Aitutaki

We were picked up at the airport by the marvelous Cecille and taken to Etu Moana. Aitutaki is about 12 miles around, and Etu Moana is where we stayed and it is maybe a mile from the airport. It is six bungalows, either on, near, or within a hop, skip or jump from the beach.

Here are some differences between Rarotonga and Aitutaki:

Aitutaki has cats and no dogs. Seriously. No one knows why, but there are no dogs on Aitutaki. Something apocryphal about a prince of somewhere being bitten by a dog and outlawing dogs from the island. Who knows.

Raritonga has dogs. There are cats, if you know where to look. But mainly dogs. They are not really strays, but I would call some of them "beach dogs." We'll get to that later.

Raritonga has mountains. Aitutaki is pretty flat.

Raritonga has more rain than Aitutaki (see above paragraph).

Aitutaki was hit by a cyclone in February. Rarotonga was not. While it appears that the majority has been cleaned up, you can still see some houses in repair and disrepair, some downed trees, etc.

But let's get back to what's important: cats.

Etu Moana has four cats. This one liked to hang around our bungalow. I named him Garth. I can't remember what his real name is.

I think Garth was used to getting fed by the former inhabitants of this bungalow. One night we cooked in the bungalow and opening a can of tuna made him just about nutso.

We loved, loved, loved Etu Moana. This place was just perfect. Not opulent. Not showy. Not even on a very good beach, to be honest. But the bungalows were just perfect, the bed comfy, the mosquito coils* effective (and kind of nice smelling!), the breakfast perfect and simple, and the staff just so lovely. Places like this make travel easy. I would go back to Aitutaki knowing that there was a place like Etu Moana. Perfect! Flawless. Book in advance.

Justin slept most of the afternoon, while I took a long walk. That was another thing I loved about Aitutaki. I didn't feel threatened at all walking around, a woman alone, far from home. I walked about three miles on the road and then back via the beach. It wasn't raining, but it was a little cloudy and the air heavy, but it was about 75 degrees and far from home. You breathe that in. You love it.

Etu Moana:

Roused Justin and we walked down the beach about 200 yards to Puffy's (no relation) and had some fish & chips & chicken & salad. Fish was eh. But who cares when you look out on this:

We got there early and so were the only ones there. Justin is tired.

Came back to this sunset starting:

*Aitutaki supposedly has a lot of mosquitos. It was like, all I read when I did research on the place. Honestly, I didn't feel like that was the case. I think they were worse on Rarotonga, especially the last night. Granted, we loaded up on bug repellant, but I really think they weren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Maybe it's because of the time of year we were there?