So i went to the cook islands last month for 10 days, here are some photos. There was solid wind the whole time, most days it was above 20 knots and a few days there it was nuking 30+, with just 2 days under 15 knots.
The missus and I spent 6 nights on Rarotonga (main island) and 3 nights on Aitutaki (outlying island) but if i went again i would just stay the whole time on Aitutaki. Really a beautiful place, awesome people and cranking wind in August/September. 
The view from the beach at the Muri sailing club, Rarotonga. Best place to kite here on a S/SE wind (trade winds)
Kiting Muri lagoon in 12-15 knots (light wind day) on the sonic 11m 
The view from the balcony of our hotel, the Moana Sands resort. Highly recommended place to stay, a few days i kited straight out the front of the hotel but the launch area was sketchy and you will note the large brain coral in the lagoon 
....... Wind was perfectly cross-shore here, cranking most days above 20 knots. A brilliant place to kite if you spot your landings well and don't come down on a head of coral that's 10cm below the surface 
My girlfriend took some good shots of some of the biggest jumps i've ever done here, she is currently scanning the negatives so i will see what she comes up with and post em here later.
Baileys 
and fresh coconut milk, woo! I drank steinlager but the missus likes this stuff so i tried some to make her happy.
Odd street sign, and our hired scooter. Takes 45 mins to get around the whole island of rarotonga!
On the way up!
Aitutaki lagoon, right in front of the hotel. Just magic. 25 knots blowing cross shore over here. Unfortunately no rideable waves, the pacific ocean breaks right onto the reef outside and it hits HARD onto about 5cm of water with sharp coral under it. It would technically be possible to kite certain areas of the shore break but extremely dangerous and life-threatening. Most of the time it was just dumping on the reef, no real peeling waves anyway. Since i like flat water and going big, this did not worry me.
There are outlying islands that you can kite as well, just get a local with a boat to take you out to One Foot or Honeymooners Island, these are supposed to be brilliant but we didn't worry about it because we were so happy where we were.
Complimentary use of the hotel's kayaks meant we could paddle across to the small island (in the background) and launch from there.
Doesn't get much better than this.
So who's up for a kiting-dedicated trip next year? August and September are pretty much guaranteed to be windy as hell!
Sweeee-eeeet!
More info - Like how much were the air fares, where'd you fly from, how much was accom etc.
Looks superb. Lucky Phukker.
Hey neill,
Great to hear you had a great trip and nice photos. When you go back you have to make the boat jounrey out to honeymoon island and one foot island, it will blow your mind. Plus its even more windy out there cos they stick out further.
Next year.
Looks like the trades have just started to slow down there now.
x angie
Neill
That looks fantastic mate, nice pics.
Some info on prices etc would be great, thats gotta be a contender for winter 08.
Cheers
Hey guys, i flew from brisbane via auckland on pacific blue (virgin)
virgin is good because they have an excellent "sporting goods" baggage allowance policy which means that each piece of sporting goods luggage only accounts for 5kg of your total 20kg limit, regardless of its weight. so i had a kite bag which weighed 10kg or so, and a board bag taped to it, and this only accounted for 5kg of my baggage! didn't have to pay any fees.
they had flights on special too, which means that i flew from brisbane to auckland to rarotonga and back for...... wait for it.......
$660.00
yep that's all it cost for a return flight (they were on special) so it was super cheap to get there
the accomodation was the expensive part, it's about 200-250 per night (two people share) for a decent hotel on rarotonga, and a bit more on aitutaki. Angie stayed at inano beach bungalows on aitutaki which was a fair bit cheaper because you could share the cost (bunk arrangements angie?)
food is pretty expensive there as well.
here are some more photos:
kayak cam from the lagoon looking back at the island of rarotonga. cloud hangs over the mountains 90% of the time, with sunny blue skies outside mostly.
air time!
nice shot.
cruising back upwind
watch the coral!
superman?
Neill,
nice pic's i missed out this Aug ,trip planned because travel agents
don't do the cheap (inano ) resorts , only the big doller ones ,you have to book direct with the small/cheap resorts, which look unreal away,
and to book seats (air link) from the main land Rarot-to Aitutaki the links were booked sold out ,you can not fly direct, and i cannot get a link up fight till the next day or so, looks like its worth the hassle once your their ,as i want to take my kiteboardingfamily on a winter holyiday.
if anybody knows a the best/direct quickest way to get their/book a holiday at Aitutaki,other than booking yourself direct (air fares)
(acc-day-tion)let us know your experience.
cheers
Thanks for info and photos all, going to Rarotonga mid November, don't expect too much wind, but would be keen to go with group next year to Aitutaki based on feedback from Angie's trip earlier this year.
I am a travel agent and interested in helping you guys put this together. i have no problem with doing a package with cheaper hotels. we want the best spot though for sure.
that would be helpful, we stayed at Samade on the Beach which is in a perfect location on Aitutaki. Ideally the trip would go to Aitutaki because it's much more kiteable than rarotonga.
Inano beach bungalows are good too, there was also an old bloke there (local) who said he had some bunk bed arrangement stuff in a unit or two about 100m north of samade, i never saw it advertised anywhere so i'm not sure how we get into that deal. should have gotten his name and number :(
When we went to Aitutaki in august we stayed at Inano Beach Bungalows,Moeau and Veia the owner operaters are fantastic and cater for kite surfers they have their own boat and will take you anywhere you want to go in the massive lagoon out to one foot island or the best spot is honeymoon Is. to get a boat out to these places can cost a bit but if you stay at Inano the boat trips are a lot cheaper
Moeau will drop you out to the other Islands and wait for you to finish your session or you can downwind it back to the resort (11kms inside the lagoon so very safe)The restaurants are good especially The Boatshed .
www.inanobeach.com
email,inano@aititaki.net.ck
ph.682 31758,fax 682 31553and if you downwind
