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wimped out, as I did, of the final part of the climb: hoisting yourself up a sheer cliff using ropes.
If I can offer one tip for the Cook Islands, it’s to take a rattly, 45-minute propeller plane to Aitutaki. This atoll of 2,000 people, ringed with orange coral, bathes in a lagoon of supernatural turquoise.
The first European to lay eyes on Aitutaki was Captain Bligh of the Bounty, 18 days before his crew mutinied in 1789. Transfixed and apparently oblivious to his men’s dissension, he called it ‘so charming a little spot’.
Here, I stayed in the Pacific Resort, with bungalows right by the warm water. I travelled out into Aitutaki’s lagoon on a ‘vaka cruise’, stocked with coconut water and a large lunch. A ukelele strummed, of course, and ‘Captain Bossa Nova’ sang with his crew, before stopping at the islet of Akaiami.
At another islet, we snorkelled in a lagoon as huge, harmless trevally fish, built like sumo wrestlers, circled us in the bright water. Deep below, a giant clam gaped from the sandy bed.
Back on Rarotonga, I hired a kayak and paddled alone to Taakoka, yet another tiny, palmshrouded islet. With hermit crabs for company, I clambered over the rocks until I lost sight of any sign of civilisation. The open ocean, the breeze and the noise of the rustling palms were all much as they must have been for millions of years.
Eventually and reluctantly, I paddled back.
One night, I got talking to a full-time and endlessly rambling travel writer, a woman who has experienced and considered far more of the world than most.
‘The Cooks,’ she said, ‘are what Thailand must have been like 40 years ago. Quiet, no big hotels, just a handful of lucky families coming to visit. The Bahamas, the Seychelles, the Maldives: they’re all built-up now.
‘This has to be the world’s last perfect island destination — if only you make the journey.’
TRAVEL FACTS
TRAILFINDERS ( trailfinders.
com) offers eight nights in the Cook Islands, staying at Pacific Resort Rarotonga and Pacific Resort Aitutaki, from £3,599 pp, including return flights. B&B doubles at Moana Sands ( moanasands.co.ck) from £239. More information at cookislands.travel