Aitutaki

Aitutaki has a land area of: 18.3 Sq. Km. and a population of about 1,800. It’s European discoverer was William Bligh on the Bounty 11th April 1789, 17 days before the mutiny.

We stayed in fairly upmarket accommodation. We had a unit on the beach.

We cycled round the island - it took two or three hours. There are more inland roads than on Rarotonga so we got lost a couple of times!

Aitutaki was the first island in the Cook group to embrace Christianity when the Reverend John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived in 1821. Travelling with Williams was a young missionary, Papeiha, from the Society Islands, who stayed on when Williams continued his travels and dedicated the rest of his life to his task. The CICC (Cook Islands Christian Church) Church, construction of which started in 1828, is the oldest church in the Cook Islands and has a memorial to John Williams and Papeiha.

The church in Tautu was being renovated. It will look stunning when complete, both inside and out.

Here are the graves I promised you earlier. They are shaded from the bright sunshine, have ornate headstones, are decorated with real and artificial flowers and are illuminated at night!

Aitutaki is almost an atoll. As well as the main island there are several motu.
I wanted to go to Akaiami but this will have to wait for another time. This is where the flying boats used to refuel. In the 50’s and 60’s TEAL (precursor to Air New Zealand) flew Sunderland and Solent flying boats on the Coral Route (Auckland – Suva – Apia – Aitutaki – Pape’ete)

We went on a boat trip across the lagoon to the island of Maina. We were the only passengers and went snorkelling in up to 8 metres of stunningly clear water. The fish were amazing – I wish I had an underwater camera. You will have to be content with this shot of Noreen feeding the fish.

Here are our crew cooking up a feed. They served us at a table in the water! (See photo in the main post). The girl in the centre is a marine biology graduate from Plymouth out in the Cooks for six months before returning to the UK to further her career. It looks like she is about to be cooked herself but I think the locals were just playing on the cannibalistic reputation of Polynesians.

On the way back there were storm clouds over the main island. It rained quite heavily overnight.

Here is our last look at Aitutaki on the flight back to Rarotonga. The big motu is Maina with the smaller “Honeymoon Island” to the right. This island appeared from a sand bar in the last 20 years and is so-called because a Canadian couple started the trend of couples marrying there. Note the contrast in colour between the light blue of the shallow water in the lagoon and the dark blue outside the reef. The sea floor rapidly descends to a depth of 4 kilometres.