Cook Islands

The last part of our journey took us to the Cook Islands. The island group in the South Pacific is self-governing but freely associated with New Zealand. The islands can only be reached by plane from New Zealand, which is why they are a popular holiday destination for Kiwis. So, we flew to Auckland and took a night's break. Then we continued by plane to the main island of Rarotonga.

Rarotonga is just about the size of the city of Bern. A road leads around the island, and you can circle it on a scooter in about 40 minutes. In the center, there is a mountain range covered in jungle. Right in front of our hotel, there was a beautiful coral reef, and we could go snorkeling every day. But we also crossed the island on a hiking trail over the peaks, and I took the opportunity to go diving in the reef.

A special experience was the church on Sunday. The Islanders are very Christian and known for their gospel singing. Young and old sing with great passion, and occasionally, men and women take turns in canon. Afterwards, the church invited us for tea, which turned out to be more like lunch with additional performances. We didn't return until the afternoon.

After so much piety, a visit to "Matutu" - the only brewery on the island - was in order the next day. They brew a wonderful pale ale, lager, and surprisingly good caramel beer. The best food in the Cook Islands is called Ika Mata - raw tuna marinated with lime and coconut milk.

From Rarotonga, we could fly to Aitutaki in just under an hour. This is probably the most beautiful of the Cook Islands and a well-known destination for honeymoons (the islanders would constantly ask us if we had just gotten married). The location of the island is magnificent. It would be hard to imagine a more picturesque South Seas dream. Aitutaki consists of a total of 15 islands, from small to tiny, around a turquoise lagoon. Even the main island is only about the size of Malters and has about 1,200 inhabitants. A small plane comes three times a day, otherwise, it is completely quiet. We were able to explore the islands with stand-up paddleboards and canoes and took a boat trip to the more distant coastlines. From our bungalow, we could hardly get enough of the colors. A truly magical place and a wonderful conclusion to our year!

The Cook Islands are practically as far away from home as possible. On the way back, we wanted to take a break for two more nights after about 19 hours of flying and several layovers in Singapore. My brother was in the city at the time, and we were able to visit the monumental park landscape Gardens by the Bay and the art museum together. Of course, our last supper should be one of the famous Singapore Chili Crabs. After that, it was time to go home.

During a year of traveling, you need quite a few things. Who would have thought that we would need a whole 10 pairs of sunglasses? In our next and final post, we want to take stock ;-)