A Week In Rarotonga

We managed to get away for a mid winter break to Rarotonga.  We struck gold with the weather getting a whole week of fine sunny days and had a really great holiday. We stayed in a beach front house in Titkaveka right next to one of the best reefs for snorkling so were very much spoilt being able to kayak or snorkle from our back door every day.  

Beautiful clear days, great sunsets and some stunningly clear nights with great views of the milky way stretchig over the lagoon.

We did a guided tour of the Takitumu conservation area and were very lucky to see some Rarotonga Flycatchers or

Kakerori. These were once one of the most endagngered species in the world with a population or less than 30 restricted to just one small valley of the island in the late 1980s.  A rat poisoning program has seen the population grow to over 400 birds in the Takitumu conservation area with a second population now also established on Atiu - another of the Cook Islands.

A juvenile Rarotonga Flycatcher

Juvenile Rarotonga Flycatcher - it came up to within a couple of meters of me allowing me to get this close up.

Adult Rarotonga Flycatcher

Looking out over the lagoon from our holiday house in Titkaveka.

Sunset from Titikaveka beach.

The milkyway from Titikaveka beach

Another shot of the milkyway taken around 8pm looking east.

This shot of the milkyway is at about 2:30am with the milkyway having swung around to the west and the southern cross having just set below the horizon.

A reef heron at Muri beach

A beautiful evening on our last night in Rarotonga

These butterflys are now everywhere. It's a Red Postman butterfly introduced in 2016 from Ecuador to control the red passion vine as apparantly the caterpillar are very specific and only feed on the growing tips of this vine.

A native Rarotonagan blue moon butterfly.