Slice of paradise RAROTONGA DREAMIN'

Editor Marilynn swaps the Weekly team for turtles in the captivating Cooks!

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Kia orana – that’s the greeting for the Cook Islands, which means “may you live long”!

Ahead of the Christmas rush, my husband Shayne and I decided to take some time off and spend 10 glorious days in Rarotonga. Flying over its lush green in the midst of the crystal-clear ocean sent a clear message as we came into land: now is the time to relax.

And we did exactly that, reading, catching up on sleep and generally unwinding in this slice of paradise. Look inland and there are relatively untouched mountain peaks; look outward and it’s all about the stunning lagoon and the roaring ocean beyond the reefs. We visited in November, a little too late to see the whales that migrate north between July and October.

We chose to hire a car for our stay, but there’s a bus service that runs clockwise and anticlockwise or scooters. There isn’t a single set of traffic lights and the outer ring road is just 32km. Driving around the island takes about an hour – nobody is in a rush – and there are lots of schools, churches, colourful houses and beautiful gardens along the way.

There are walks and hikes inland, but on this trip, we were all about the water – within an hour of arriving at our accommodation, I was swimming.