The Cook Islands

With its four motu (islets), Muri is the most beautiful section of Rarotonga’s encircling lagoon. The blue water is packed with tropical fish, especially around the motu (Taakoka, Koromiri, Oneroa and Motutapu), and out towards the reef. Taakoka is volcanic while the others are sand cays. The swimming is wonderful over sparkling white sand. Water-sports equipment and lagoon cruises are available from Muri through Captain Tama’s and Koka’s Lagoon Cruises. Other attractions include kitesurfing, paddle-boarding and good restaurants.

Passing through impressive natural scenery, the three- to four-hour hike from the north to south coasts via the 413m Te Rua Manga (Needle) is Rarotonga's most popular walk. Don't do the walk in a south–north direction, as the chances of taking a wrong turn are much greater. Wear adequate shoes, take plenty of drinking water, and use mosquito repellent.

Aitutaki’s stunning lagoon, brimming with marine life and ringed by 15 palm-covered motu (islets), is a South Pacific tearsure. Maina (Little Girl) offers superb snorkelling and is home to the red-tailed tropicbird, once prized for its crimson feathers. Nearby is the wreck of cargo freighter Alexander, which ran aground in the 1930s. Tapuaeta’i (One Foot Island) is the best-known motu, fringed by white beaches and divided from its neighbour, Tekopua, by a deepwater channel that’s teeming with tropical fish.

In pre-European times ‘Atiu was an important seat of regional power and its warriors were renowned for ferocious fighting and ruthlessness. By contrast, the rocky, reef-fringed island is now known for gentler pursuits. It’s the Cooks’ eco-capital and a haven for naturalists and bird lovers. It also attracts adventurous travellers in search of an island with a more traditional edge.

‘Atiu’s five main villages (Areora, Tengatangi, Mapumai, Te’enui and Ngatiarua) are clustered together on the island’s central plateau, surrounded by a band of fertile swampland and lush taro plantations. The makatea – the dramatic ring of upthrust rock that’s rich in marine fossils and was once the island’s exterior reef – is just one of ‘Atiu’s natural features. The island is also covered with forest and honeycombed with limestone caves. ‘Atiu’s most famous cave is Anatakitaki, the only known home of the kopeka (‘Atiuan swiftlet).

Next to Rarotonga, Mangaia (pronounced mung-EYE-ah) is the Cooks’ most geographically dramatic island. It is the second largest of the islands – it’s only slightly smaller than Rarotonga – with a towering circlet of black two-tiered raised-coral makatea (three-tiered in the island’s north) concealing a huge sunken volcanic caldera that falls away on each side of the 169m Rangimotia ridge, the island’s central spine. This sunken interior is swampland planted with taro fields and vegetables.

Mangaia is the Pacific’s oldest island – at once craggy and lushly vegetated – and riddled with limestone caves that once served as sacred burial grounds and havens during tribal fighting. There are lakes in the island’s centre, dramatic cliffs and many spectacular lookout points. Mangaians have a reputation for haughtiness and superiority, and they’re perhaps a little less voluble on first meetings, but they are friendly, gracious and impeccably well mannered.

Mangaia’s three main villages are on the coast: Oneroa in the west, Ivirua in the east and Tamarua in the south. Oneroa, the main village, has three parts: Tava’enga to the north and Kaumata to the south on the coast, and Temakatea high above the second makatea tier overlooking the ocean. The island’s interior is cross-hatched by tracks and dirt roads, which are great for walking, but they can get very muddy after heavy rain. The airstrip is in the north of the island.

Ma'uke's famous Divided Church.