a very exciting moment.


3 hours later:


Another 3 hours later:



Arrival (Sunday) 27 Aug

At close to 17:00 we arrived outside the Avatiu Harbour, next to the capital of Avarua, and contacted the port authorities by radio, and to our disappointment were told that we could not enter the harbour today (Sunday), and had to find some place outside, and come back the next morning. I motored into the small port anyway, to see if there was some place we could moor or anchor inside, but then I noticed people on shore in uniforms (for some reason I got the impression they were New Zealanders) appearing to take pictures of us, so we moved back into the sea while studying the charts for possibilities of anchoring. As it was, there was plenty of space in suitable shallow water, and we quickly found a place to anchor.

From there the island looked lovely:


Gauthier was immediately on the bow with his diving mask - "Shall I jump in to check the anchor?". I liked his attitude. We all (except Ruth) went into the water to check the anchor and look around under water.


After we did that, we suddenly saw whales coming by passing in front of the coast, maybe 200 meters out from where we were. If we would have been inside the port, we wouldn't have seen that, so we felt really lucky we had been told to stay outside.













Border formalities and first explorations 28-Aug (Monday)

Early next morning, we again made contact with the port authorities, and were told to come into the harbour around 08:00.
So we lifted anchor, and moored side to at the indicated quarantine location - see track below:


Then one after the other, the various departments came to visit us on the boat (health authorities, customs, border police, bio security). The officials were invariably friendly and polite, they just expected to get truthful answers to their questions. And of course, a lot of forms. The bio security officer became especially friendly with us when it turned out that he had been hosted in our home country a few months earlier, together with colleagues from a number of other Pacific Island countries. for a workshop on how their countries could be assisted in developing their agriculture.

Once we were done, and had officially entered the Cook Islands, the Port Authority told us to moor the boat in a location 20 meters away, and come to the port office.

The mooring was an unusual affair. It was similar to "Mediterranean Mooring", meaning one dropped anchor far out in the harbour and then moved slowly backwards towards the quay (releasing the anchor chain), and then threw out two lines to the shore, one on each side of the boat, which were attached to bollards or cleats on the quay by an on-shore official. But then we had to move out again, until our aft end was about 3 meters from the shore, this to prevent hitting the shore in case of winds and waves from the north. This meant that we could not reach the shore directly from our boat, but rather had to use the dinghy as a bridge between the boat and the shore. See picture showing this further on.

The harbour was small by any standard but big enough to receive medium sized cargo ships, this being the main harbour of the Cook Islands, and through here almost all goods (except what comes by airplane) enter the country, and from here are distributed using smaller ships to the outlying 14 Cook Islands.

We were the only yacht in the harbour. We went to register at the Port Authorities building not far away, which is also where the shower and toilet facilities are located, for use by visiting yacht crews. The head of the Port Authorities, a pleasant and dedicated man, told us that he had come to the harbour the day before around 2 in the afternoon (in accordance with what I said in the form I had sent them from Bora Bora), but when we did not arrive as expected, he gave instructions to let us wait until the next morning.

Back at the boat, we saw another yacht, the INVICTUS, arriving, and starting to go through the entry formalities. Unlike with us, some of them were uniformed, and again I got the strong impression they were New Zealanders.

We went off to explore the surroundings of the harbour. Starting with the ATM which was very close by, and provided New Zealand Dollars, the currency used in the Cook Islands. Then we visited one of the two fast food establishments located right next to the harbour. Here one sees the view from one of them onto our boat, and on the INVICTUS, which is still moored in the quarantine position.


We then went on in the direction of Avarua town. We quickly got the impression that this is a very well kept and orderly place. Here is what we saw:

The island is surrounded by reefs, but they are in most places close to the shore, without a lagoon between the island and the reef:




Note the orderly parking spaces next to the local line of shops.


We saw a big Air New Zealand jet fly over (departure of the daily flight to Auckland):


See picture below (taken from brittanica.com), to understand how close we were to the airport (our harbour is the farthest passage through the reef):


It was the appearance of the police station that really made me feel strongly that we were not in an unspoiled simple Pacific island, but rather in New Zealand proper:


And indeed, according to Wikipedia "The Cook Islands is self-governing while in free association with New Zealand."

A little further in the beachfront café "Trader Jacks" in the tiny Avarua harbour, there was a big crowd of what looked like New Zealander customers.

And this went on and on as we stayed longer and moved around, we found the island inundated with New Zealand tourists, and a very large proportion of the local economical activity seemed to consist of hosting them.

Of course, this raised the standards of cleanliness and culinary finesse etc. etc., but it also made for getting less feel for the original culture of the native population.

When I studied the history of the country a bit further, I found that the influence of New Zealand on the Cook Islands is not something of the last years, but rather started with the British annexing the Cook Islands in 1900, apparently by request of the local population, reportedly to prevent being annexed by the French. When New Zealand became fully formally independent (In 1949), the Cook Islands were included, and became part of New Zealand, who then gradually granted them self-governing status.

On the way back to the harbour we came upon a charming feature, next to a public market area, we found this drinking station, where regular tap water is purified on the spot to make it drinkable:


When we came back to the harbour, the INVICTUS had moored right next to us.
I had met the owners, Robert and Denise, before, at the Shelter Bay Marina, on the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal, and we were lucky to have these charming (Australian/South African) people as our temporary neighbours.


Some touring of the island and a great dinner 29-Aug (Tuesday)

The next morning, we took some pictures of the two only yachts lying in the harbour:








We went over to the Port Authority building (below), to use the sanitary facilities. They were simple but adequate, and cleaned daily.






We connected to shore power using an outlet on a nearby street light post, and connected our water hose to the water tap right next to the back of a fast-food restaurant.


We had a look at the small cargo ship moored close to us, which was being loaded with goods to be delivered to Mangaia, the Cook island lying south-east of Rarotonga, ~110 nm away. The mix of goods is interesting, ranging from a new van, through bottles with cooking gas, through building materials, to fresh groceries. The ship can also transport passengers, but that is not recommended, so I hear. This is really the lifeline for the outlying other Cook islands (apart from 3 weekly airplane flights), and sails once to twice a month.




We brought our laundry to the nearby launderette:


Then we walked to town to pick up the car we had rented for a few days.

We had a tasty brunch in town:


Later on we did some touring of the island and arrived to Turou, also called the "Black Rock", one of the historical sites on the island:

Which had this explanatory sign next to it:


For the evening our neighbour Denise and Robert invited us to join them to the "Tamarind House", which Denise had determined to be one of the best restaurants on the island. And indeed, it did not disappoint, the setting was extremely elegant, Denise had reserved one of the best tables in the house, and the food, as well as the company, were great. We had a great evening.









Cross island walk and live music 30-Aug (Wednesday)

Today around 11 we set out for the Cross island walk. Here is the track of our walk:


Soon we came to the nice sign explaining the walk:


The first part of the walk was very easy on regular roads through residential neighbourhoods:


As we had seen also on Huahine, we saw a few houses with graves in their gardens:


These people grow pineapple in commercial quantities, and also what seems to be mango:


The landscape was pretty:


Ruth liked the walk:


Given enough neglect, a car can become attractive again:


We walked thought the area used for drinking water production:


And after about an hour of some quite steep climbing, we got to a very nice viewing point:


Very near is the Te Rua Manga ("the Needle"):


There was a steep path next to the Needle where one could climb higher up on the rock, and I went up until I got to a part where chains had been installed to hold on to:


There I decided that it was not for me. Later I looked what we missed, and it is considerable - here is a link to someone else's video blog, which shows what you see when you go up (fast forward to 5:45).

Ruth stayed down, and we took silly pictures of ourselves photographing each other:


As often happens on the islands, roosters pop up in unexpected places...


Soon afterwards we were on our way down on the other side of the island (you see the sea in right upper corner):


In some places the path was easy to walk on:


In other places crossing a stream:


Even a bit challenging:


But we made it:


And had a snack in a roadside café:


Here we got into a conversation with a local, and at some point he asked if we were from the white catamaran in the harbour (on the other side of the island). I was surprised that he knew that there was a catamaran in the harbour. He explained that he regularly passes by the harbour to check what is going on. I guess such behaviour comes with living on a small island...

We made it back to the boat using the clockwise bus route around the island (the only other bus route on the island is the anti-clockwise bus route).

In the evening, we went to look for some night life entertainment, and found a bar in the Muri Lagoon area with pretty good live music, which kept improving with the free beers and glasses of wine the main singer was receiving from the public.





"Whale watching" and the Te Vara Nui Cultural show 31-Aug (Thursday)

After we saw whales on our day of arrival, from some distance, we were thinking that it should be possible to repeat such a sighting, and maybe even to get closer to the whales. And thus today, at around 1 hour before sunset the four of us (Ruth, Mats, Gauthier and myself) went out into the open sea in our dinghy, to search for whales. I think we did not go out more than 500 meters into the open sea, and moved east and west around 500 meters parallel to the shore, waiting here and there, but alas, no whale showed its face today, and we returned to the boat without achieving our goal.

Denise and Robert invited us to join them for the Te Vara Nui Cultural show, the most famous of the cultural shows on the island, it was expensive, but supposed to be good and coming with a good dinner, so we agreed, and did not regret it.

The show was very invested and elaborate.

It started off with a very polished introduction and explanation by a hosting person:


The show itself provided some colourful photo opportunities:




I did not catch much of the story line, but it was a massive production. Here just some excerpts of the show. Note the closeup of the drumming section in the end - even though it sounds incomprehensible to my western ears, it is easy to appreciate the intricacy and discipline.

After the show we were generously offered to get photographed on our own phones with some of the actors:




Altogether, a very pleasant evening.


General sight seeing and check out formalities 1-Sep (Friday)

We did some sightseeing around the island today.

Including a historical religious worship platform (Marae), similar to the ones we had seen in French Polynesia:






Lush landscape, with a nice tree:




The usual colourful gardening along the road:


On the south coast we went down to the beach, behind the reef:




The sea was lively, resulting in roaring waves breaking on the reef:

During our drive along the south coast, the Needle we had visited 2 days ago, kept popping up between the trees:








After we brought the rental car back, we went to the Port Authority office to pay bills and to check out of Rarotonga, towards the island of Aitutaki, also belonging to the Cook Islands, and a further 100 nm north. When in the office, I noticed this nice banner on the wall:

I really liked the picture, showing the whole Rarotonga island, apparently taken from an airplane, or by drone, and asked if I could have the original (high-resolution) file from which it was made, and kindly, they agreed. Press here to see the original high resolution picture.


Last preparations for departure 2-Sep (Saturday)

The next morning we spend some time shopping, and again taking some pictures of our boat in these surroundings:




Mats volunteered to go up the mast to put silicon spray along the rail on which the main sail slides up and down, because it did not go up and down smoothly.




Later in the day, Denise and Robert on INVICTUS leave directly for Niue:



Departure 3-Sep (Sunday) 11:00

Next day, it is our turn to leave, for Aitutaki, an approximately 100 nm (~20 hour) passage.
Very soon, we see interesting and beautiful Rarotonga fading away behind us.