About the country
| Cook Islands (Cook Islands Maori) | Kūki ‘Āirani |
| Capital | Avarua |
| Currency | Cook Islands Dollar |
Within my research on which Pacific islands would be potentially interesting to check out, the Cook Islands made it to my list very quickly. They are very safe to travel around and obtain a collaboration with New Zealand. As such, you find a high quality of goods since many can be imported from New Zealand. The international airport is next to Avarua, on the main island of the Cook, Rarotonga. From there, you may take domestic flights to other islands of the Cook. However, keep in mind that the size of islands also limits the available length of the runway. As such, the domestic planes are tiny, quite a (bumpy) experience to fly with one of those!
If you think about which lagoon of any Pacific island is worth visiting, I highly recommend Aitutaki. In my perspective, its lagoon is so much more beautiful than the lagoon of Bora Bora, even though the latter is quite hyped. From all Pacific islands which I have checked out, the lagoon and sandbanks of Aitutaki have intrigued me the most.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a map of the Cook Islands within my plugin, the Cook are also not visible as a part of New Zealand. To keep it simple, consider a couple of small islands distributed across a comparatively huge area in the central Pacific.